LimeSurvey vs SurveyMonkey

LimeSurvey

This is genuinely deep authoring: 28+ question types including nine matrix variants, skip logic, piping, relevance equations, randomisation of questions and groups, 80+ languages with quick translation, custom HTML/CSS/JS, more than 800 templates, a named WCAG 2.2 AA standard, and research designs such as conjoint/CBC and maxDiff on top. We found no published accessibility conformance report and no public information on versioned forms with change history, which is what keeps the top slot closed.

SurveyMonkey

The captured pages document a real builder: skip logic with question and answer piping, A/B testing, block randomization, multilingual surveys, a template library, custom colours and URLs, premium themes and white-label branding, plus Apply's three logic types that hide, show, disable or terminate questions on ANY or ALL conditions. We found no public information on calculations or scoring, custom CSS, or any named accessibility standard for respondent-facing forms. Strong authoring, but a buyer who must answer for accessibility will find the pages silent.

LimeSurvey

Embedding, QR codes, password-protected links, open or closed access with unique access codes per respondent, mass invitations and reminders with bounce handling and the option of your own mail server, quotas and panel integration with end URLs and URL parameters, scheduled start and end, and a RemoteControl API via XML-RPC/JSON-RPC. We found no public information on webhooks, approval routing, or offline and kiosk collection, and the API is not described as REST.

SurveyMonkey

Invitations through an importable address book, an audience panel targetable by country, age, income and employment, payments accepted on team plans, file upload, Zapier triggers and actions, and a documented webhook integration pushing web, app, email, chat and SMS responses into tools like Tableau, Power BI and Slack put collection well beyond a share link, down to IP-based duplicate-response prevention. We found no public information on QR codes, reminders, unique links, response quotas or offline collection. The only REST API documented in the captures covers Wufoo accounts; for core SurveyMonkey responses I found no API documentation, which matters if the customer wants the answers out in real time.

LimeSurvey

Real-time response monitoring, filtering, graphs and quick statistics with export, public statistics, a data integrity check, and exports to SPSS, R, Stata, CSV, Excel and PDF — the formats researchers actually use. We found no public information on cross-tabulation, significance testing, weighting, or open-text and sentiment analysis, so the export formats are strong but the analysis environment beyond charts and filters is undescribed.

SurveyMonkey

Crosstabs and statistical significance sit in the plan lists, AI sentiment and thematic analysis on open text is described, dashboards can be shared, password-protected and enforced with SSO while auto-updating, analysts get unlimited rules and filters, and SPSS export is documented down to the SAV file format. Weighting and trend reports across survey waves are analysis items on which we found no public information. This is a genuine analysis environment with most of the research-grade checklist evidenced in detail.

LimeSurvey

A data processing agreement sits in the customer account, a data protection officer is named, anonymous surveys are an explicit option with the vendor stating it stores no personal data from surveys, third-country transfers run only on standard contractual clauses or adequacy, session cookies are argued strictly necessary without consent, and specific question-type responses and participant fields can be encrypted. I hold it below the top bands because the encryption FAQ itself says data is by default not encrypted at rest, we found no statement that the anonymous mode drops IP addresses, and no public information on response retention with automatic deletion or respondent-level access and erasure tools.

SurveyMonkey

An online data processing agreement with standard contractual clauses included automatically for self-serve customers, detailed consent-statement setup that can disqualify anyone answering No, AES-256 encryption at rest and encrypted transfer, a transfer impact assessment and a 30-day deadline on privacy-rights responses are real compliance material. But the privacy notice describes IP addresses being used for duplicate-response prevention and inferred location, and AI prompts and responses containing personal data are shared with AI vendors; we found no public information on an anonymous mode that does not store IP addresses, a named data protection officer, field-level encryption, or forms that set no tracking cookies by default. The customer gets tools to be lawful; the respondent's identifiers are still in play.

LimeSurvey

Seven selectable hosting regions including the EU with data stored in Germany on named Hetzner hardware, a free self-hosted GPLv2 Community Edition, SSO with SAML and LDAP on the Corporate plan, white-label domains with branding removal, and responses exportable in six documented formats alongside the RemoteControl API. We found no public information on an audit log or granular per-form roles, and the 99% availability clause is a reasonable-efforts commitment rather than a guarantee.

SurveyMonkey

Three named roles plus contributor seats restricted to a single survey area, SSO on Enterprise, SCIM provisioning with an identity provider, white-labelling, custom subdomains and exports to CSV, XLS, PDF and SPSS give a documented team and portability story. The European data centre is Enterprise-only, cannot be migrated if you downgrade, and excludes accounts opened before 2019 entirely, with US storage as the default. We found no public information on an audit log, a self-hosted edition, or SAML by name.

LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey GmbH of Hamburg is the named controller with a register entry and VAT ID, responses sit in Germany on Hetzner hardware the hoster cannot log into, third-country transfers run only on standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision, Zoho is named as a subprocessor under such clauses, and — the part I always check — the AI functions run on an open-source model in the provider's own infrastructure with no external AI calls. ISO 27001 is described as in progress rather than achieved, and we found no locations stated for subprocessors beyond the hoster.

SurveyMonkey

An Irish contracting entity for EEA customers with a Dublin imprint, company register entry and VAT number, a published subprocessor list with locations, and an online DPA are real European anchors — but the default storage is a US data centre, the European option is an Enterprise upsell, and even EU-hosted accounts have AI prompts processed by a US vendor and de-identified response data transferred to the US for product improvement. The chain is transparent but heavily American: email via Sparkpost, SMS via Twilio, AI via OpenAI and Anthropic, support via Salesforce, hosting on AWS — a US company with Irish regions — plus remote access from outside the data centre's location. We found no public information on ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certifications; the entity is European, the data flows are not.

LimeSurvey

Prices for three plans are public with billing period and VAT-inclusive figures (Basic at 34€/month billed monthly, Expert at 29€/month billed annually, Business at 75€/month billed annually), Basic and Expert limits for users, responses and storage are stated, the free tier's inactivity rules are in the terms, and cancellation is online with two weeks' notice. The Corporate plan that carries SSO and the dedicated server is contact-sales only, the captured pricing page gives no limits for the Business plan, the pages give no price for extra responses or plugin installation and updates, and per the terms the free service may display the vendor's own and third parties' advertisements.

SurveyMonkey

Team Advantage is €30/user/month from 3 users billed annually with 50,000 responses per year, Team Premier is €75/user/month with 100,000 responses per year, over-limit responses are priced at €0.10 per additional response, prices are stated exclusive of taxes, and auto-renewal, mid-cycle refund rules and price-change terms are all published. But the plan carrying SSO and the EU data centre is listed as "Get a demo", and we found no public information on an Individual plan price or the free tier's response-limit figure, only that over-limit free responses are hidden and deleted. A buyer can price the teams; the features that decide where the data lives sit behind a sales conversation.