--- title: Open Source Forms and Surveys date: 2025-12-27 summary: Self-hosted tools for collecting feedback, registrations, and community input. When your survey data stays on your servers, your community's information serves your community—not the surveillance economy. draft: True --- Forms and surveys are the nervous system of community organizing. They're how communities listen, learn, and respond to their members. Event registrations. Membership applications. Feedback collection. Needs assessments. Volunteer sign-ups. Every touchpoint where you gather information from community members. Commercial tools like Google Forms, Typeform, and SurveyMonkey make this easy—but at a cost. Your community's data feeds someone else's business model. Your members' information becomes a commodity. Self-hosted alternatives keep that data where it belongs: with your community. --- ## Why This Matters for Communities ### Data Sovereignty On commercial survey platforms, your data is the product. Responses feed advertising algorithms, behavioral profiles, and business intelligence systems you have no control over. When you self-host, response data never leaves your infrastructure. There's no third-party access, no behavioral profiling, no feeding the surveillance economy. ### Privacy for Sensitive Information Communities often collect sensitive information: health surveys, political views, personal struggles, experiences of vulnerable populations. When this data lives on commercial platforms, it's subject to their terms of service, their data sharing agreements, their vulnerability to subpoenas. Self-hosting keeps sensitive information under your control. ### Cost Predictability Commercial survey tools often have: - Per-response fees that punish successful outreach - Feature paywalls (conditional logic, data exports often require paid tiers) - Annual price increases - Sudden policy changes Self-hosted tools have predictable costs—just hosting fees—with no artificial limitations. ### Regulatory Compliance GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulations are simpler when you control the data. You're the sole data controller. There are no complex Data Processing Agreements to navigate. --- ## Key Features ### Conditional Logic All serious survey tools support branching—showing different questions based on previous answers. This is essential for creating surveys that respect respondents' time. **LimeSurvey** offers the most advanced conditional logic with its expression manager. **Typebot** provides visual flow building for conversational surveys. **Formbricks** offers modern conditional logic with targeting rules. ### Data Export Getting your data out matters: - **LimeSurvey**: CSV, Excel, SPSS, R, Stata, PDF reports - **Typebot**: CSV, JSON, webhook streaming - **Formbricks**: CSV, API, webhook integrations - **OhMyForm**: CSV, JSON ### Integrations - **LimeSurvey**: LDAP, CRM plugins, API, custom plugins - **Typebot**: Zapier, Make, webhooks, OpenAI, Google Sheets, Notion, Slack - **Formbricks**: Webhooks, Zapier, Slack, native JS SDK - **OhMyForm**: Webhooks, basic API --- ## Choosing the Right Tool ### LimeSurvey: The Research Workhorse Best for academic research, government surveys, and large-scale data collection requiring statistical analysis. **Strengths**: Extremely feature-rich (28+ question types); excellent statistical export (SPSS, R, Stata); proven at scale; strong multilingual support (80+ languages). **Used by**: German Federal Statistical Office, UN agencies, universities worldwide, humanitarian organizations. **Considerations**: Steeper learning curve; UI feels dated; can be overwhelming for simple use cases. ### Typebot: The Conversational Builder Best for conversational forms, chatbot-style interactions, and modern user experiences. **Strengths**: Beautiful visual flow builder; conversational UX increases completion rates; modern interface; AI integration capabilities. **Considerations**: Less suited for traditional long-form surveys; newer project with smaller community. ### Formbricks: The Experience Platform Best for in-app surveys, user feedback, and product research. **Strengths**: Modern, clean interface; in-app survey SDK; user targeting and segmentation; privacy-first design. **Considerations**: More focused on product feedback than general surveys; younger project. ### OhMyForm: The Simple Solution Best for simple forms and basic surveys where minimal complexity is the priority. **Strengths**: Very simple to deploy and use; lightweight; MIT license (most permissive); low resource requirements. **Considerations**: Less actively maintained; fewer features; smaller community. --- ## Open Source Options | Project | Description | |:--------|:------------| | [LimeSurvey](https://www.limesurvey.org) | Comprehensive survey platform for research and large-scale data collection.
📊 Millions of downloads. Used by UN agencies, universities, governments.
📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey) · GPL-2.0 | | [Typebot](https://typebot.io) | Conversational form builder with visual flow design.
📊 Growing adoption. Modern, intuitive interface.
📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/baptisteArno/typebot.io) · AGPL-3.0 | | [Formbricks](https://formbricks.com) | Experience management platform for in-app surveys and feedback.
📊 Privacy-first design. Active development.
📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/formbricks/formbricks) · AGPL-3.0 | | [OhMyForm](https://ohmyform.com) | Simple, lightweight form builder.
📊 Community-maintained. Good for basic needs.
📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/ohmyform/ohmyform) · MIT | --- ## The Bigger Picture When you use a "free" commercial survey tool, your community members are the product. Their data, their patterns, their preferences become commodities feeding someone else's business model. Self-hosting means your community's data serves your community—not Silicon Valley's advertising machine. For communities doing sensitive work—advocacy, organizing, legal aid, health services—this isn't just a preference. It's often a requirement. The people who trust you with their information deserve to know that information stays with you. And for all communities, there's a simpler truth: the tools you use should work for you, not extract from you. Self-hosted survey tools embody that principle.