Open-source in-product surveys: free forever if you run it yourself
Formbricks is an open-source experience-management and survey platform from Kiel, Germany, whose AGPLv3 core can be self-hosted with Docker for unlimited use, and which runs link surveys, website surveys, and behavior-triggered in-app surveys with attribute-based targeting, iOS and Android SDKs, and a GDPR-compliant EU-hosted cloud option starting at a 250-response free tier.
Overview
Formbricks is the only product in this category that is not primarily a form builder. Its centre of gravity is the in-product survey: a micro-survey that fires inside your application when a specific user cohort does a specific thing, targeted by event triggers and custom attributes rather than blasted to a list. Link surveys and website surveys are supported too, but they exist alongside the in-app case, not instead of it. That makes Formbricks a Qualtrics-shaped tool at a startup-shaped price, and it puts it in a different buying conversation from Tally, Youform, or Paperform.
The second thing that separates it is the license. The Formbricks core is AGPLv3 and the whole thing can be run with Docker on your own infrastructure, which means unlimited responses, unlimited surveys, and complete data ownership at the cost of running a service. A set of enterprise modules (team management and access roles, SSO, audit logs, white-labeling) lives in a separate directory under a commercial Enterprise License, with a trial license available for building a proof of concept. There is no free self-hosted enterprise tier, so self-hosters get the survey engine free and pay if they need the org-management layer.
The hosted cloud is where the startup-fit question gets sharper. The free Hobby tier gives 250 responses a month in one workspace with full API access, which is fine for validating the product but not for running a research programme. The next step is Pro at 74 dollars a month for 2,000 responses and three workspaces, then Scale at 325 dollars for 5,000 responses. Those are the highest prices in this category by a wide margin, and they are exactly why the self-hosted path is the one most startups should be evaluating. Formbricks GmbH was founded in Kiel in 2022 by Matti Nannt and Johannes Dancker, raised pre-seed funding from OSS Capital, and was part of the first GitHub Accelerator cohort.
Best for
Product, growth, and research teams at startups that need surveys triggered inside their own application, targeted by user attributes, and teams with strict data-residency or data-ownership requirements who would rather self-host an AGPLv3 survey engine than send customer feedback to a US SaaS vendor.
Not the right fit for
- Teams that just need a form; the cloud free tier caps at 250 responses a month and Pro starts at 74 dollars, where Tally and Youform are free at any volume and Fillout gives you 1,000 responses free.
- Companies with no engineering capacity; the in-app value depends on installing an SDK and sending user attributes and events, and self-hosting means owning a Docker deployment, a database, and upgrades.
- Businesses that need payments, bookings, quotes, or e-signature in a form; Formbricks does research, not commerce, and Paperform or Fillout cover that ground.
- Anyone who reads open source as free without conditions; AGPLv3 obliges you to publish modifications you distribute, and the org-management features are commercially licensed regardless of where you run them.
- Small teams whose response volume is high but whose budget is not, unless they are willing to self-host, in which case Formbricks becomes one of the cheapest options in the category.
How it works
- 1
You choose a survey channel. Link surveys get a shareable URL and can be embedded in an email; website surveys appear to visitors matching your rules; app surveys run inside your product for identified users. The same survey editor and question types serve all three, so a question set can be reused across channels.
- 2
For in-app and website surveys you install the SDK or snippet (JavaScript for web, native SDKs for iOS and Android) and start sending user identity, custom attributes, and events. Formbricks then triggers a survey when a defined action occurs for a user matching a defined segment: a user on the growth plan who just completed onboarding, for example.
- 3
The survey itself is built from the standard question library with conditional logic, hidden fields, partial-response capture, and file uploads. Higher tiers add quota management, spam protection, workflows, and AI translations for multi-language deployment.
- 4
Responses flow into a central feedback dashboard for individual and aggregate analysis, and out via the API, custom webhooks, and integrations. On paid tiers, responses can be tied back to an identified contact and segment so the answer sits next to the attributes of the person who gave it, which is the whole reason a product team picks this class of tool over a link form.
- 5
Self-hosting swaps the cloud for a Docker deployment on your own infrastructure. The AGPLv3 core includes the survey engine, question types, logic, and API without response limits; the enterprise modules require a commercial license key.
Feature breakdown
24 features in 5 modulesSurvey channels
Three delivery modes from one editor, which is the product's core differentiator.- In-app surveys
- Micro-surveys that fire inside your own product for identified users, triggered by events and filtered by segment; this is the capability none of the other tools in this category offer.
- Website surveys
- Surveys shown to visitors on a public site based on targeting rules, for pre-signup research and pricing-page feedback.
