LimeSurvey
Ideal for professional surveys,
questionnaires, and forms
In short
LimeSurvey is an open source survey platform designed for creating, deploying, and analyzing sophisticated online questionnaires. Unlike SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Microsoft Forms, which primarily emphasize simplicity and tightly integrated SaaS ecosystems, LimeSurvey distinguishes itself through its depth, flexibility, and full control over data. It can be self-hosted or used via managed services, making it particularly attractive to organizations with strict data protection and compliance requirements.
LimeSurvey has been in active development for over two decades and is trusted globally as a powerful, feature-rich survey solution. It serves enterprises, universities, and students alike, combining ease of use with professional-grade functionality, extensive customization capabilities, and a strong emphasis on data ownership and methodological rigor.
eQTeam leverages fully featured LimeSurvey Community Edition (CE) as a robust and versatile forms platform to efficiently capture high-quality, structured data, which is then seamlessly integrated into our wiki solutions. Over the years, we have accumulated extensive experience in designing and implementing sophisticated questionnaires.
Why LimeSurvey?
LimeSurvey is a leading open-source online survey tool that allows users to create, publish, and collect data from sophisticated questionnaires. Unlike standard form builders, it is a self-hosted or cloud-based solution designed specifically for professional research, offering complete control over data and design.
Uniquely powerful vs. competitors
While tools like SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Microsoft Forms focus on quick, simple polls, LimeSurvey stands out as a “classical”, scientific research engine.
- Ownership & Privacy
Unlike Google or Microsoft Forms where data lives on big-tech servers, LimeSurvey allows for self-hosting. This grants you total data sovereignty—critical for GDPR compliance and sensitive scientific research.
- Unlimited Freedom
Where SurveyMonkey often paywalls advanced features or response limits, LimeSurvey’s open-source model allows for unlimited surveys, questions, and responses without a subscription.
- Scientific Depth
It supports complex statistical workflows (exporting directly to SPSS, R, or Stata) and advanced question logic that simple form builders cannot handle.
A solid and flexible choice
LimeSurvey has been a staple of the research community for over two decades (originally launched as PHPSurveyor in 2003). Its longevity reflects both its reliability and the strength of its global developer community. The platform is used by a large and diverse worldwide user base, applying it across a wide range of use cases.
Due to its extensive flexibility, LimeSurvey can be overwhelming for new users. To address this, a comprehensive revision of the user interface is planned for 2026, with the goal of delivering a more intuitive and easier-to-use survey editor.
Key features
- 28+ Question Types
There are over 28 question types, ranging from simple text inputs to complex arrays and semantic differentials. These include file-upload questions with comment fields, as well as location-based questions enabled by mouse selection or finger press on an interactive geographic map.
- Advanced Logic
Made possible by sophisticated branching, skip logic, and piping capabilities.
- Strict Anonymity when needed
Features to disconnect participant tokens from responses, ensuring true anonymity for sensitive feedback.
- Customization & branding
Custom fonts and colors can be applied to match brand identity incl. brand logo. Custom urls and personalized icons allow for unique designs.
- Multilingual Support
Built-in translation tools for creating a single survey in 80+ languages. Even one and the same survey can be presented in different languages.
Who is it for?
LimeSurvey is the tool of choice for enterprises, universities, and students who need more than just a quick poll. It balances feature richness with ease of use, providing a professional-grade platform that prioritizes anonymity and scientific rigor.
Contact us for LimeSurvey
In the Netherlands, we are one of only few professional LimeSurvey builders. If you would like to know more about the services that we supply, please submit our contact form and we will respond within 24 hours.
For other questions or remarks, please click here and use this form.
All LimeSurvey CE features
For our projects, we use the open-source LimeSurvey Community Edition, installed on a Linux server. Below a complete list of the features available in this version is presented.
Compared with the most advanced Corporate edition offered by LimeSurvey GmbH, the core software features are identical. The Corporate plan, however, includes additional enterprise-grade infrastructure, enhanced support options, large-scale deployment capabilities, identity and access integrations, and defined operational service guarantees.
For most organizations and teams, the Community Edition, preferably deployed on a robust Linux server, fully meets functional and operational requirements.
General
- Unlimited responses
- Upload storage
- White-labelling
- Use of own domain
- Individual subdomain
- No advertisement
- Community support
Administration
- Unlimited number of surveys
- Unlimited number of users
Question types
- Matrix
- Matrix (5 point selection)
- Matrix (10 point selection)
- Matrix (yes / no / uncertain)
- Matrix (Increase/ equal / decrease)
- Matrix (by column)
- Matrix (Dual)
- Matrix (Numbers)
- Matrix (Text)
- Date
- Gender
- Numerical input
- Multiple numerical input
- Slider control
- Ranking
- Text module
- Yes / No
- Language change
- Multiple selection
- Multiple selection with commentary
- List selection box
- Option fields list
- List of option fields (5 point selection)
- List with comment field
- Multiple short texts
- Free text (short/medium/long)
- Data-Upload
- Equation
Language
- 80+ Languages for administration and surveys
- Multilingual surveys
- Quick translation
- Google Translate support
Panel integration
- Setting of quotas
- Predefined end URLs
- Transfer of external parameters
- Preset questions with URL parameters
Creation of questions
- HTML WYSIWYG Editor
- Edit HTML directly
- Own JavaScript
- Pictures and Videos (HTML5)
- Reusable questionnaire labels
- Import / export of questions and surveys
- Randomization of questions and groups of questions
Survey logic
- Skip Logic / Branching
- Piping and Micro-Tailoring
- Valuation rules and values
Survey management
- Open and closed surveys
- Mass mailing of invitations and reminders
- Unlimited customization of email templates
- No external links allowed
- Use your own mail server
- Use our mail server
- Automatic bounce handling
- Printable surveys
- Start and end time for a survey
Data security & anonymization
- Anonymous surveys
- GDPR compliance
SEA/SEO
- Support for Google Analytics
Participants
- Public registration or invitation by mail
- Save and later continuation of the survey by participants
- Prevent multiple participation
- Captcha Anti-Spam
Survey design
- Variety of survey designs
- Responsive survey designs for mobile devices
- Own survey design (HTML, CSS, JS)
Anticipated data & reporting
- Timekeeping for surveys
- Data entry in the backend
- Quick statistics with graphical evaluation and export
- Data export to SPSS, R, Stata, CSV, Excel & PDF
- Export to archive
- Public statistics
Accessibility
- Screenreader compatibility
- W3C Compliance
Developer
- RemoteControl API via XML-RPC / JSON-RPC
Extensions
- Question themes
- Plugins & Modules