LimeSurvey Cloud's free plan stops at 25 responses a month

LimeSurvey scores 64, inside our Usable band, and that number understates the self-hosted build considerably. Feature depth at 65 is the highest of any self-hostable option we cover here, because for real research work, quotas, randomization, multi-language surveys and raw exports to SPSS, R and CSV, nothing else free in this category comes close.

What holds the total down is generosity at 62, which is the hosted plan's 25 responses averaging against an uncapped self-hosted build. The score is judging both doors at once. If you are only ever walking through the self-hosted one, read the number as higher than it looks, and read Formbricks' free plan as the modern option if your surveys are product feedback rather than research.

Two very different sets of limits apply, depending on where LimeSurvey runs.

LimeSurvey Cloud, free plan:

• 25 responses a month, and the account locks once you pass it (as of July 2026). Not a nag screen, not a soft cap. It stops.
• Paid Cloud plans are quoted in your local currency and scale by responses, storage and admin seats. We hold no verified figures for them, so we are not putting numbers here.

Self-hosted Community Edition:

• Free with no survey or response limits, and nothing held back from the paid build.
• You need a PHP-capable server, and you apply the updates yourself. Security patches on a platform holding respondent data are not optional, and nobody else is going to install them.
• Backups, uptime and the deliverability of invitation emails all become your job.

Both share two honest weaknesses. The admin interface feels dated next to Tally or Typeform, and form-builder extras like payments and e-signatures are not part of what LimeSurvey does at any price.

LimeSurvey publishes its Cloud prices in your local currency, scaling by response volume, storage and admin seats. We have not recorded those figures first-party, and our sourcing rule is to leave the space empty rather than copy a number out of a roundup. Check LimeSurvey's own pricing page for your region before you plan around any of it.

What we can price is the other route, and it is not zero. A self-hosted LimeSurvey needs a PHP host, which is cheap, and it needs attention, which is not. Budget for somebody applying updates, somebody taking database backups, and somebody answering the phone when a survey link breaks in the week a client is fielding.

If your organisation already runs PHP applications, that cost rounds to nothing. If it does not, it is a hire or a favour. Read the ladder this way: the 25-response tier is a demonstration account rather than a plan, so the two real options are paying for Cloud or owning a server.

Free with limits, and the two limits sit unusually far apart. Self-host and this is one of the genuinely uncapped free survey platforms on the internet, with research features nothing else in the category gives away. Use LimeSurvey Cloud and 25 responses a month is a demonstration.

Who can live on the free version: a university department, a research group, an agency with a sysadmin, anyone who already has a PHP host and needs quotas, randomization and clean SPSS exports. Who cannot: a solo marketer, a small business with no technical help, or anyone fielding a public survey through Cloud, because response 26 locks the account.

If that describes you, free LimeSurvey alternatives lists hosted tools with real free headroom, and the best free form builders ranks the wider category. LimeSurvey earns its server if research is the job. It does not earn one for a contact form.