- Link surveys
- Standard shareable-URL surveys, embeddable in email, which is where Formbricks overlaps with conventional form builders.
- Shared question library
- All question types, conditional logic, hidden fields, partial responses, and file uploads work across every channel, including on the free Hobby tier.
Targeting and segmentation
The part that makes it a research platform rather than a form tool.- Event-based triggering
- Fire a survey at the moment a user does something meaningful (finishes onboarding, cancels, hits a limit) rather than sending it days later by email.
- Attribute-based segmentation
- Pre-segment audiences by custom attributes you send from your app, so a question reaches only the cohort it applies to. A Pro-tier feature.
- Respondent identification
- Tie a response to a known contact rather than an anonymous submission, available from the Pro tier.
- Contact and segment management
- Maintain contacts and reusable segments inside Formbricks so targeting rules are defined once and reused across surveys.
- Quota management
- Scale-tier controls to stop collecting once a segment hits its target sample, which matters for structured research rather than open feedback.
Open source and self-hosting
The economics that make Formbricks viable for a startup.- AGPLv3 core
- The survey engine, question types, logic, and API are open source under AGPLv3, free for personal and commercial use, with the obligation to publish your own modifications under the same license if you distribute them.
- Docker self-hosting
- The full application runs on your own infrastructure, which removes the response meter entirely and keeps customer feedback inside your own boundary.
- Enterprise Edition modules
- Team management and access roles, SSO, audit logs, and white-labeling live in a separately licensed /ee directory and require a paid Enterprise License even when self-hosted.
- Enterprise trial license
- A free Enterprise Edition trial license is available for building a fully functioning proof of concept before committing to a commercial agreement.
- Public codebase
- Development happens in the open on GitHub, which means auditable code, a visible roadmap, and the option to fork if the vendor's direction diverges from yours.
Developer surface
Built to be integrated, not just used.- Full API access on every tier
- The API is available on the free Hobby plan, not gated behind a paid tier the way Paperform gates its API.
- iOS and Android SDKs
- Native mobile SDKs on the Pro tier extend in-app surveys beyond the web into mobile products.
- Custom webhooks
- Push responses into your own systems on submission, a Pro-tier feature alongside the broader integration set.
- React and JavaScript libraries
- Client libraries for embedding the survey runtime into web applications, referenced directly on the marketing site.
Analysis, workflow, and governance
Where the higher cloud tiers earn their price, if you need them.- Feedback dashboard
- Centralized view for reading individual responses and aggregate results, including NPS scoring, without exporting first.
- AI labeling and feedback management
- Scale-tier automatic labeling of open-text feedback, which is the difference between collecting qualitative data and using it.
- Custom dashboards
- Scale-tier reporting views built around your own metrics rather than a fixed template.
- Email follow-ups
- Pro-tier automated follow-up emails triggered by a response.
- AI translations
- Pro-tier machine translation of surveys for multi-language deployment without maintaining parallel versions by hand.
- Two-factor authentication and spam protection
- Account security and response-quality controls arriving at the Scale tier, with SSO and audit logs in the enterprise modules.
Use cases
4 documentedProduct manager investigating churn
Cancellations are rising and the exit reason field is a free-text box nobody reads; an emailed survey a week later reaches almost nobody who actually churned.
An in-app survey fires the moment a user opens the cancellation flow, targeted at paying accounts only, and responses land tied to the contact record so the answer sits next to the account's plan and usage attributes.
Growth lead measuring onboarding
Activation drops between signup and first value, and the team is guessing at which step is the problem because the analytics show what happened but not why.
An event-triggered micro-survey asks the users who stall at that exact step, and AI labeling on the Scale tier groups the open-text answers into themes without someone reading several hundred responses by hand.
Engineering-led team with a data-residency requirement
Customer feedback contains personal data that legal will not let leave the company's own infrastructure, and every hosted survey vendor is a non-starter in the review.
The AGPLv3 core is deployed with Docker in the company's own environment, with unlimited responses and no vendor processing agreement to negotiate; only the org-management modules would ever require a commercial license.
Mobile product team running NPS
NPS is measured by email once a quarter, response rates are under five percent, and the numbers are not trusted enough to act on.
The iOS and Android SDKs deliver NPS inside the app at a moment of engagement, segmented by user attributes, which lifts response volume and lets the score be read by cohort rather than as one blended number.
Pricing
from $0 self-hosted (AGPLv3); $74/mo for the cloud Pro tierDual model: an AGPLv3 open-source core that is free to self-host with unlimited responses (enterprise modules separately licensed), alongside a response-metered EU-hosted cloud with three published tiers.
