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Comparison

SurveyNinja vs LimeSurvey: 100 free responses a month and no server to run

LimeSurvey's free cloud plan stops at 25 responses a month, then locks your survey site until the next month. Its Basic plan costs $39/mo for 1,000 responses; on SurveyNinja 1,000 cost $10.50/mo. The free Community Edition needs your own server, PHP and updates. SurveyNinja runs in the cloud and adds click tests, pairwise comparison, A/B tests and an AI report.

Start free See the comparison

Free plan with 100 responses a month and 14 days of Premium. No card required.

Prices and features checked on October 15, 2026.

SurveyNinja LimeSurvey
Free plan 100 responses/mo 25 responses/mo
Click test with heatmap From Basic No
Pairwise comparison From Basic No
Create a survey with AI from a description All plans Marked "soon" on limesurvey.org (October 15, 2026)

Which one is right for you

Choose LimeSurvey if

  • You want to run the open-source Community Edition on your own server for free and maintain it yourself.
  • You need calculated fields, one survey in several languages or R and Stata exports.

Choose SurveyNinja if

  • You start small: 100 responses a month on Free instead of LimeSurvey's 25.
  • You collect 1,000 responses a month: $10.50/mo on SurveyNinja Basic, billed yearly, against $39/mo for LimeSurvey Basic, which is billed monthly only.
  • You grow past 50,000 responses a year: SurveyNinja Premium covers 20,000 a month for $48.30/mo; on LimeSurvey anything above Business is a Corporate quote.
  • You test designs and ideas: click tests with heatmaps, area selection and pairwise comparison from Basic, A/B tests of question wording on every plan.
  • You want AI today: build a survey from a description on every plan and get an AI report with themes and quotes on Premium. LimeSurvey lists AI as coming soon.
Start free

What you pay for the same number of responses

The cheapest plan of SurveyNinja and LimeSurvey that covers your monthly responses.

Responses per month SurveyNinja LimeSurvey
100 $0 Free $36/mo Expert, billed yearly or $39/mo billed monthly on Basic
1,000 $10.50/mo Basic, billed yearly or $15/mo billed monthly $39/mo Basic, billed monthly only
5,000 $25.90/mo Standard, billed yearly or $37/mo billed monthly Custom plan Price on request
10,000 $48.30/mo Premium, billed yearly or $69/mo billed monthly Custom plan Price on request
20,000 $48.30/mo Premium, billed yearly or $69/mo billed monthly Custom plan Price on request

Prices per month in USD with yearly billing; prices of LimeSurvey are taken from its pricing page on October 15, 2026. LimeSurvey shows US dollar prices for orientation only and charges in euros, VAT included. Basic is billed monthly only; Expert (10,000 responses a year) and Business (50,000 a year) are billed yearly only, so with yearly billing a steady 1,000 responses a month needs Business ($796 a year). Above 50,000 a year LimeSurvey offers Corporate at a quoted price. All plans and limits

Start free

Free plan, no card required

Where SurveyNinja goes further than LimeSurvey

Features that matter for research and analysis, with the plan they are on.

More room on the free plan

SurveyNinja Free includes 100 responses a month. LimeSurvey Free includes 25, and when they run out your survey site is locked until the next month.

Research and UX tools

Click tests with heatmaps, area selection on images and pairwise comparison with an adaptive mode, from Basic. None of them is in LimeSurvey's list of question types.

A/B tests on every plan

Give each group of respondents a different version of a question or block and compare results with a significance test. LimeSurvey documents question randomization, not A/B tests.

AI you can use today

Create a survey from a text prompt on every plan; on Premium an AI report pulls themes, sentiment and quotes from open answers. On limesurvey.org AI is marked "soon"; today it translates surveys.

Edit surveys on your phone or your laptop

The whole builder works on a phone: questions, logic, design, publishing and responses. Fix a question on the way to a meeting, check new answers from the couch and finish the survey on your laptop.

  • Every section and setting fits a small screen
  • Logic, design and publishing, not a cut-down view
  • Pick up on your laptop right where you left off
The SurveyNinja survey builder in a browser
Survey settings in SurveyNinja on a phone

Research and UX tools in one survey builder

Test designs, rank ideas and ask visitors on your website from the same survey builder.

Micro surveys on your site

Paste one code and show a short survey in a corner card or modal: after a delay, on scroll, on exit intent (desktop) or on a click. Choose pages and devices and limit how often visitors see it.

