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KoboToolbox
Offline-first data collection for humanitarian, development and research field work
As of 1 September 2026, KoboToolbox has a free plan and paid plans start at $21/month. The default survey tool in humanitarian response, free for nonprofits at 5,000 submissions a month and paid for everyone else. Softwr lists it under Surveys. KoboToolbox is made by Kobo Inc, available on Web, Android, Self-hosted.
Overview
What KoboToolbox does
KoboToolbox is a form-based data collection platform designed for environments with poor or no connectivity. Enumerators complete forms on Android devices offline, data syncs when a connection appears, and the server handles form design through a browser builder or XLSForm spreadsheets, case management, media attachments, GPS capture, skip logic, multiple languages and export to Excel, CSV, SPSS and analysis tools. It builds on the Open Data Kit standards, which means forms authored as XLSForm are portable between Kobo, ODK Central and other compatible servers. The fact that separates it from commercial survey software is who runs it and how it is funded. Kobo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit; in 2024 roughly 38 per cent of operating revenue came from grants and contributions and 62 per cent from service contracts, subscriptions and training. It offers a free Community plan to nonprofits working in humanitarian action, development, environmental protection and education, currently at 5,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of storage, with paid Starter, Professional, Teams and Enterprise plans for private and for-profit use. The full server stack is also open source and self-hostable, which matters when data protection rules forbid storing respondent data outside a country. Buyers are UN agencies, international NGOs, ministries, universities and research groups. The trade-off is the limits: the free tier caps submissions and storage in a way that a large multi-country assessment will exceed, and file storage in particular becomes the binding constraint as soon as forms collect photographs. Organisations should model storage before assuming the free plan covers a programme.
What people use it for
- A rapid needs assessment after a disaster where enumerators work for days without mobile coverage
- A ministry of health running a national survey that must be self-hosted in country for data protection reasons
- An NGO running the same longitudinal household survey in four languages across three countries
- A research group that needs a free instrument for a modest sample and an SPSS export at the end
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about KoboToolbox.
- The free Community plan caps at 5,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of file storage, and any form collecting photographs exhausts storage long before it exhausts the submission count.
- The Starter paid plan allows only 1,000 submissions a month for $21, which is fewer than the free nonprofit tier, so a small commercial user pays more for less than a charity gets free.
- Eligibility for the free plan depends on Kobo's assessment of your organisation and purpose, which introduces an approval step that a consultancy working on behalf of an NGO may not clear.
- Self-hosting is genuinely possible but the stack is substantial to deploy and maintain, so a ministry choosing it for data residency reasons takes on real infrastructure staffing cost.
- Analysis and reporting inside the platform are basic compared with dedicated tools, so most serious use exports to Excel, Power BI or statistical software, and that export step is where data governance often gets loose.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of KoboToolbox
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- KoboToolboxvsREDCap
REDCap: If the work is clinical or academic research with institutional review requirements
- KoboToolboxvsLimeSurvey
LimeSurvey: If respondents complete the survey themselves online rather than being interviewed by an enumerator
Pricing
What KoboToolbox costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Community
Free
- Free for qualifying nonprofit and public good organisations
- 5,000 submissions per month
- 1 GB file storage
- Storage add-ons available up to 20 GB
Starter
$21 /mo
- 1,000 submissions per month
- 0.5 GB file storage
- For private and for-profit use
Professional
$129 /mo
- 25,000 submissions per month or 300,000 per year
- Unlimited file storage
- Priority support
Teams
On request
- 50,000 submissions per month or 600,000 per year
- Shared team administration
- Pricing published by plan tier
Enterprise
On request
- Custom submission volumes
- Dedicated hosting options
- Training, custom dashboards and project support
- Quoted individually
Capabilities
Features
Offline data collection
Android app collects and queues submissions without connectivity
XLSForm and browser form builder
Author forms in a spreadsheet or through a drag and drop interface
Skip logic and validation
Conditional questions and constraint checking at the point of entry
Multilingual forms
Runs the same instrument in several languages
GPS and media capture
Records location, photographs, audio and signatures
Case management
Tracks longitudinal records across repeat visits
Exports and analysis
Excel, CSV, SPSS and API access to collected data
Self-hosting
Full open source server stack deployable in country
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is KoboToolbox free?
Free for qualifying nonprofit and public good organisations under the Community plan, currently 5,000 submissions a month and 1 GB of storage. Commercial use requires a paid plan from $21 a month.
Who funds it?
Kobo Inc is a US nonprofit funded roughly 38 per cent by grants and contributions and 62 per cent by service contracts, subscriptions and training, based on its 2024 figures.
Can I host it myself?
Yes. The server stack is open source and is regularly deployed in country for data residency reasons.
Are forms portable?
Yes. It uses XLSForm and ODK standards, so instruments move between Kobo and other ODK-compatible servers.
Keep looking
Where to go from KoboToolbox
- KoboToolbox alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- KoboToolbox pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- KoboToolbox badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Surveys softwareThe full category
- Best Surveys softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
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Compare KoboToolbox with
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- Alchemer
- Sogolytics
- SurveyLegend
- Wufoo
- Zoho Survey
- SurveyCTO
- Tally
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for KoboToolbox, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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quote