SurveyKing

SurveyKing is a deployable platform for surveys, exams, and assessments, suited to researchers and organizations with varied evaluation needs. Its clearest advantage is the choice between free self-managed use and private enterprise deployment; the latter comes with custom pricing.

Overview

The product spans surveys, online exams, question-bank practice, courses, voting, 360-degree evaluations, assessments, quick lookup, and template printing. That makes it a candidate for teams combining research, learning, and evaluation rather than seeking only a simple form builder. Individuals, learners, researchers, and small projects can use the open-source community edition, but must deploy and maintain it themselves.

For organizations, private deployment offers control over data in their own environment, including intranet and domestic IT infrastructure options. The trade-off is a sales-led purchase rather than a published price, and support terms differ by edition.

Key features

Survey tools include more than 40 question types, visual logic and DSL, quotas, validation, and formula calculations. Branching and controls make it more appropriate for structured research and assessments than a basic questionnaire tool. Excel and CSV exports provide familiar ways to work with collected results.

AI assistance covers creation, survey checking, DSL generation, grading support, and statistical analysis reports. Compatible OpenAI API model services can be configured by an administrator, which gives organizations a configurable route to these capabilities rather than a fixed built-in model choice.

Integrations include WeCom, DingTalk, Feishu, SSO/OAuth2, WeChat public accounts, Tencent Cloud FaceID, Tencent or Alibaba Cloud SMS, SMTP email, S3-compatible storage, and standard APIs. Enterprise security features include TLS 1.3 transport encryption, AES-256 storage encryption, fine-grained RBAC, and operation audit logs. Support for Dameng and Kingbase databases, TongWeb application server, TongRDS cache middleware, and TongTHS clusters is relevant to organizations using that infrastructure stack.

Pricing

The community edition, 开源免费版, costs free for permanent use under the MIT open-source license. It includes self-deployment and maintenance, 12+ basic question types, and community support. It suits individuals and smaller projects able to handle their own operations, but its question-type selection and support are narrower than the enterprise offer.

私有部署版 has custom pricing, billed as a one-time purchase for permanent use. It includes the full enterprise feature set, installation package delivery, domestic IT and intranet deployment, plus three months of free ticket support and feature updates. A two-week local deployment trial enables all features and retains trial data. This is the more direct fit for an organization wanting a private installation without a perpetual support commitment.

源码授权版 also has custom pricing and is a one-time purchase for permanent use. It adds 100% complete source code and commercial authorization to the enterprise feature set, with six months of free feature updates. Choose it when source-code access and commercial licensing matter; the stated update period is longer than the private deployment edition's.

企业定制版 is custom-priced according to delivery method and customization needs. It includes enterprise features and custom development and implementation services, with installation package or source-code delivery. That makes it the option for organizations whose requirements call for tailored delivery, rather than a fixed deployment package.

Platforms

SurveyKing supports API, Linux, self-hosted, web, and Windows. The self-hosted and Linux options align with its deployment-control emphasis; the product also supports web access and API integration.

Who it's for

Choose the community edition if you are an individual, learner, researcher, or small project willing to manage deployment and maintenance in exchange for a free, open-source platform. Organizations needing private or intranet deployment, stronger governance, integrations, and enterprise support should consider the paid editions. It is a weaker fit for buyers who require straightforward published business pricing or prefer not to operate their own deployment.

Pros and cons

• Pro: One platform covers surveys, exams, courses, voting, and assessment workflows, so teams can handle several evaluation tasks in the same product.
• Pro: Free permanent use under MIT licensing makes self-managed use accessible, while enterprise editions add private deployment and organizational data control.
• Pro: Broad survey controls, AI assistance, exports, and integrations support more involved collection and analysis workflows.
• Con: The free edition requires self-deployment and maintenance and provides community support, which may not suit teams seeking a managed service.
• Con: Paid editions use custom pricing, so organizations cannot compare their purchase cost from a published price.
• Con: The private deployment edition's free ticket support and feature updates run for three months; buyers needing source code get six months of updates with a different custom-priced edition.

Alternatives

For a list of options, see AI Survey Generators. Choose Typeform instead if its ongoing free plan suits your needs: it includes unlimited forms but caps responses at 10 per month. Alchemer is another freemium alternative, with a free plan and paid tiers described in annual response volumes.

AkioSurvey may suit a small free use case: its plan allows 10 surveys, 10 questions, and 200 responses per month, with three AI-generated surveys. Synesis Survey offers a free plan capped at one survey and 20 responses per month, with basic question types, email support, and basic analytics.

Lumor is worth considering for a tightly capped free workspace: one user, three studies and 100 responses per month, plus two AI reports per study. Surbee offers a student plan with 2,000 credits per month and automatic renewal at $20/mo unless canceled. aQuality MR is another freemium option.

onlinesurvey.ai may be a better fit for a hosted free-plan workflow: it allows 250 responses per month, 10 AI credits, five active surveys, and one seat, with no email campaigns.

Verdict

SurveyKing is best for researchers and organizations that need survey, exam, and assessment workflows with self-hosting or private deployment control. Its free MIT community edition is the main reason to start here; the main reason to look elsewhere is the operational burden of self-management or the uncertainty of custom-priced enterprise editions.