All plans, including Free Not documented by LimeSurvey

Click test with heatmap

Upload a mockup or a screenshot and ask where people would click. The report shows a heatmap of all clicks.

From Basic Not in LimeSurvey

Pairwise comparison

Respondents choose between two options at a time; the adaptive mode drops weak options early. The report ranks items with a win matrix.

From Basic Not in LimeSurvey

A/B test of question wording

Show different versions of a question to different respondents and compare completion and answers by version, with a significance test.

All plans, including Free Not documented by LimeSurvey

Map question

Respondents drop pins on a map: where they live, shop or travel. See the answers as a map and a list of places.

From Standard

Area selection

Mark zones on an image and let respondents pick them, with scores and logic like any answer option.

From Basic Not in LimeSurvey

Feature-by-feature comparison

Each cell shows whether the feature exists and the plan it starts on.

Feature SurveyNinja LimeSurvey
Pricing and limits
Responses on the free plan 100 responses a month 25 a month; then the survey site is locked until the next month
Other free plan limits 3 surveys, 10 questions each 10 MB of uploads and 1 administrator; unlimited surveys and questions
Cheapest paid plan Basic: $10.50/mo billed yearly ($15 monthly), 1,000 responses a month Basic: $39/mo billed monthly, 1,000 responses a month; Expert: $36/mo billed yearly, 10,000 responses a year
Team seats included 1 on Free, 1 on Basic, 3 on Standard, 5 on Premium; more can be added 1 administrator on Free and Basic, 3 on Expert, 5 to 10 on Business
Building surveys
Create a survey with AI from a description Yes, All plans, including Free Survey or quiz from a text prompt; beta Marked "soon" on limesurvey.org (October 15, 2026)
Question types 28, plus 6 content blocks; NPS on Free 34 in the manual, 9 of them matrices
Branching logic Yes, From Basic Yes, All plans, including Free
Quizzes with scores Yes, All plans, including Free Yes, All plans, including Free Assessments: scores and messages by score
Calculations and formulas No Yes, All plans, including Free Equation questions with ExpressionScript
Hidden fields from the URL Yes, From Standard Answer piping into later questions on all plans Yes, All plans, including Free URL parameters into hidden questions
One form in several languages No Respondent interface in English, Spanish or Portuguese; one language per survey Yes, All plans, including Free 80+ languages, machine translation
Research and UX tools
Micro surveys on your website Yes, All plans, including Free One code for the whole site: corner card or modal; shown after a delay, on scroll, on exit intent (desktop) or on a click; page and device targeting, traffic share, show frequency; beta Not in LimeSurvey's manual or feature list (October 15, 2026)
Click test with heatmap Yes, From Basic Heatmap of clicks on an image; hotspot selection with drawn areas No
Area selection on an image Yes, From Basic Zones on an image work as answer options, with scores and logic No
Pairwise comparison Yes, From Basic Every pair or adaptive mode with fewer pairs; win matrix in the report No
Map question Yes, From Standard Respondents drop pins; the report shows a map and a list of places Yes, All plans, including Free A short text question shown as a map; one point (OpenStreetMap or Google Maps)
A/B test of question wording Yes, All plans, including Free Up to 100 versions of a question or block, even split, significance test in the report Not in LimeSurvey's manual or feature list (October 15, 2026)
Other research question types Yes, From Basic Semantic differential, 3D matrix, constant sum Yes, All plans, including Free Matrices incl. semantic differential and dual scale, ranking, slider
Collecting responses
Your own domain Yes, From Premium Your own subdomain from Basic Yes, From Business A LimeSurvey subdomain on every plan; your own domain from Business
Remove the service's branding Yes, From Standard Yes, From Expert Custom branding and white-label domain
Personal links for each respondent Yes, From Standard Yes, All plans, including Free Participant list with access codes, email invitations and reminders
Close by date or number of responses Yes, From Standard Yes, All plans, including Free Start and end date; caps through quotas
Quotas Yes, From Basic Yes, All plans, including Free
Incomplete responses Yes, From Premium Saved after every answered question Yes, All plans, including Free Each counts as half a response toward the limit
Respondents can continue later Yes, All plans, including Free In the same browser Yes, All plans, including Free
Analysis and export
Reports and charts Yes, All plans, including Free Public link to the report from Basic Yes, All plans, including Free Quick statistics and a public statistics page
AI analysis of open-ended answers Yes, From Premium Themes, sentiment, quotes and group comparison; shareable link and PDF Not in LimeSurvey's feature list (October 15, 2026)
Export of responses Yes, From Basic CSV, Excel, PDF, Word Yes, All plans, including Free CSV, Excel, PDF, SPSS, R and Stata
SPSS export (.sav) Yes, From Basic Yes, All plans, including Free
Integrations
Google Sheets Yes, From Standard Not in LimeSurvey's feature list (October 15, 2026)
Webhooks Yes, From Standard Not in LimeSurvey's feature list (October 15, 2026)
REST API Yes, From Basic Partly, All plans, including Free RemoteControl API over JSON-RPC or XML-RPC, not REST
Team and security
Roles and permissions Yes Owner, admin, member; custom roles with folder access on Premium Yes, From Expert Global and per-survey permissions; 3 administrators on Expert
Single sign-on (SSO) Yes, From Premium OpenID Connect Yes, Corporate only SSO, LDAP and SAML
Two-factor authentication Yes, All plans, including Free Yes, All plans, including Free Core plugin; turn it on in the plugin menu
Install on your own servers Yes Separate offer Yes Free open-source Community Edition on your own server; a dedicated server on Corporate
Sources: LimeSurvey data checked on October 15, 2026 on its own website

