LimeSurvey
The long-running open-source survey platform you can self-host for free.
About
LimeSurvey started in 2003 as PHPSurveyor, written by Carsten Schmitz, and grew into one of the most widely self-hosted survey applications in the world. It is a PHP application backed by MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MSSQL, distributed under the GPL, and developed by the LimeSurvey project team with the commercial company LimeSurvey GmbH in Hamburg, Germany behind it. Surveys can run in 82 languages, support token-based access control, quotas, and complex conditions, and the Community Edition is free to install on your own server. A paid LimeSurvey Cloud service exists for teams that want it managed. The GitHub repository holds 3,768 stars and was actively pushed in October 2026.
What it can do
- 80+ question types with conditions, quotas, and assessments
- Surveys in 82 languages
- Token-based access control and participant panels
- Built-in statistics with SPSS, CSV, and PDF export
- Full data ownership on your own server
Setup
Download the Community Edition and install it on any PHP/MySQL host, or sign up for LimeSurvey Cloud for a managed instance.
Prerequisites
PHP plus MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MSSQL for self-hosting; none for the cloud service.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: 2003 origin, GPL licensing, and Hamburg-based GmbH confirmed by Wikipedia and the project's own license page; 3,768 GitHub stars and October 2026 commits read from the GitHub API. Strengths: genuinely free self-hosting with full data control, enormous question-type coverage, and two decades of continuity. Docked for: (1) the admin UI feels dated next to modern SaaS builders; (2) self-hosting puts updates and security on you. License: GNU GPL.
★ 3,768 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 10.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · 3,768 GitHub stars on LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey; pushed 2026-10-16 (verified via GitHub API)
- · Started 2003 as PHPSurveyor by Carsten Schmitz; PHP/MySQL; LimeSurvey GmbH, Hamburg, Germany
- · 82 languages; token-based access control, quotas, conditions; SPSS/CSV/PDF export
- · manual review: admin UI feels dated; self-hosting puts updates and security on you
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.