WooCommerce Post-Purchase Survey: 7 Questions, When to Ask and What to Do Next Box, on-prem, cloud (software delivery models)
Glossary 
Mike Taylor Updated: Nov 11, 2026 Reading time ≈ 1 min
- Topic
- Survey tools and settings
Software delivery formats
Box, on-prem and cloud are three ways to deliver software. Box software is bought once and installed on your own computer. On-prem (on-premise) software runs on servers the customer owns or controls. Cloud software, or SaaS, runs on the vendor's servers and opens in a browser for a subscription.
| Box | On-prem | Cloud | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | Your computer | Your servers | The vendor's servers |
| Who installs and updates it | You | Your IT team, often with the vendor | The vendor |
| How you usually pay | One-time license | License or contract | Subscription |
| Where the data is | On your computer | Inside your network | With the vendor |
How it works in SurveyNinja
SurveyNinja is a cloud service. You sign up and build surveys in the browser, and survey data is stored on a server in the EU with Cloudflare in front of it. Updates reach every account without work on your side. Details are on the security page.
For companies whose data must stay inside their own network, there is an on-premise option. Our team installs SurveyNinja in Docker on your servers, survey data doesn't leave your perimeter, and new versions arrive as packages with release notes. Backups, monitoring and the network are on your side, and sign-in works through SSO with OpenID Connect. It's a separate build: the price isn't published, and its feature set is agreed before the contract.
How to choose
- Cloud fits most teams: there are no servers to run, and you start right after sign-up.
- On-prem makes sense when a law, a contract or a security policy requires data to stay inside your network, and you have people to run the servers.
- Box software today is mostly desktop programs; web tools rarely come in a box.
Updated: Nov 11, 2026 Published: May 29, 2026