Survey Solutions vs SurveyJS

Survey Solutions is free survey data collection software developed in the World Bank’s Data group. Its Questionnaire Designer supports multilingual forms, collaboration, online and tablet testing, compiler guidance, and formatted PDF output. Survey questions can include nested rosters, answer piping, linked or cascading questions, barcodes, pictures, audio, and external sensor data. Macros, calculated variables, lookup tables, validation, and paradata monitoring provide ways to control interview flow and check data quality. Survey modes include offline tablet interviews, browser-based surveys, phone interviews, and mixed-mode studies. GIS tools support collecting location, distance, and area data, geofencing, and offline interviewer guidance using satellite images and GPS. REST APIs support custom dashboards, reports, external database connections, and automated quality controls; its R package covers almost all API calls. Server components can be deployed on premises or in the cloud using documented Docker, AWS, Azure, and Windows Server options. The free server and tablet components are available as downloads, with no use restrictions for public or private companies. Users provide their own tablets and server hosting. Self-hosted administrators handle backups, updates, and ongoing maintenance. The software is listed for Android, API, Linux, self-hosted, web, and Windows.

SurveyJS is a set of JavaScript components for building surveys, quizzes, polls, and web forms, then storing responses and displaying results. Its free, open-source Form Library renders JSON-based forms in React, Angular, Vue, and plain JavaScript applications. It supports more than 20 question types, conditional logic, validation, multilingual forms, and right-to-left languages. Survey Creator provides a drag-and-drop designer that generates JSON schemas. Dashboard displays results through interactive charts, tables, word clouds, and aggregated statistics; PDF Generator creates editable PDF forms and exports submissions. The libraries run in a customer’s application and can connect to any backend or database. SurveyJS says it does not access, process, or store survey data; customers choose and manage their own data storage and protections. React, Angular, and Vue have native support, while jQuery uses a wrapper over the Vanilla JavaScript version. The Form Library is free, but Survey Creator, Dashboard, and PDF Generator require commercial licenses for production use. Commercial developer licenses are required for each developer working with those product APIs or implementing integrations.