132 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
132 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Open Source Forms and Surveys
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date: 2025-12-27
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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.
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draft: True
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featureImageCaption: "Photo by [Green Chameleon](https://unsplash.com/@craftedbygc) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/s9CC2SKySJM) (Unsplash License)"
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---
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Forms and surveys are the nervous system of community organizing. They're how communities listen, learn, and respond to their members.
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Event registrations. Membership applications. Feedback collection. Needs assessments. Volunteer sign-ups. Every touchpoint where you gather information from community members.
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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.
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Self-hosted alternatives keep that data where it belongs: with your community.
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---
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## Why This Matters for Communities
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### Data Sovereignty
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On commercial survey platforms, your data is the product. Responses feed advertising algorithms, behavioral profiles, and business intelligence systems you have no control over.
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When you self-host, response data never leaves your infrastructure. There's no third-party access, no behavioral profiling, no feeding the surveillance economy.
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### Privacy for Sensitive Information
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Communities often collect sensitive information: health surveys, political views, personal struggles, experiences of vulnerable populations.
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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.
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### Cost Predictability
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Commercial survey tools often have:
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- Per-response fees that punish successful outreach
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- Feature paywalls (conditional logic, data exports often require paid tiers)
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- Annual price increases
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- Sudden policy changes
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Self-hosted tools have predictable costs—just hosting fees—with no artificial limitations.
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### Regulatory Compliance
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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.
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---
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## Key Features
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### Conditional Logic
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All serious survey tools support branching—showing different questions based on previous answers. This is essential for creating surveys that respect respondents' time.
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**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.
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### Data Export
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Getting your data out matters:
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- **LimeSurvey**: CSV, Excel, SPSS, R, Stata, PDF reports
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- **Typebot**: CSV, JSON, webhook streaming
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- **Formbricks**: CSV, API, webhook integrations
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- **OhMyForm**: CSV, JSON
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### Integrations
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- **LimeSurvey**: LDAP, CRM plugins, API, custom plugins
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- **Typebot**: Zapier, Make, webhooks, OpenAI, Google Sheets, Notion, Slack
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- **Formbricks**: Webhooks, Zapier, Slack, native JS SDK
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- **OhMyForm**: Webhooks, basic API
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---
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## Choosing the Right Tool
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### LimeSurvey: The Research Workhorse
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Best for academic research, government surveys, and large-scale data collection requiring statistical analysis.
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**Strengths**: Extremely feature-rich (28+ question types); excellent statistical export (SPSS, R, Stata); proven at scale; strong multilingual support (80+ languages).
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**Used by**: German Federal Statistical Office, UN agencies, universities worldwide, humanitarian organizations.
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**Considerations**: Steeper learning curve; UI feels dated; can be overwhelming for simple use cases.
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### Typebot: The Conversational Builder
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Best for conversational forms, chatbot-style interactions, and modern user experiences.
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**Strengths**: Beautiful visual flow builder; conversational UX increases completion rates; modern interface; AI integration capabilities.
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**Considerations**: Less suited for traditional long-form surveys; newer project with smaller community.
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### Formbricks: The Experience Platform
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Best for in-app surveys, user feedback, and product research.
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**Strengths**: Modern, clean interface; in-app survey SDK; user targeting and segmentation; privacy-first design.
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**Considerations**: More focused on product feedback than general surveys; younger project.
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### OhMyForm: The Simple Solution
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Best for simple forms and basic surveys where minimal complexity is the priority.
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**Strengths**: Very simple to deploy and use; lightweight; MIT license (most permissive); low resource requirements.
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**Considerations**: Less actively maintained; fewer features; smaller community.
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---
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## Open Source Options
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| Project | Description |
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|:--------|:------------|
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| [LimeSurvey](https://www.limesurvey.org) | Comprehensive survey platform for research and large-scale data collection. <br><small>📊 Millions of downloads. Used by UN agencies, universities, governments.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey) · GPL-2.0</small> |
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| [Typebot](https://typebot.io) | Conversational form builder with visual flow design. <br><small>📊 Growing adoption. Modern, intuitive interface.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/baptisteArno/typebot.io) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [Formbricks](https://formbricks.com) | Experience management platform for in-app surveys and feedback. <br><small>📊 Privacy-first design. Active development.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/formbricks/formbricks) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [OhMyForm](https://ohmyform.com) | Simple, lightweight form builder. <br><small>📊 Community-maintained. Good for basic needs.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/ohmyform/ohmyform) · MIT</small> |
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---
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## The Bigger Picture
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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.
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Self-hosting means your community's data serves your community—not Silicon Valley's advertising machine.
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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.
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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.
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