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted (Community Edition) | $0 AGPLv3, run on your own infrastructure |
The option most cost-sensitive startups should evaluate first, provided someone will own the deployment. |
| Hobby (cloud) | $0 per month |
Hosted in Frankfurt, Germany. Enough to validate the product, not enough to run a research programme. |
| Pro (cloud) | $74 per month (annual billing offers 2 months free) |
Unlimited seats is genuinely generous; the response allowance is not, and 74 dollars is the highest entry price in this category. |
| Scale (cloud) | $325 per month (annual discount available) |
|
Billing notes
- The self-hosted community edition has no response limit at all, which is the single most important pricing fact about Formbricks and is easy to miss on the pricing page.
- Cloud response allowances (250, 2,000, 5,000 per month) are the lowest per dollar in this category; the paid tiers offer opt-in dynamic overage handling rather than hard cutoffs.
- Annual billing on Pro is advertised as two months free, with a discount also available on Scale.
- Cloud team seats are unlimited from the Pro tier, so pricing scales on responses and workspaces rather than headcount.
- Enterprise modules (SSO, team roles, audit logs, white-labeling) sit under a commercial Enterprise License even for self-hosters; a free trial license is available for a proof of concept.
- The cloud is hosted in Frankfurt, Germany under GDPR, which is a substantive difference from the US-hosted alternatives in this category.
- Pricing current as of August 2026.
Value assessment: There are two Formbricks and they have opposite value profiles. Self-hosted, it is arguably the best deal in the whole category: an in-app survey engine with targeting, segmentation, and mobile SDKs for the cost of a container and a Postgres database, with no response meter and no data leaving your infrastructure. Hosted, it is the most expensive product here by a distance: 74 dollars for 2,000 responses is roughly what Fillout charges for unlimited, and Tally and Youform charge nothing at any volume. The honest read is that the cloud pricing is aimed at teams whose alternative is Qualtrics or Sprig rather than a form builder, and startups comparing on price should either self-host or accept that they are buying the in-app targeting, not the collection.
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- The only product in this category that runs behavior-triggered surveys inside your own application, targeted by user attributes and tied back to identified contacts.
- Genuine open source: an AGPLv3 core that self-hosts with Docker for unlimited responses, with development in the open on GitHub and the option to fork.
- Strong compliance posture for a company this small: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR with EU hosting in Frankfurt, CCPA alignment, and published DPA documentation.
- Full API access on every tier including the free one, plus native iOS and Android SDKs, which makes it the most developer-oriented option here.
- Unlimited team seats from the Pro tier upward, so a growing research or product team does not create a per-seat bill.
- Credible backing for an open-source project: pre-seed funding from OSS Capital and a place in the inaugural GitHub Accelerator cohort.
Limitations
- Cloud pricing is the least competitive in the category: 250 free responses a month, then 74 dollars for 2,000 and 325 dollars for 5,000.
- The valuable capabilities require engineering: installing SDKs, sending user attributes and events, and either operating a self-hosted deployment or paying cloud rates.
- Open source has boundaries that matter in practice: SSO, team roles, audit logs, and white-labeling are commercially licensed even for self-hosters, and AGPLv3 carries copyleft obligations on distributed modifications.
- Weak as a general-purpose form builder: no payments, no bookings, no PDF generation, no e-signature, and a thinner template and theming story than Paperform or Youform.
- Segmentation, respondent identification, and mobile SDKs all sit behind the Pro tier, so the free cloud plan does not demonstrate the product's actual differentiator.
- Small vendor with a young commercial model; self-hosting mitigates continuity risk, but cloud customers are betting on a pre-seed-stage German GmbH.
Head-to-head comparisons
4 alternativesFormbricks vs Tally
from EUR 20/mo (Pro, billed monthly; yearly billing gives 2 months free)These barely compete. Tally is a free, unlimited form builder for collection that happens on a link or an embed; Formbricks is a survey platform for research that happens inside your product, with targeting, segmentation, and SDKs. A startup can reasonably run both: Tally for signups, applications, and public forms at zero cost, Formbricks self-hosted for in-app feedback. If you are choosing one and your surveys go out by link, choose Tally.
Full Formbricks vs Tally comparisonFormbricks vs Fillout
from $15/mo (Starter, billed monthly; $180/yr annually)Fillout is the operational front end, Formbricks the research instrument. Fillout routes submissions, writes to databases, generates documents, and books meetings, with SOC 2 and unlimited seats at 15 to 75 dollars; Formbricks triggers surveys on user behavior, segments by attributes, and can be self-hosted for free. Cloud-to-cloud, Fillout is far better value for collection; nothing in Fillout replaces in-app survey targeting.
