KoboToolbox vs LimeSurvey

KoboToolbox

• Nonprofits, UN agencies and researchers collecting field data
• Enumerator teams working offline on Android phones and tablets
• Long questionnaires with complex logic built in XLSForm

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

KoboToolbox

• The free Community plan is limited to nonprofits, government agencies, UN organizations and educational institutions; others pay.
• Going over a plan's submission or storage limit blocks new submissions until the quota resets or the plan is upgraded.
• KoboCollect is an Android app; iPhones and iPads collect data through web forms in a browser.
• Prices here come from a July 5, 2026 archive copy of the pricing page, because the live page could not be loaded.

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.

KoboToolbox

Formbuilder and XLSForm

Build forms in a visual Formbuilder or as XLSForm spreadsheets, with skip logic, validation, calculations, cascading selects and translations.

Offline data collection

Web forms and the KoboCollect Android app both store submissions on the device without a connection and upload them once it returns.

GPS and multimedia questions

Forms can capture GPS locations, photos, audio and video, and the KoboCollect app adds device features such as barcode scanning.

Audio transcription and translation

Audio responses can be transcribed and translated automatically within a monthly quota: 10 minutes on Community and 120 on Professional.

Reports, data tables and exports

Custom reports, table views and bulk editing are built in, and data exports work with Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, ArcGIS and Stata.

API

The API downloads data as JSON, CSV or XLSX, submits or edits records, creates and deploys projects, and manages users and permissions.

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.

KoboToolbox

• Community (nonprofit)$0

  For nonprofits, government agencies, UN organizations and educational institutions: unlimited projects, 5,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of storage.

• Starter$21

  per month, billed annually ($25 billed monthly)

  For companies and personal use only: unlimited projects and data collectors, 1,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of file storage.

• Community (other)$88

  per month, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)

  The Community plan as sold to companies and individuals outside the nonprofit category: 5,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of storage.

• Professional$129

  per month, billed annually ($159 monthly); nonprofit rate

  25,000 submissions a month and unlimited file storage. Organizations outside the nonprofit category pay $166 billed annually or $199 monthly.

• Teams$249

  per month, billed annually ($289 monthly); nonprofit rate

  50,000 submissions a month, unlimited storage and 1 team with member roles. Other organizations pay $309 billed annually or $359 monthly.

• Enterprise SolutionsCustom

  Unlimited submissions and 10 teams, with single sign-on included and hosting in a choice of 28 countries or on your own infrastructure.

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.

KoboToolbox

• Nonprofit

  Free Community plan and lower rates for nonprofits

  Nonprofits, government agencies and UN organizations get the Community plan free and pay less for Professional and Teams than other organizations do.

• Education

  Nonprofit pricing for educational institutions

  The pricing page counts educational institutions in its nonprofit category, which includes the free Community plan and the lower paid rates.

• Annual discount

  Lower monthly rate with annual billing

  Billed annually, Starter is $21 instead of $25 per month, and the nonprofit rates are $129 instead of $159 for Professional and $249 instead of $289 for Teams.

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.