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Alternatives · SurveyMonkey
Online forms, open-source tools and door-to-door fieldwork are three different jobs
Choosing a SurveyMonkey alternative in India starts with one question: will people answer on their own screen, or will someone have to go and ask them? This guide is for students, researchers, businesses and field organisations. It compares SurveyMonkey's published rupee plans with a free option, the open-source LimeSurvey, and Bharat Survey's offline, GPS-verified Android app for interviews in homes, shops and villages.
Survey 3/6 · AmenitiesOffline
How is drinking water in your area?
- Comes regularly
- Comes sometimes
- Rarely / never
- Don't know
✓ Section saved on phone · autosave
BackNext
3,000
Target homes
2,184
Visits
1,962
Completed
1,871
Accepted
Daily accepted surveysLast 12 days
Quality
Accepted1871
In review64
Outside area19
Weak signal8
Top issues · by panchayat
Water62%
Roads48%
Power31%
Drains24%
Sync
6
Safe on phone
8
Synced to server
Last sync12:40
Offline permit18 h left
Photos pending3
Online vs field surveysFree plans and their limitsOpen-source self-hostingRupee pricingOffline Android appGPS-verified interviewsHindi-first formsSeat-based licences
Three kinds of tool
Most disappointment with survey software comes from using an online tool for a field job, or the reverse.
Self-completed online
Link-based survey platforms
The respondent opens a link and answers alone. SurveyMonkey is built for this: email, web and social distribution, templates, and analysis in the browser. It suits customers, employees and students who are online.
Self-hosted
Open-source survey software
You install the software on your own server and control the data. LimeSurvey's Community Edition is the best-known example. It needs someone who can run and update a web application.
Interviewer-led offline
Field data collection apps
An enumerator visits a household or shop and records answers on a phone, often without network. Bharat Survey is built for this, with GPS checks against the assigned village, ward or booth.
Published prices
Vendor facts are from each vendor's own pricing page, checked September 2026. Prices shown to Indian visitors can differ by region and change without notice.
| SurveyMonkey | LimeSurvey | Bharat Survey | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free option | Basic plan: up to 10 questions per survey, limited responses | Free cloud plan; free self-hosted Community Edition | No free plan; demo on request |
| Individual paid plans | Standard ₹899/month (1,000 responses/month); Advantage ₹1,999/month billed annually; Premier ₹4,999/month billed annually | Basic, Expert, Business cloud plans, charged in euros; Corporate on request | Not applicable |
| Team plans | Team Advantage ₹1,550 and Team Premier ₹3,800 per user/month, billed annually, minimum 3 users | Corporate plan on request | Seat-based quote in rupees |
| Extra responses | ₹5 per response above plan limit | Higher plan tier | Priced by seats, not responses |
| Licence | Proprietary SaaS | Community Edition under GPL v2 or later | Proprietary SaaS |
| Built for interviewer-led offline fieldwork | |||
| GPS verdict against assigned area | |||
| Field teams available |
'false' means the capability is not presented as a core feature on the vendor's public pages; check with the vendor for your exact use.
Free options
SurveyMonkey's own free Basic plan is the first free alternative most people try. It allows up to 10 questions per survey and a limited number of viewable responses, which is fine for a class assignment or a quick poll and tight for anything larger. Beyond that, the free choices split in two directions.
Free hosted form tools
General form builders cost nothing and are easy to share on WhatsApp or email. They work well when respondents are literate, online and willing. They are weak at proving who answered, where, and whether one person answered many times.
Free self-hosted software
Open-source tools remove the licence fee but move the cost to hosting, security updates and staff time. For a university or research institute with an IT team that trade can be worthwhile; for a small NGO it often is not.
Open source
LimeSurvey is often the answer to a SurveyMonkey question, so it deserves its own look.
What LimeSurvey does well
LimeSurvey's Community Edition is licensed under GPL v2 or any later version, so an institution can host it, inspect the code and keep responses on its own server. It supports complex question types, quotas and many languages, and it also offers paid cloud plans for teams that do not want to run a server.