Full Formbricks vs Fillout comparisonFormbricks vs Paperform
from $24/mo (Essentials, billed monthly; $288/yr)Opposite ends of the same category. Paperform is a closed-source commerce-oriented builder for selling through designed pages: quotes, bookings, payments, signatures. Formbricks is an open-source research platform with no commerce features at all and a self-hosting path Paperform does not offer. Choose Paperform to take money from customers, Formbricks to understand them, and note that Formbricks gives API access away free where Paperform holds it until the 49-dollar tier.
Full Formbricks vs Paperform comparisonFormbricks vs PostHog
from $0 (generous monthly free tiers; pay only past the allowance)There is real overlap, since PostHog also runs in-app surveys alongside product analytics, session replay, and feature flags on a generous usage-based free tier. If you already run PostHog, its surveys probably cover your needs without a new vendor. Formbricks earns a place when surveys are the point rather than a side feature: deeper question types, quota management, AI feedback labeling, and an AGPLv3 self-hosting path focused entirely on experience management.
Full Formbricks vs PostHog comparisonImplementation & onboarding
- Setup time
- A link survey is a same-hour job on the cloud. In-app surveys take an engineering sprint: install the SDK, decide which attributes and events to send, and instrument them. Self-hosting adds a Docker deployment, a Postgres database, and an upgrade routine.
- Learning curve
- Moderate to high, and the highest of these five products. The survey editor is straightforward; the targeting model (contacts, attributes, segments, event triggers) requires the team to think like a product-analytics user rather than a form builder.
- Onboarding
- Self-serve on Hobby and Pro, with documentation covering both cloud and self-hosted deployment. A free Enterprise Edition trial license is available for teams building a self-hosted proof of concept before licensing.
- Migration notes
- There is no importer from other survey tools; question sets are rebuilt. Migration between Formbricks cloud and self-hosted is the more interesting path, and because the core is open source you are not locked into the hosted product if pricing changes.
Platform, API & security
- Platforms
- Cloud (EU, hosted in Frankfurt)Self-hosted via DockerWeb SDK and React libraryiOS and Android SDKs (Pro)Link surveys and email embeds
- API
- Full REST API access on every tier including the free Hobby plan, plus custom webhooks on Pro; the entire core is open source on GitHub under AGPLv3.
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type IIISO 27001GDPR compliant with EU (Frankfurt) hostingCCPA alignmentDPA documentation provided
- Data residency
- EU (Frankfurt, Germany) for the cloud; self-hosting places data wherever you deploy it, which is the main reason regulated teams choose Formbricks.
- SSO
- Part of the commercially licensed Enterprise Edition modules, required even for self-hosted deployments.
- Security notes
- Two-factor authentication and spam protection arrive at the Scale tier; audit logs and team access roles are enterprise-licensed. The combination of SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and a self-hosting option gives buyers two independent routes through a security review, which no other product in this category offers.
Support & resources
- Channels
- Email and in-app support on cloud plansGitHub issues for the open-source coreDocumentation for cloud and self-hosted deployment
- Documentation
- Comprehensive documentation split between product use and self-hosting, including deployment, licensing, and SDK integration guides.
- Community
- Active open-source community around the GitHub repository, which was part of the inaugural GitHub Accelerator cohort; contributions and issues are handled in public.
Company
- Founded
- 2022
- Headquarters
- Kiel, Germany (Formbricks GmbH)
- Ownership
- Venture-backed (open-source specialist investor)
- Founders
- Matti Nannt, Johannes Dancker
- Employees
- Small; a pre-seed-stage open-source company rather than a scaled vendor
- Funding
- Pre-seed funding from OSS Capital, the fund focused on commercial open-source companies; Formbricks was also selected for the inaugural GitHub Accelerator cohort. Round size not disclosed.
Funding history
| Round | Amount | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-seed | Not disclosed | 2023 | Led by OSS Capital; the company was also part of the first GitHub Accelerator cohort. |
Timeline
- 2022Formbricks GmbH founded in Kiel, Germany by Matti Nannt and Johannes Dancker as an open-source alternative to proprietary survey platforms.
- 2023Raises pre-seed funding from OSS Capital and joins the inaugural GitHub Accelerator cohort; the AGPLv3 core establishes self-hosting as a first-class path.
- 2024In-app and website survey targeting matures with contacts, attribute-based segmentation, and event triggers, moving the product from form builder to experience management.
- 2025Compliance catches up with the positioning: SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 alongside GDPR-compliant EU hosting in Frankfurt, plus iOS and Android SDKs.
