SurveyCTO

Offline field survey platform priced by submissions rather than seats, built for research data quality

As of 1 September 2026, SurveyCTO has a free plan and paid plans start at $225/month. A data collection platform used heavily in international development and impact evaluation. Softwr lists it under Surveys. SurveyCTO is made by Dobility, Inc., available on Web, Android, iOS.

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Overview

What SurveyCTO does

SurveyCTO, from Dobility, is built on the Open Data Kit standard and aimed at research-grade field data collection. Forms are authored in a spreadsheet using ODK XLSForm syntax, deployed to Android and iOS devices, completed offline in the field and encrypted on the device before upload. Around that sits the machinery researchers need and generic form tools lack: automated quality checks that flag suspicious enumerator behaviour, audio auditing that records ambient audio during an interview, GPS and timing metadata for back-checks, random assignment for experimental designs, case management for longitudinal panels, and a monitoring layer that surfaces data quality issues while fieldwork is still running rather than after it. The pricing structure is what distinguishes it commercially. Basic is 250 US dollars a month, or 225 billed annually, with 100 forms, 10 GB of storage and 5,000 monthly submissions. Pro is 350, or 315 annually, with 500 forms, 25 GB and 10,000 submissions, plus server region selection and access to an annual SOC 2 report. Advanced is 700, or 630 annually, with unlimited forms, storage and submissions, a custom GDPR data processing agreement and offline case management. Users and devices are unlimited on every tier, and there is a permanent free community subscription capped at 10 forms, 200 monthly submissions and 200 MB. Extra submissions are 100 dollars per 1,000 credits with volume discounts. A survey team of 200 enumerators pays nothing extra for enumerators, which makes it dramatically cheaper than seat-priced alternatives for large short-lived fieldwork and more expensive for a small team collecting high volumes continuously. Buyers are research institutions, impact evaluation organisations, NGOs and government statistics units, mostly working in low-connectivity settings.

What people use it for

A household survey with 200 enumerators across a country where paying per seat would cost more than the fieldwork
An impact evaluation that needs audio auditing and timing metadata to prove interviews were conducted as reported
A panel study revisiting the same households annually and needing offline case assignment to find them again
A statistics unit that must keep data inside a specific region and produce a SOC 2 report for its funder

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 SurveyCTO.

Pricing is by submission volume, forms and storage rather than by users, so a small team running continuous high-volume collection can pay more than a 200-person survey team that runs for six weeks
Forms are authored in XLSForm spreadsheet syntax, which is precise and versionable but has a real learning curve, and organisations without someone comfortable in it stall at form design
Overage is charged at 100 US dollars per 1,000 extra submissions, which is easy to trigger on the Basic tier at 5,000 a month and produces surprise invoices during an active field round
Server region selection only appears on the Pro tier and a custom GDPR data processing agreement only on Advanced, so European data protection requirements push the price to at least 315 and often 630 dollars a month regardless of volume
It is built for structured research fieldwork, not for business process forms, so it has no dispatch, no invoicing and no formatted document output, and a field service business would be buying the wrong tool

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of SurveyCTO

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.

SurveyCTOvs
REDCap
REDCap: If you are at an institution with a REDCap consortium licence and your work is clinical or academic rather than field survey
SurveyCTOvs
Fulcrum
Fulcrum: If the geospatial output and asset inspection workflow matter more than research data quality controls
SurveyCTOvs
Jotform
Jotform: If your forms are simple, online and do not need offline collection or enumerator quality auditing

Pricing

What SurveyCTO costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Community

Free

Permanent free subscription for testing and training
10 forms
200 monthly submissions
200 MB storage
Not intended for production fieldwork

Basic

$225 /mo

Billed annually, 250 USD month to month
100 forms
10 GB storage
5,000 monthly submissions
Unlimited users and devices
24/7 support

Pro

$315 /mo

Billed annually, 350 USD month to month
500 forms
25 GB storage
10,000 monthly submissions
Server region selection
Annual SOC 2 report access

Advanced

$630 /mo

Billed annually, 700 USD month to month
Unlimited forms, storage and submissions
Advanced offline case management
Custom GDPR data processing agreement

Enterprise

On request

Custom specification
Dedicated success team
Custom training
Quoted

Capabilities

Features

Offline collection
Forms completed on Android and iOS with no connectivity and encrypted on the device
XLSForm authoring
Forms written in a spreadsheet using ODK syntax rather than a drag and drop builder
Automated quality checks
Rules that flag implausible values, short interviews and suspicious enumerator patterns during fieldwork
Audio auditing
Ambient audio recorded during selected questions to verify interviews actually happened
Case management
Longitudinal panel tracking with offline case assignment on the Advanced tier
Random assignment
Randomisation supported inside the form for experimental designs
Server region selection
Data residency chosen on the Pro tier and above

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.

Do I pay per enumerator?

No. Users and devices are unlimited on every paid tier. You pay for monthly submissions, forms and storage.

Is there a free version?

Yes, a permanent community subscription with 10 forms, 200 monthly submissions and 200 MB of storage, intended for testing and training rather than production.

What happens if I exceed my submissions?

Extra credits are 100 US dollars per 1,000, with discounts of 20 per cent or more at volume. Plan the tier around your peak field month, not your average.

Can I choose where the data is stored?

Only on Pro and above. If data residency matters, budget for at least the Pro tier.

Keep looking

Where to go from SurveyCTO

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for SurveyCTO, 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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