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Independently verified · Quarterly re-audit
EU VETTED

LimeSurvey

VERIFIED
Forms & surveys · Germany
Founded 2003 · limesurvey.org ↗

German GPL-licensed open-source survey platform (LimeSurvey GmbH Hamburg, project since 2003), self-host first.

In short

LimeSurvey, in the Forms & surveys category, is an EU-owned service with Germany as its hosting location and no identified CLOUD Act exposure.

Assessment notes

LimeSurvey GmbH (Hamburg, Germany; founded August 2015, but the open-source LimeSurvey project itself dates to 2003 by Carsten Schmitz who remains Founder + CTO) is one of the longest-running open-source survey platforms in Europe, GPL-2.0+ licensed with source on GitHub, deployable on customer infrastructure (PHP + MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite/MSSQL) for full sovereignty; also offered as managed LimeSurvey Cloud, EU-owned and Hamburg-hosted with no CLOUD Act exposure, but the DPA for the managed cloud tier is not publicly accessible without an account; the self-host path on EU infrastructure removes this gap entirely.

CLOUD ACT
OWNERSHIP
SUB-PROCS
— not disclosed
Verified signals
Jurisdiction
  • EU / adequacy hosting
  • EU / adequacy operator
  • No US CLOUD Act exposure
Transparency
  • Public DPA
  • Sub-processors disclosed
  • Open-source clients
  • Third-party certification
JUMP TO
OVERVIEW

About LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey is one of the longest-running open-source survey platforms in Europe. The project was started by Carsten Schmitz in 2003, and the commercial entity LimeSurvey GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) was founded in August 2015 to better coordinate development and provide commercial services around the open-source codebase. Schmitz remains Founder + CTO. The platform is licensed under GPL v2 (or later) with source on GitHub, runs on PHP with MySQL / PostgreSQL / SQLite / MSSQL backends, and is widely deployed in EU universities, public administrations, and research institutions. The LimeSurvey Cloud managed tier is the commercial alternative to self-host.

SUB-PROCESSORS

Sub-processor map · not disclosed

Vendor does not publish a sub-processors list. Schrems II compliance and CLOUD Act exposure cannot be independently verified without it.
CERTIFICATIONS

Frameworks & certifications · none listed

We checked the vendor's website and standard certification body registries. No active certifications found at the time of last audit (2026-05-18).
FEATURES

Capability matrix

INTEGRATION & ACCESS
REST API Yes
SSO (SAML / OIDC) Yes
COMPLIANCE & GOVERNANCE
Audit log Yes
Self-host / on-prem option Yes
PRICING

Pricing & tiers

FREEMIUM
Custom pricing

Contact vendor for tier or volume pricing.

View pricing page ↗
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS

Public documents

Vendor does not publish a public DPA. Without a publicly accessible Data Processing Addendum, small EU customers cannot self-serve the processor agreement. This is recorded as no public DPA (see How we assess).
Vendor does not publish a sub-processors list. Schrems II compliance and CLOUD Act exposure cannot be independently verified without it.
  • Data Processing Addendum (DPA)
    — missing
    missing
  • Sub-processors list
    — missing
    missing
ALTERNATIVES

Alternatives in this category

Findmind
Switzerland · Founded 2009
EU-BASED

Swiss research-focused online survey tool operated by Fabian Keller since 2009; used by University of Zurich researchers.

Public DPA Sub-processors Open source
FROM
—
CLOUD ACT
MINOR
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Formbricks
Germany · Founded 2022
EU-HOSTED

German open-source experience-management platform (Formbricks GmbH, Kiel) for link, website and in-product surveys; AGPLv3, self-hostable.

Public DPA Sub-processors Open source
FROM
€82/mo
CLOUD ACT
MATERIAL
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Formdesk
Netherlands · Founded 2004
EU-SOVEREIGN

Dutch enterprise forms platform (Innovero Software Solutions B.V., Wassenaar, 20+ years), NL-only hosting.

Public DPA Sub-processors Open source
FROM
—
CLOUD ACT
NONE
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