Is LimeSurvey or Rowy better?

Neither clearly leads. LimeSurvey starts at Free and Rowy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, LimeSurvey or Rowy?

LimeSurvey starts at Free and Rowy at Free.

Does LimeSurvey or Rowy run on more platforms?

LimeSurvey runs on Web, Self-hosted. Rowy runs on Web.

Can I use LimeSurvey for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is LimeSurvey best used for?

LimeSurvey is most often used for a university study whose ethics approval requires participant data to stay on institutional servers, a public body procuring survey software under european data protection rules, a market research agency running multilingual instruments with quotas and screening logic, a team that needs complex matrix and ranking questions consumer form builders do not support. Of those, a university study whose ethics approval requires participant data to stay on institutional servers and a public body procuring survey software under european data protection rules are not what Rowy is typically brought in for.

What can LimeSurvey do that Rowy cannot?

LimeSurvey covers Self-hosted deployment, Question type depth, Expression manager, Quotas and screening. Rowy covers Firestore backed grid, Browser authored cloud functions, Typed columns, Runs in your Google Cloud project.

Surveys · head to head

LimeSurvey vs Rowy

LimeSurvey

Surveys

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Rowy

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheet interface for Google Cloud Firestore with cloud functions written in the browser

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: LimeSurvey self-hosting shifts patching, backups and PHP upgrades onto your own team, and neglected installations become a security liability holding participant data.; Rowy every Firestore limit is inherited, including the one megabyte per document ceiling and roughly one sustained write per second per document, which surprises users who expect spreadsheet behaviour.
They diverge on capability: LimeSurvey covers Self-hosted deployment, Rowy covers Firestore backed grid.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which LimeSurvey and Rowy actually diverge.

Attributes where LimeSurvey and Rowy differ
Attribute	LimeSurvey	Rowy
Pricing model	Open source, with paid cloud hosting	Open source, no licence fee
Platforms	Web, Self-hosted	Web
Category	Surveys	Spreadsheets

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 LimeSurvey

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

Only in Rowy

Firestore backed grid
Browser authored cloud functions
Typed columns
Runs in your Google Cloud project
Role based access
Form view
Open source

What people use each for

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

LimeSurvey

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

Rowy

A Firebase application that needs an internal admin interface without building onenot LimeSurvey
Operations staff correcting production records in Firestore without developer involvementnot LimeSurvey
Attaching a small transformation or notification function to a field change without a full deployment pipelinenot LimeSurvey
A content team populating documents that a mobile application reads directly from Firestorenot LimeSurvey

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Rowy

Every Firestore limit is inherited, including the one megabyte per document ceiling and roughly one sustained write per second per document, which surprises users who expect spreadsheet behaviour.
Firestore has no joins, so linking tables in the grid is a convenience layer rather than a relational feature and reports across collections still need a separate query.
It is useful only to teams already on Firebase, so choosing it effectively locks the operational tooling to one cloud vendor.
Query costs are billed by document read, and an unfiltered grid on a large collection can generate a bill that a spreadsheet user has no intuition for.
Development activity has slowed relative to the broader category, so evaluate current maintenance before making it load bearing for internal operations.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Rowy

Free

Open source self hostedFree
- No licence fee
- Deploys into your own Google Cloud project
- You pay Google Cloud for Firestore reads, writes and storage

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Rowy if

You need firestore backed grid.
You want to start without paying.
You also want browser authored cloud functions.

Rowy review

Questions people ask

Is LimeSurvey or Rowy better?: Neither clearly leads. LimeSurvey starts at Free and Rowy at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, LimeSurvey or Rowy?: LimeSurvey starts at Free and Rowy at Free.
Does LimeSurvey or Rowy run on more platforms?: LimeSurvey runs on Web, Self-hosted. Rowy runs on Web.
Can I use LimeSurvey for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is LimeSurvey best used for?: LimeSurvey is most often used for a university study whose ethics approval requires participant data to stay on institutional servers, a public body procuring survey software under european data protection rules, a market research agency running multilingual instruments with quotas and screening logic, a team that needs complex matrix and ranking questions consumer form builders do not support. Of those, a university study whose ethics approval requires participant data to stay on institutional servers and a public body procuring survey software under european data protection rules are not what Rowy is typically brought in for.
What can LimeSurvey do that Rowy cannot?: LimeSurvey covers Self-hosted deployment, Question type depth, Expression manager, Quotas and screening. Rowy covers Firestore backed grid, Browser authored cloud functions, Typed columns, Runs in your Google Cloud project.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Rowy: Where is my data stored?

In your own Firestore instance inside your own Google Cloud project. Rowy does not hold a copy.

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.

Rowy: What does it cost to run?

No licence fee. You pay Google Cloud for Firestore reads, writes, storage and function invocations, and an open grid on a big collection reads a lot.

LimeSurvey: Can it handle complex research designs?

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

Rowy: Can it do joins across collections?

Not really. Firestore does not support joins, and no interface layer can add them.

Rowy: Is there a row limit?

Not from Rowy. The limits that bite are Firestore document size and per document write throughput.

Rowy: Is it suitable if I am not on Firebase?

No. It is specifically a Firestore interface.

LimeSurvey vs Rowy

LimeSurvey

Rowy

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in LimeSurvey

Only in Rowy

What people use each for

LimeSurvey

Rowy

Where each one falls short

LimeSurvey

Rowy

Pricing, plan by plan

LimeSurvey

Rowy

Which should you pick?

Choose LimeSurvey if

Choose Rowy if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on LimeSurvey

More on Rowy

Keep looking

Other head to heads