head to head · open source
LimeSurvey vs moonshine
LimeSurvey has 3,787 GitHub stars, 1,130 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped yesterday. moonshine has 1,305 stars, 151 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. LimeSurvey leads on adoption by 190% (3,787 vs 1,305 stars). LimeSurvey is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; moonshine is written in PHP under MIT. LimeSurvey has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, moonshine 12%. LimeSurvey was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (php), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| LimeSurvey | moonshine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.8K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 151 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LimeSurvey if
- You weight community size — 3.8K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick moonshine if
- You want the moonshine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and moonshine fits your workflow better
About LimeSurvey
LimeSurvey: The world’s 1 open source survey platform It's what we love and do best since 2006... 🌐 Website · 🔮 Demo · 📚 Documentation · ⚙️ Request a feature · 🐛 Report a bug · 🗨️ Forums · 🗨️ Discord LimeSurvey is a free and open source online survey platfrom used by businesses of all sizes, professionals, academic institutions, teachers, students, governments, financial institutes, and Anja from HR (who is hiring and looking for a DevOps and Technical Support Engineer/Developer – drop her a Lime…) in 80+ countries worldwide. It offers features like conditional logic, question branching, customizable…
read the full LimeSurvey overview →
About moonshine
MoonShine Simple for beginners and powerful for experts: Administration panel for Laravel framework Hello, developer! 👋 Tired of boring, cookie cutter, or overly complex admin panels? Meet MoonShine — the admin panel you’ll love at first sight (and first prompt). Imagine having: ✅ A developer friend who specializes in admin panels, understands you halfway through a sentence, and builds the functionality you need quickly. ✅ A layout designer and UI/UX expert who can change the colors and style of your admin panel in just a minute to match any brand. ✅ A smart architecture that works not only with Laravel but far…
read the full moonshine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LimeSurvey or moonshine more popular?
LimeSurvey has 3,787 GitHub stars and moonshine has 1,305. LimeSurvey has the larger community by that measure.
Are LimeSurvey and moonshine free?
Both are open source. LimeSurvey has no licence declared in this registry, and moonshine is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between LimeSurvey and moonshine?
LimeSurvey is written in JavaScript and moonshine in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, LimeSurvey or moonshine?
Choose LimeSurvey if you want the larger community (3,787 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose moonshine if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.