- Self-hosting and data control
- Mature question logic
- Free cloud plan to start
Researchers planning a questionnaire before choosing a survey platform
When people look for a LimeSurvey alternative
The usual reasons are practical. Someone has to patch and back up the server. Browser-based surveys are awkward for enumerators walking between houses with no network. And a response saved on a server says little about where the interview took place. Bharat Survey is a fit only for that last group of problems: offline, interviewer-led collection with location checks.
- No server to maintain
- Android app that works offline
- Per-record location status
Sync
6
Safe on phone
8
Synced to server
Last sync12:40
Offline permit18 h left
Photos pending3
Research use
Before picking any tool, academic and evaluation teams should check four things.
Standard formats
XLSForm keeps questionnaires portable across tools. Bharat Survey imports XLSForm, so a questionnaire drafted for another platform is not wasted.
Proof of fieldwork
If interviews happen in person, ask how the tool shows that each one was done in the right place, and what happens to records that fail.
Staff time
Count hours for setup, hosting, translation and cleaning. A free licence with three weeks of admin work is rarely the cheaper option.
A plain view
Made for India
What changes when the survey is built around Indian fieldwork rather than an emailed link.
Plan
01 / 03District, block and village areas loaded before work starts
India's administrative geography, from district down to village and from urban body down to ward, is already in the system. Managers assign areas instead of typing lists.
Collect
02 / 03Enumerator interviewing a household with an offline Android survey app
Hindi-first forms with skip logic and validation run without network and sync later. Seats are enforced so only licensed workers submit.
Verify
03 / 03Supervisor reviewing GPS-verified survey records on a dashboard
Every record gets a location status. Outside-area, poor-signal and mock-GPS records go to review, and a back-check queue supports re-visits.
Budget reality
Before
Free is enough when
Online, small, low stakes
- Respondents are online and can self-complete
- Fewer than 10 questions or a few hundred responses
- Nobody needs proof of where answers came from
- A class project, internal poll or pilot
With Bharat Survey
Paying makes sense when
Field, large, audited
- Interviewers collect data offline in villages or wards
- Results go to a client, donor or department
- Supervisors must check location and duration
- You need exports, back-checks and role-based access
Not the right fit if
- Your respondents fill surveys online by email, web link or QR code
- You need a large template library and quick online analysis
- Your team works on iOS devices: Bharat Survey's app is Android only
- You want a free plan to start today with no sales conversation
A good fit if
- Face-to-face surveys in homes, shops or villages
- Low-network districts where work must continue offline
- Projects that must prove each interview's location
- Teams that may also need field staff
Features
The field app, web panel and verification in detail.
Learn moreWhatsApp and SMS surveys
Remote survey channels and where they fit.
Learn moreCustomer feedback software
Feedback programmes for stores and service points.
Learn moreField inspection app
Inspections with photos and location proof.
Learn moreSurvey app development
Custom workflows built on the standard app.
Learn moreFAQ
Straight answers to the questions people ask most about this topic.
Survey app free vs paid: which should I choose?
Start with a free plan if respondents answer online, the survey is short and nobody will audit the data. Move to a paid tool when you need more responses, offline collection, team access, exports or proof that interviews happened where they should. Count staff time too, not only the licence fee.
How much does SurveyMonkey cost in India?
As checked in September 2026, SurveyMonkey's Indian pricing pages list Standard at ₹899 a month, Advantage at ₹1,999 a month and Premier at ₹4,999 a month billed annually for individuals, and team plans from ₹1,550 per user a month with a three-user minimum. Confirm current prices on its site.
Is LimeSurvey really free?
The Community Edition is open source under GPL v2 or later and free to download and self-host, but you pay for the server, maintenance and security updates. LimeSurvey also has a free cloud plan with limits and paid cloud plans for larger volumes.
Can Bharat Survey send online survey links like SurveyMonkey?
Bharat Survey is designed for interviewer-led fieldwork on an offline Android app, with a web panel for managers. If your main need is emailing a link to respondents who complete it themselves, an online platform such as SurveyMonkey will suit you better.
How is Bharat Survey priced?
By seats: the number of field workers licensed for the weeks they work, quoted in rupees. There is no public rate card because team size, duration and whether you add our field teams change the total. Share those details and we send a written quote.
India Nationwide, Hindi-first
Tell us the states, team size and weeks of fieldwork. We reply with a seat-based quote and a sample form in Hindi.