LimeSurvey vs Tally
Both are alternatives to Typeform. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Tally vs LimeSurvey — same comparison, one verdict.
LimeSurvey
Twenty years of serious survey methodology, GPL, self-hosted.
LimeSurvey is the survey tool academic and research institutions actually use, and it shows: dozens of question types, quotas, randomisation, complex conditional logic, multilingual surveys and statistical export. It is not trying to be beautiful and it is not conversational — it is trying to be methodologically sound, which is a different and sometimes more important thing. GPL-2.0, self-hosted, with two decades of development behind it. Choose it when the survey is research rather than marketing.
Tally
Free for unlimited responses — and that is the whole pitch.
Tally is a hosted form builder that works like a text document: you type, and form fields appear where you need them. Its distinguishing feature is commercial rather than technical — unlimited forms and unlimited responses on the free tier, with payment only for branding removal and advanced features. For a team whose objection to Typeform is purely the per-response bill, Tally removes it entirely without any self-hosting. It is proprietary and hosted, so the data-residency objection is unaddressed.
Side by side
| LimeSurvey | Tally | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 93 | 40 |
| Open source | Yes | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Local-first | Yes | No |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Proprietary (hosted service) |
| Pricing | Free and open source to self-host. Paid cloud hosting available. | Free with unlimited forms and responses. Tally Pro around $29/month for branding removal and advanced features. |
LimeSurvey edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
LimeSurvey
Strengths
- +Most methodologically serious tool here — quotas, randomisation, complex logic
- +Excellent multilingual support
- +Twenty years of development; trusted in academic research
- +GPL-2.0 with a complete self-host path
Trade-offs
- −Interface is dated and the learning curve is real
- −Nothing conversational about it
- −PHP and MySQL to operate
- −Overkill for a contact form or a short marketing survey
Tally
Strengths
- +Unlimited responses free — removes Typeform's core cost problem outright
- +Document-style builder is genuinely fast to use
- +Good conditional logic and payment collection on the free tier
- +Nothing to host or maintain
Trade-offs
- −Proprietary and hosted — data residency unchanged
- −Free tier is a business decision that can change
- −Less polished than Typeform on presentation
- −No self-hosting at any price
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Facts verified 2026-08-07. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.