Google Forms vs LimeSurvey

Google Forms

• Quick polls, event registrations and quizzes at no cost
• Teams on Google Workspace that analyze responses in Google Sheets
• Teachers building quizzes with answer keys and point values

LimeSurvey

• Academic and market researchers who export to SPSS, R or Stata
• Organizations that must keep survey data on their own servers
• Multilingual surveys run across several countries

Google Forms

• There is no standalone paid Forms plan; the business version comes only inside Google Workspace, with Gmail, Drive and Meet.
• Google's help pages describe using Forms in a mobile web browser on Android, iPhone and iPad; no dedicated mobile app is listed.
• File upload questions require respondents to sign in to a Google Account and cannot be used on forms stored in a shared drive.
• Help me create a form is desktop-only, cannot yet build multi-section forms, and needs Business Standard or higher or a Google AI plan.

LimeSurvey

• Checkout is always in euros; non-euro prices on the pricing page are shown for orientation only and differ by country.
• Basic covers 1 admin user and 1,000 responses a month; Expert and Business have yearly allowances of 10,000 and 50,000 responses.
• White-label domains and custom branding start at Expert, and SSO, LDAP and SAML are listed under Corporate.
• On the free cloud plan, access is locked until the end of the month once the response limit is exceeded.

Google Forms

Drag-and-drop form editor

Choose from multiple question types, reorder them by dragging, and add images or videos. File upload questions save submissions to a folder in the owner's Google Drive.

Answer-based logic

Show questions based on earlier answers, so each respondent only goes through the sections that apply to them.

Quizzes with answer keys

Turn a form into a quiz with point values and answer keys on supported question types, and attach a written or YouTube explanation to an answer.

Response charts and Google Sheets

Answers are charted in a Summary tab as they arrive and can be stored in a new or existing Google Sheet for deeper analysis.

Templates and themes

Start from premade survey and questionnaire templates, then set colors, images and fonts to match an organization's branding.

Help me create a form

Gemini drafts a form from a prompt or from Drive files such as Docs, Sheets, Slides and PDFs. It works on desktop and needs an eligible Workspace or Google AI plan.

LimeSurvey

Question types and survey logic

Question types include matrices, rankings, sliders, file uploads and equations, combined with skip logic, branching, piping, quotas and randomization.

Multilingual surveys

Run one survey in several languages. The administration and survey interfaces are available in more than 80 languages, with Google Translate support for quick translation.

Invitations and participants

Send invitation and reminder emails in bulk from editable templates, handle bounces automatically, prevent multiple participation and let participants save and continue later.

Statistics and exports

Quick statistics give a graphical evaluation of results, and data exports to SPSS, R, Stata, CSV, Excel and PDF.

Self-hosted Community Edition

The open-source Community Edition is free to download and install on your own server, so response data stays on infrastructure you control.

Hosting regions and compliance

LimeSurvey Cloud stores data in the location chosen at setup, including Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada and Australia, and offers a GDPR data processing agreement.

Google Forms

• Personal Google Account$0

  Forms, surveys and quizzes for personal use, with response charts and a linked Google Sheet.

• Business Starter$7

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($8.40 flexible)

  Google Workspace with 30 GB pooled storage per user. Gemini in Workspace apps is listed as limited.

• Business Standard$14

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($16.80 flexible)

  2 TB pooled storage per user. The lowest Business edition that Google lists for Help me create a form.

• Business Plus$22

  per user / month, 1-year commitment ($26.40 flexible)

  5 TB pooled storage per user, plus Vault, eDiscovery and advanced endpoint management.

• EnterpriseCustom

  No minimum or maximum user count, with data loss prevention and data regions; priced through Google sales.

LimeSurvey

• Community Edition$0

  Open-source edition to download and run on your own server, with response data kept on your own infrastructure.

• Free$0

  LimeSurvey Cloud with no locked features, limited in the number of responses, upload storage and administrators.

• Basic$39

  per month, billed monthly (charged in EUR, about €34)

  1 admin user, 1,000 responses a month and 250 MB of upload storage, with unlimited surveys and questions.

• Expert$36

  per month, billed annually ($432; charged in EUR, about €374)

  3 admin users, 10,000 responses a year and 1 GB of upload storage, plus a white-label domain and custom branding.

• Business$69

  per month, billed annually ($820; charged in EUR, €711)

  5 to 10 admin users, 50,000 responses a year and 3 GB of upload storage, plus 1 alias domain and priority email support.

• CorporateCustom

  Tailored users and responses, SSO, LDAP and SAML, a dedicated server and VIP support.

Google Forms

• Annual discount

  Lower rate with a 1-year commitment

  Business Starter costs $7 per user per month on the Annual/Fixed-Term Plan versus $8.40 on the Flexible Plan. Standard drops from $16.80 to $14 and Plus from $26.40 to $22.

• Nonprofit

  Google Workspace for Nonprofits at $0

  Eligible nonprofits get Google Workspace for Nonprofits at $0 per user, or Business Standard at $3.50 and Business Plus at $6.16 per user per month on a 1-year commitment.

• Education

  Education Fundamentals at no charge

  Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, which includes Forms, is available at no charge to qualifying institutions.

LimeSurvey

• Education

  50% off for students, 30% for teachers

  Students get 50% off and teachers 30% off after emailing a valid student or faculty ID. Both must agree to use LimeSurvey only for classroom-related work.

• Nonprofit

  30% off for charitable organizations

  Charitable organizations get a 30% discount after sending proof of charity status or charity work. Discounts cannot be applied retroactively.