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Healthcare · head to head

GNU Health vs LimeSurvey

GNU Health logo

GNU Health

Healthcare

Free hospital and health information system from a small NGO, built on the Tryton framework

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LimeSurvey logo

LimeSurvey

Surveys

Open source survey software you can self-host, with German-hosted cloud as the alternative

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: GNU Health development depends on GNU Solidario, a very small nonprofit funded by donations and training, so release cadence and long-term continuity are tied to a handful of people rather than to an engineering organisation.; LimeSurvey self-hosting shifts patching, backups and PHP upgrades onto your own team, and neglected installations become a security liability holding participant data.
  • They diverge on capability: GNU Health covers Electronic medical record, LimeSurvey covers Self-hosted deployment.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which GNU Health and LimeSurvey actually diverge.

Attributes where GNU Health and LimeSurvey differ
AttributeGNU HealthLimeSurvey
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeOpen source, with paid cloud hosting
PlatformsLinux, Web, Self-hostedWeb, Self-hosted
CategoryHealthcareSurveys

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in GNU Health

  • Electronic medical record
  • Hospital management
  • Laboratory information system
  • Social medicine modules
  • Tryton business modules
  • Health federation
  • ICD and standards support
  • Modular installation

Only in LimeSurvey

  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Question type depth
  • Expression manager
  • Quotas and screening
  • Multilingual surveys
  • Participant management

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

GNU Health

  • A public hospital in a low-resource setting that cannot fund commercial EMR licensing and has in-house Linux capabilitynot LimeSurvey
  • A ministry building a national health network where source code inspection and data sovereignty are policy requirementsnot LimeSurvey
  • A university teaching health informatics that needs a complete, inspectable system rather than a vendor demonstrationnot LimeSurvey
  • A community health programme that needs socioeconomic determinants recorded alongside clinical datanot LimeSurvey

LimeSurvey

  • A university study whose ethics approval requires participant data to stay on institutional serversnot GNU Health
  • A public body procuring survey software under European data protection rulesnot GNU Health
  • A market research agency running multilingual instruments with quotas and screening logicnot GNU Health
  • A team that needs complex matrix and ranking questions consumer form builders do not supportnot GNU Health

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

GNU Health

  • Development depends on GNU Solidario, a very small nonprofit funded by donations and training, so release cadence and long-term continuity are tied to a handful of people rather than to an engineering organisation.
  • It is built on Tryton, a framework few health IT staff know, so hiring or contracting people who can extend and maintain it is materially harder than for a mainstream stack.
  • Installation, upgrades and database administration assume Linux and Python competence, which puts the real cost on staffing rather than on licensing and defeats hospitals that lack that team.
  • The interface is functional rather than designed, and clinician acceptance is a genuine deployment risk compared with commercial systems that have invested heavily in usability.
  • Certification, regulatory conformance and interoperability testing that some jurisdictions demand of clinical systems are not provided by a vendor, so the adopting institution has to carry that work and that liability itself.

LimeSurvey

  • Self-hosting shifts patching, backups and PHP upgrades onto your own team, and neglected installations become a security liability holding participant data.
  • The default interface and themes look dated beside Typeform or Jotform, which measurably lowers completion rates on consumer-facing surveys.
  • Cloud plans are capped on responses per period, so an unexpectedly successful field wave can force an upgrade in the middle of data collection.
  • Serious theming and layout changes require template and CSS work rather than a visual designer, so agencies often budget developer time per project.
  • Support on the free edition is community forums only, and paid support is a separate purchase, which is a poor fit for teams with no technical staff.

Pricing, plan by plan

GNU Health

Free
  • GNU HealthFree
    • GNU GPL licence
    • All modules included
    • No patient, bed or user limits
  • Support and training$undefined/year
    • Paid support and implementation from GNU Solidario
    • Training courses and certification
    • Quoted per institution

LimeSurvey

Free
  • Community Edition (self-hosted)Free
    • Free under the GNU General Public Licence
    • No response limits imposed by the vendor
    • Hosting, patching, backups and upgrades are your responsibility
  • LimeSurvey Cloud$undefined/year
    • Hosted on servers in Germany
    • Tiered on responses and storage per period rather than per user
    • Higher tiers add branding removal, more storage and support

Which should you pick?

Choose GNU Health if

  • You need electronic medical record.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want hospital management.
GNU Health review

Choose LimeSurvey if

  • You need self-hosted deployment.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want question type depth.
LimeSurvey review

Questions people ask

Is GNU Health or LimeSurvey better?
Neither clearly leads. GNU Health starts at Free and LimeSurvey at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, GNU Health or LimeSurvey?
GNU Health starts at Free and LimeSurvey at Free.
Does GNU Health or LimeSurvey run on more platforms?
GNU Health runs on Linux, Web, Self-hosted. LimeSurvey runs on Web, Self-hosted.
Can I use GNU Health for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is GNU Health best used for?
GNU Health is most often used for a public hospital in a low-resource setting that cannot fund commercial emr licensing and has in-house linux capability, a ministry building a national health network where source code inspection and data sovereignty are policy requirements, a university teaching health informatics that needs a complete, inspectable system rather than a vendor demonstration, a community health programme that needs socioeconomic determinants recorded alongside clinical data. Of those, a public hospital in a low-resource setting that cannot fund commercial emr licensing and has in-house linux capability and a ministry building a national health network where source code inspection and data sovereignty are policy requirements are not what LimeSurvey is typically brought in for.
What can GNU Health do that LimeSurvey cannot?
GNU Health covers Electronic medical record, Hospital management, Laboratory information system, Social medicine modules. LimeSurvey covers Self-hosted deployment, Question type depth, Expression manager, Quotas and screening.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

GNU Health: Who develops GNU Health?

GNU Solidario, a Spanish nonprofit NGO, as an official GNU package under the GPL.

LimeSurvey: Is LimeSurvey really free?

The self-hosted Community Edition is free under the GPL with no vendor response limits. The hosted cloud is paid and tiered by response volume.

GNU Health: Is there commercial support?

Yes, in a limited form, from GNU Solidario itself and a small number of implementers. It is not a vendor support organisation.

LimeSurvey: Where is cloud data stored?

On servers in Germany, which is why public sector and academic buyers choose it over United States hosted competitors.

GNU Health: What is it built on?

Tryton, a Python business application framework, which is where its accounting, stock and HR modules come from.

LimeSurvey: Can it handle complex research designs?

Yes. Quotas, randomisation, piping and matrix question types are core features rather than enterprise add-ons.

GNU Health: Is it suitable for a large hospital?

It is deployed in hospitals, but the deciding factor is whether you have internal Linux, Python and Tryton capability rather than the size of the institution.

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