- 2026Cloud tiers settle at Hobby (250 responses), Pro (74 dollars, 2,000 responses) and Scale (325 dollars, 5,000 responses), with AI feedback labeling, quota management, and workflows on the top tier.
Integrations
- Custom webhooks
- Full REST API
- JavaScript and React libraries
- iOS SDK
- Android SDK
- Self-hosted Docker deployment
- Email embeds for link surveys
Frequently asked questions
10 questionsWhat is Formbricks?
Formbricks is an open-source survey and experience-management platform from Kiel, Germany. It runs link surveys, website surveys, and in-product surveys triggered by user behavior and targeted by attributes, and its AGPLv3 core can be self-hosted with Docker or used through an EU-hosted cloud.
Is Formbricks really free?
Self-hosted, yes: the AGPLv3 core is free for personal and commercial use with unlimited responses and surveys. The cloud has a free Hobby tier capped at 250 responses a month in one workspace. Enterprise modules such as SSO, team roles, audit logs, and white-labeling require a paid license in either deployment.
What license is Formbricks under?
The core is AGPLv3, which permits free commercial use but requires you to publish your complete code under the same license if you modify and distribute it. Code in the /apps/web/modules/ee directory is covered by a separate commercial Enterprise License and is not part of the open-source core.
How much does Formbricks cloud cost?
Hobby is free with 250 responses a month. Pro is 74 dollars a month for 2,000 responses across 3 workspaces, and Scale is 325 dollars a month for 5,000 responses across 5 workspaces, both with annual discounts and opt-in overage handling. Team seats are unlimited from Pro upward.
How is Formbricks different from a form builder like Tally?
Tally and similar tools collect responses from people who visit a link or an embed. Formbricks additionally fires surveys inside your own application at the moment a chosen user cohort takes a chosen action, ties responses to identified contacts, and segments by attributes you send from your product. That targeting is the reason to pay for it.
Can I self-host Formbricks?
Yes, with Docker on your own infrastructure. That removes response limits entirely and keeps customer feedback inside your boundary, which is why regulated and privacy-sensitive teams choose it. You still need a database, a deployment, and an upgrade process, and enterprise features need a commercial license key.
Is Formbricks compliant enough for a security review?
It is the strongest in this category on paper: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR with hosting in Frankfurt, CCPA alignment, and published DPA documentation. Self-hosting gives a second route through review for teams whose objection is to third-party processing at all.
Does Formbricks work on mobile apps?
Yes, through native iOS and Android SDKs available from the Pro tier, which extend in-app surveys and NPS beyond the web. Response rates on in-app mobile surveys are typically far higher than emailed equivalents, which is much of the argument for the product.
Formbricks or PostHog for in-app surveys?
If you already run PostHog, its built-in surveys will likely cover basic in-app feedback without adding a vendor. Formbricks makes sense when surveys are the primary job: richer question types, quota management, AI labeling of open-text feedback, contact and segment management, and an AGPLv3 self-hosting path dedicated to experience management.
Who is behind Formbricks?
Formbricks GmbH, founded in Kiel, Germany in 2022 by Matti Nannt and Johannes Dancker. It raised pre-seed funding from OSS Capital, the fund specializing in commercial open source, and was selected for the inaugural GitHub Accelerator cohort. It is a small company, which is part of the argument for self-hosting.
Editorial verdict
Formbricks is two products with one name, and buyers should be clear which one they are evaluating. Self-hosted, it is the best value in this category and possibly the only sensible choice for a team that needs in-product survey targeting but cannot send customer feedback to a US vendor: unlimited responses, an auditable AGPLv3 codebase, and mobile SDKs, for the price of running a container. Hosted, it is the most expensive option here, with 250 free responses and a 74-dollar Pro tier that buys less collection than Fillout's free plan. Nobody should buy Formbricks cloud as a form builder. Product teams that want to ask the right user the right question at the right moment inside their own app should look hard at it, and should probably run it themselves.
Written by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Awards, when shown, are judged against the published criteria in our methodology.
Awards & badges
1 heldFormbricks holds 1 award from the SaaSTracker editorial program. Badges may be displayed by the vendor; each embed links back to this profile.
Innovation · Forms & Surveys
“Open-source in-product surveys you can self-host free forever, bringing experience measurement into the codebase.”
<a href="https://saastracker.org/products/formbricks"><img src="https://saastracker.org/badges/embed/formbricks/innovation-summer-2026.svg" width="180" height="180" alt="Formbricks: Innovation, Forms & Surveys. SaaSTracker Summer 2026 Awards." /></a>
