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LimeSurvey

✓ Verified by EU Alts

Open-source survey platform — a German alternative to SurveyMonkey.

Overview

LimeSurvey is a Hamburg, Germany-based European company building form builder and open source software since 2003. As an EU-headquartered provider, LimeSurvey likely operates under GDPR. EU Alts has not independently confirmed its exposure to the US CLOUD Act — the ownership and hosting facts recorded for it do not establish that it is outside the Act's reach — see the Details section below for what's known so far.

Why European teams pick LimeSurvey

Teams in Europe consider LimeSurvey when they want a form builder provider that bills in EUR, operating since 2003. Its EU headquarters is a good sign compared with Typeform, but EU Alts has not independently verified LimeSurvey's exposure to the US CLOUD Act — check the Details section for the recorded facts.

See more EU form builder tools or browse other startups from Germany.

About

LimeSurvey is an open-source online survey platform developed in Hamburg, Germany since 2003 and used by over 400,000 installations globally, including major universities, research institutions, and European public sector organisations. It offers over 100 question types, multi-language support, panel management, response quotas, and SPSS/R-compatible data export for statistical analysis. The Community Edition (GPL) is fully self-hostable on any EU server. LimeSurvey Cloud is hosted in German data centres with GDPR compliance. It is the reference platform for academic and social research in Europe and is trusted by organisations like the European Commission for EU-wide survey projects.

Details

Founded
2003
Headquarters
Hamburg, Germany
Ownership
Independently owned (Germany)
Hosting
Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany
CLOUD Act
Not independently verified
Verified
2026-07-31
Last checked
2026-07-31
Company size
11–50 employees

Compare with the US product you may be replacing

LimeSurvey is listed in a category that our US-product comparison pages cover. See every EU option side by side:

Also from Germany

11 other listed companies are based in Germany. In the same categories as LimeSurvey:

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Frequently asked questions

What does LimeSurvey do?

LimeSurvey is open-source survey platform — a german alternative to surveymonkey. It is listed under form builder and open source on EU Alts because its core functionality serves teams looking for a European form builder tool with EU data residency, typically as a switch away from Typeform.

Is LimeSurvey GDPR compliant?

LimeSurvey is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany and falls under EU jurisdiction, so it likely processes user data under the GDPR by default. Customer data processing is supervised by Germany's data protection authority, the Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI). EU Alts has not independently verified LimeSurvey's exposure to the US CLOUD Act, so we can't confirm it either way.

How do teams switch from Typeform to LimeSurvey?

Teams considering a move from Typeform to LimeSurvey are usually drawn by its form builder workflow fit. EU Alts has not independently verified LimeSurvey's exposure to the US CLOUD Act, so treat any CLOUD Act or Schrems II conclusions as provisional. Plan a migration in stages regardless: export your data from the US incumbent, pilot LimeSurvey with a small team, then move the rest once integration coverage is confirmed.

Where is LimeSurvey based?

LimeSurvey is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 2003. Its main website is https://www.limesurvey.org.