SurveyNinja features checked on October 15, 2026; plans and limits: pricing page

Start free

Free plan, no card required

How to switch from LimeSurvey

1

Sign up free

No card and no server. Your first 14 days run on Premium, so every feature is open while you set things up.

2

Rebuild your survey

Start from a template or describe the survey to the AI generator, then set up logic (Basic and higher). SurveyNinja does not import LimeSurvey's .lss files.

3

Bring past responses

Export responses from LimeSurvey as CSV or Excel, upload the file to SurveyNinja on a paid plan and match the columns to your questions. Then share the new link.

Already paying for LimeSurvey?

Send us a screenshot of your payment and we'll give you a free month of our top plan.

Contact us Step-by-step guide to switching

Frequently asked questions

Didn't find your answer? Write to [email protected] or use the contact page, and we'll help you move your surveys.

Is SurveyNinja cheaper than LimeSurvey Cloud?

Yes, for the same number of responses. 1,000 responses a month cost $10.50/mo on SurveyNinja Basic billed yearly and $39/mo on LimeSurvey Basic, which is billed monthly only. LimeSurvey Expert costs $36/mo billed yearly for 10,000 responses a year; above 50,000 a year it quotes a Corporate plan, while SurveyNinja Premium covers 20,000 a month for $48.30/mo. Prices checked on October 15, 2026.

LimeSurvey Community Edition is free. Why pay for SurveyNinja?

The Community Edition is free to download, but you run it: a server with PHP 8.1 or newer, a database, backups, security and updates (one-click updates are a paid extension). SurveyNinja runs in the cloud, so you only build surveys. If your data must stay on your servers, SurveyNinja on-premise is a separate offer: contact us.

Can I move my LimeSurvey surveys to SurveyNinja?

SurveyNinja doesn't import LimeSurvey .lss files, so rebuild the survey from a template or with the AI generator. Then upload past responses from a CSV or Excel export on a paid plan, up to 20 MB and 10,000 rows per file. Uploaded responses don't count toward your monthly limit.

What does LimeSurvey have that SurveyNinja doesn't?

A free self-hosted open-source edition, calculated fields through Equation questions, one survey in several languages and exports to R and Stata. SurveyNinja gives you more free responses, research and UX tools, A/B tests, micro surveys on your website and AI built in, with no server to run.

What happens when I reach the free limit?

On LimeSurvey Free, after 25 responses in a month participants can't answer your surveys and your survey site is locked until the next month. SurveyNinja Free includes 100 responses a month and 3 surveys of up to 10 questions, with NPS and quizzes.

Can I run click tests and A/B tests?

Yes. Click tests with heatmaps, area selection on images and pairwise comparison are on Basic and higher; A/B tests of a question or block are on every plan. LimeSurvey's list of question types has no click test, area selection or pairwise comparison.

Is SurveyNinja available in Spanish and Portuguese?

Yes. The website, the help center and the survey screens your respondents see are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Try SurveyNinja for free

Free plan with 100 responses a month and 14 days of Premium after sign-up. No card required.

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