Forms and surveys · cost comparison
SurveyMonkey vs self-hosted LimeSurvey: what each actually costs
SurveyMonkey on the Team Advantage tier against LimeSurvey running on the smallest server that fits it. Every figure below is computed from the sizing model and the dated prices at the foot of this page, and includes the part most comparisons leave out: your own time.
At 10 people, self-hosting LimeSurvey costs $45.54 a month against $336 for SurveyMonkey. You are ahead after under a month and $10,299 better off over 36 months, with your own time already priced in.
- SurveyMonkey
- $336per month, Team Advantage
- Self-hosted
- $45.54server, backups and your time
- Server and backups
- $8.04CX23 (cost-optimized), 4 GB RAM
- 36-month difference
- $10,299 saved by self-hosting
- Break-even
- under a monthafter $150 of setup time
The same comparison at every team size
Self-hosting has a floor and almost no slope, while per-seat software has no floor and a steep slope. That is the whole story, and it is why the answer flips somewhere in this table rather than being the same for everyone.
| Team size | SurveyMonkey | Self-hosted | Without valuing your time | Server needed | 36-month difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solo | $101 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$1,837 |
| 5 people | $168 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$4,255 |
| 10 people | $336 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$10,299 |
| 25 people | $839 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$28,432 |
| 50 people | $1,679 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$58,653 |
| 100 people | $3,358 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$119,095 |
| 250 people | $8,395 | $45.54 | $8.04 | CX23 (cost-optimized) (4 GB) | +$300,422 |
The balance tips in favour of self-hosting at around solo.
Where the self-hosted money actually goes at 10 people
| Line item | Per month | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Server | $6.70 | CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk |
| Backups | $1.34 | Provider snapshots at 20% of the server price. Skipping this is not a saving, it is a bet. |
| Your time | $37.50 | 0.5 hours a month of updates, upgrades and the occasional broken thing, at $75 an hour |
| Total | $45.54 | Plus $150 once, for roughly 2 hours of first-time setup |
SurveyMonkey at this size costs $336 a month. 10 seats at $33.58 each. This is the annually-billed rate, which is what the vendor's page displayed; paying monthly costs more. The vendor quoted EUR, converted at the dated rate on the methodology page.
What LimeSurvey needs to run at 10 people
Two decades of survey logic, including quotas and complex branching that the newer tools do not attempt. The interface shows its age.
| Resource | Required | How it is derived |
|---|---|---|
| Memory | 1.3 GB | 1 GB for the stack at rest, plus 5 MB per active user, plus 25% headroom |
| Disk | 11 GB | 10 GB base, plus 0.1 GB per user |
| vCPU | 1 | The project's own baseline. For this workload memory runs out before the processor does. |
What you give up, stated plainly
- Uptime is now yours. SurveyMonkey has an operations team on call. Self-hosted, a failed upgrade at 18:00 on a Friday is your evening.
- Backups only exist if you test restoring them. The $1.34 line above buys snapshots, not a rehearsed recovery.
- LimeSurvey is a light lift: one container and no scheduled work beyond image updates. That is why the maintenance line is 0.5 hours a month rather than zero.
- Feature parity is never exact. LimeSurvey covers the core of what teams use SurveyMonkey for; the long tail of integrations and enterprise controls is where the gap shows.
Where to put LimeSurvey
1.3 GB of memory and 11 GB of disk is what this needs at 10 people. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read ourselves, is the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month.
Go to Hetzner Cloud Compare hosts
We are not claiming this is the cheapest server on the internet. It is the cheapest one we can honestly quote. Vultr and PikaPods publish prices we could not read programmatically, and may well undercut it. Price them yourself before you commit.
LimeSurvey at a glance
| Licence | Other not a standard open-source licence |
|---|---|
| Written in | JavaScript |
| GitHub stars | 3,717, checked 2026-09-12 |
| Last commit | 2026-09-11 |
| Ships Docker images | Yes |
| Project | www.limesurvey.org · LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey |
Get the migration checklist for this tool
A one-page pre-flight list: data export path, sizing, backup plan, and the rollback step most people skip.
Questions people actually ask
How much does SurveyMonkey cost?
SurveyMonkey Team Advantage costs $336 a month at 10 people: EUR 30.00 per seat per month. That figure was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-09-14.
What does it cost to self-host LimeSurvey?
$45.54 a month at 10 people: $6.70 for the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud, $1.34 of backups, and $37.50 for the 0.5 hours a month it takes to look after.
Is LimeSurvey cheaper than SurveyMonkey?
Yes, after under a month, once $150 of first-time setup is counted. Over 36 months the difference is $10,299 in favour of self-hosting.
What server does LimeSurvey need?
At 10 people, 1.3 GB of memory and 11 GB of disk. The cheapest plan that fits, among the providers whose prices we have read, is the CX23 (cost-optimized) at Hetzner Cloud for $6.70 a month.
How much work is LimeSurvey to run?
It is rated easy: about 2 hours to set up and 0.5 hours a month afterwards, priced at $75.00 an hour in the figures above.
Every figure on this page, and where it came from
| Input | Value used | Source | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| SurveyMonkey Team Advantage | EUR 30.00 per seat per month | vendor pricing page | 2026-09-14 |
| Hetzner Cloud CX23 (cost-optimized) | $6.70 per month | provider pricing page | 2026-10-25 |
| Exchange rate | 1 EUR = 1.1193 USD | Frankfurter, European Central Bank reference rates | 2026-10-23 |
| Engineer time | $75 per hour | our published assumption | — |
| LimeSurvey sizing | 1 GB base, 5 MB per user | project documentation | — |
Prices move. If the vendor has changed theirs since 2026-09-14, the figures above are stale and the source links are the authority, not us. How we handle that.