In today's fast-paced digital world, businesses and organizations—whether commercial or non-profit—heavily rely on data to make data-driven decisions. Gathering valuable insights and feedback through surveys and forms is a crucial aspect of this process. However, ensuring the secure storage of sensitive respondent data and streamlining the form workflow can be challenging at times, especially if an organization deals with multiple customers and offers diverse services.

When it comes to selecting the right survey software, two major options emerge: online survey platforms and self-hosted open-source solutions. In this blog post, we will explore the advantages of choosing self-hosted open-source survey software, specifically focusing on SurveyJS, a leading provider of self-hosted open-source survey software. We will delve into various aspects, including licensing options, the importance of form automation and secure storage of sensitive data, and compare the benefits of self-hosted open-source software against online platforms.

Self-hosted open-source survey software, like SurveyJS, provides unparalleled flexibility and customization options. You have complete control not merely over the look and feel of your forms, but the functionality of the form builder itself. Whether you need to customize the survey layout, incorporate your brand’s own design language, modify the UI, or integrate with other management systems, self-hosted software empowers you to do so with no limitations.

With the increasing concerns surrounding data privacy and security, self-hosted open-source solutions offer peace of mind. By hosting the software on your own servers, you retain full control over the data flow between server and client. This eliminates the risks associated with entrusting sensitive information to third-party SaaS platforms. SurveyJS puts data security and confidentiality first, ensuring that your valuable data remains safe within your in-house infrastructure.

One of the most prominent advantages of self-hosted open-source survey software is the cost-effectiveness it offers. Unlike online survey platforms that often require recurring subscriptions and impose limitations on the number of forms, submissions, users, and storage capacities, self-hosted software operates on a different licensing model. SurveyJS provides perpetual licensing, allowing you to make a one-time payment and use the software indefinitely. This eliminates the need for ongoing subscription fees, making it a financially viable choice for businesses and organizations of all sizes.

SurveyJS offers different types of licenses, each catering to specific needs: if you only need to handle a few form widgets, such as an order form or a basic customer satisfaction survey (CSAT) popup, then Form Library will do. However, if you deal with multiple complex forms that require modifications on a regular basis, then you might want to consider Survey Creator library, an open-source WYSIWYG form editor that also serves as a JSON schema generator. It allows you to make forms in a no-code UI and generates JSON definitions of your forms in real time. Such JSON files are then used to embed the forms in your application using Form Library.

The Form library provided by SurveyJS operates under the MIT License, which grants users the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the library without restrictions. This license is ideal for developers and organizations seeking complete control and customization capabilities.

The remaining SurveyJS libraries, including Survey Creator, are proprietary, which means they are not available for free commercial usage. If you want to integrate such libraries into your application, you are required to purchase a commercial license for software developer(s) who will be working with the SurveyJS product's APIs and implementing their integration. However, SurveyJS Creator library comes with a free full-scale demo that allows you to generate survey configuration files in the JSON format and use it with SurveyJS Form Library in your application free of charge. License owners are also given access to a dedicated professional support and ongoing updates.

Please refer to the SurveyJS Architecture guide to get a better understanding of how SurveyJS products are designed.

In conclusion, choosing self-hosted open-source survey software, such as SurveyJS, offers considerable advantages over online survey platforms. The flexibility, customization options, data privacy, security, compliance with data protection regulations, and cost-effectiveness make self-hosted software an attractive choice for organizations looking to have full control over their survey data, and enable non-tech users, such as content managers, to create and modify multiple surveys and forms in an open-source WYSIWYG form builder. With SurveyJS, you can benefit from different licensing options, including the MIT-licensed Form library and proprietary licenses for other libraries. Enjoy the power of self-hosted open-source survey software and unlock new possibilities for efficient data collection and analysis.