Should I self-host SurveyMonkey?
SurveyMonkey's $30/mo Advantage plan is the same job Formbricks does for a database's rent — and LimeSurvey exists when you need academic-grade question logic. Response caps stop being a pricing lever.
Benchmark datasets and SurveyMonkey's audience-buying panel
Brand familiarity for external respondents
surveys · question logic · response analysis · panels & sharing
* Percent of the subscription price. Your time is priced at the slider's rate — $0/h ("my homelab time is free and I love it") is a legitimate position. Every number is derived from the record, never hand-written. Price source, checked 2026-08-06.
Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).
# Formbricks — surveys; node app + postgres. Sidecar probe, generous first-boot window (migrations).
services:
formbricks:
image: formbricks/formbricks:latest
container_name: formbricks
restart: unless-stopped
depends_on:
formbricks-db:
condition: service_healthy
environment:
WEBAPP_URL: http://localhost:3005
DATABASE_URL: postgresql://formbricks:formbricks@formbricks-db:5432/formbricks
NEXTAUTH_URL: http://localhost:3005
NEXTAUTH_SECRET: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
ENCRYPTION_KEY: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
CRON_SECRET: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
ports:
- "3005:3000"
probe:
image: busybox:stable
network_mode: "service:formbricks"
depends_on:
- formbricks
command: sh -c 'while true; do sleep 30; done'
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "nc -z localhost 3000 || exit 1"]
interval: 5s
timeout: 5s
retries: 90
start_period: 60s
formbricks-db:
image: postgres:16-alpine
restart: unless-stopped
environment:
POSTGRES_USER: formbricks
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: formbricks
POSTGRES_DB: formbricks
volumes:
- formbricks-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U formbricks"]
interval: 5s
timeout: 5s
retries: 12
volumes:
formbricks-db:
Want a guided install instead? caniselfhostit.com/surveymonkey has AI-agent prompts that assume a bare machine — that's their half of the stool, and it's good.
FULL TIMED LOG
# SurveyMonkey — verdict log - **Date:** 2026-08-10 - **Verdict:** YES — worth it - **Protocol:** v1 (2GB reference env, Docker preinstalled, AI assistant: claude-code) ## Setup evidence (shared) - This verdict rides on the same replacement verified for `typeform-formbricks` — see `compose/typeform-formbricks.yml` and its log. ## The call SurveyMonkey's $30/mo Advantage plan is the same job Formbricks does for a database's rent — and LimeSurvey exists when you need academic-grade question logic. Response caps stop being a pricing lever.