Comparisons
How Jackpoll compares to the tools you already know
Four honest comparisons — Google Forms, Typeform, Mentimeter and SurveyMonkey — written around the things that rarely change: who owns the code, where the responses are processed, and what costs money.
| Property | Jackpoll | Google Forms | Typeform | Mentimeter | SurveyMonkey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | |||||
| Self-hosting | |||||
| Free without tiers | free | Depends on plan | Depends on plan | Depends on plan | |
| Unlimited responses | Depends on plan | Depends on plan | Depends on plan | ||
| Live word cloud | |||||
| Live quiz game | |||||
| Retention rules |
Structural properties only — no prices or plan limits, because those change without notice. Last reviewed July 2026.
The individual comparisons
What these comparisons do and do not claim
Comparison pages age badly, usually because they were written around prices and plan limits that changed a month later. These are written around structural properties instead: the licence, whether you can run the software yourself, where responses are processed, and whether the cost model has tiers at all. Those things move slowly, and they are usually what actually decides the question.
Where a competitor's feature is genuinely their core strength, the tables say so. Typeform's one-question-at-a-time format and Mentimeter's live presentation focus are good at what they do, and pretending otherwise would make the rest of the page less believable.
The part that stays the same
Whichever comparison you read, Jackpoll's side of the table does not change. It is open source, free without tiers, has no response caps, is hosted in the EU, and can be run on your own infrastructure with Docker. Every question type and every feature is available on every survey.
Where a comparison gets interesting is what that buys you in a specific situation — a school that cannot send pupil data to a third party, a conference that will not pay per participant, a research group whose ethics approval requires institutional hosting.
Open source
The full source is public and can be audited.
No tiers
Every feature on every survey, at no cost.
Self-hostable
Docker and Docker Swarm ready, on your own servers.
Frequently asked questions
- Are these comparisons impartial?
- They are written by the Jackpoll project, so they are not neutral — but they are factual. Each table sticks to verifiable structural properties, avoids prices and plan limits, and says where the other tool is the better choice.
- How often are they reviewed?
- Each table carries the date it was last reviewed. Because they avoid prices and plan-specific limits, they stay accurate far longer than a typical comparison page.
Keep reading
Related pages on the same topic.
Start building your survey today
Free, open source, and privacy-first. No credit card, no lock-in — create your first survey or quiz in minutes.