{"site":{"name":"Koji","description":"AI-native customer research platform that helps teams conduct, analyze, and synthesize customer interviews at scale.","url":"https://www.koji.so","contentTypes":["blog","documentation"],"lastUpdated":"2026-08-04T08:52:08.836Z"},"content":[{"type":"blog","id":"9ecf7757-aaff-423b-8da4-e746993aecb8","slug":"open-source-user-research-tools-2026","title":"The 10 Best Open Source User Research Tools in 2026 (Licenses Actually Checked)","url":"https://www.koji.so/blog/open-source-user-research-tools-2026","summary":"Licence and repository data verified from the GitHub API on 3 August 2026 across ten open source user research tools. Genuinely open source: LimeSurvey (GNU GPL), Matomo (GPL-3.0, 21,737 stars), HeyForm (AGPL-3.0), QualCoder (LGPL-3.0) and Taguette (BSD-3-Clause). Open core, with enterprise features carved out under commercial licences: PostHog (37,457 stars, ee/ directory), Formbricks (12,707 stars, apps/web/modules/ee) and OpenReplay. Typebot (10,234 stars) uses FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0, a source-available licence that is not OSI-approved open source. SurveyJS survey-library is MIT but its Creator is commercial. No open-source project covers card sorting, participant panels, moderated interviews or AI-moderated interviews. Koji fills that gap at EUR29-79/month with credits charged only for conversations scoring 3+.","content":"Most articles about open source user research tools list features. This one reads the licence files.\n\nWe pulled the licence and repository data for every major tool in this category directly from GitHub on **3 August 2026**, and the results reframe the category: of the ten tools below, only **four are unambiguously open source across the entire product**. Three are **open core** — the enterprise features you need are carved out under a separate commercial licence. One, despite ranking everywhere for \"open source Typeform alternative,\" is **not open source at all**.\n\nThat matters, because the reason most teams choose open source for research is data control — and the features that make data control real (SSO, granular access control, audit logging) are exactly the ones vendors put behind the commercial wall.\n\n## Quick comparison: verified licences and repository data\n\n| Tool | Category | GitHub stars | Licence | Truly open source? |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| **PostHog** | Product analytics | 37,457 | MIT core + Enterprise Licence on `ee/` | **Open core** |\n| **Matomo** | Web analytics | 21,737 | GPL-3.0 | **Yes** |\n| **Formbricks** | Surveys / in-app | 12,707 | AGPLv3 + EE licence on `modules/ee` | **Open core** |\n| **OpenReplay** | Session replay | 12,396 | Open core, `ee/` carve-out | **Open core** |\n| **Typebot** | Conversational forms | 10,234 | **FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0** | **No — source-available** |\n| **HeyForm** | Forms | 8,911 | AGPL-3.0 | **Yes** |\n| **SurveyJS** | Survey libraries | 4,822 | MIT (library only) | **Library yes, Creator no** |\n| **LimeSurvey** | Surveys | 3,685 | GNU GPL | **Yes** |\n| **QualCoder** | Qualitative coding | 657 | LGPL-3.0 | **Yes** |\n| **Taguette** | Qualitative coding | 87 | BSD-3-Clause | **Yes** |\n\n*Star counts and licence data retrieved from the GitHub API on 3 August 2026. All repositories except Taguette had commits within the previous two weeks.*\n\n## The licence trap: three tiers pretending to be one\n\n### Tier 1 — genuinely open source\n\n**LimeSurvey**, **Matomo**, **HeyForm**, **QualCoder** and **Taguette** are what they say they are. LimeSurvey''s licence file opens with \"This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License,\" and its Community Edition gives you every core survey feature at no licence cost. Matomo is GPL-3.0 throughout.\n\nThere is still a catch worth knowing: LimeSurvey''s **hosted** tiers gate SSO, LDAP and SAML behind the custom-priced **Corporate** plan. The self-hosted Community Edition is free, but if you want managed hosting *and* enterprise authentication, you are back in a sales conversation.\n\n### Tier 2 — open core\n\n**Formbricks**, **PostHog** and **OpenReplay** all use the same architectural pattern, and all three state it openly in their root licence files.\n\nFormbricks: *\"All content that resides under the `apps/web/modules/ee` directory of this repository ... is licensed under the license defined in `apps/web/modules/ee/LICENSE`\"* — which is the **Formbricks Enterprise Edition (EE) licence**. PostHog uses an identical construction for its `ee/` directory, governed by the **PostHog Enterprise licence**. OpenReplay''s root licence states plainly: *\"OpenReplay monorepo uses multiple licenses.\"*\n\nThis is a legitimate and increasingly common business model, not a bait and switch. But you need to know which side of the line your requirements fall on **before** you commit engineering time to a deployment. If your security review demands SSO and role-based access control, the free tier is unlikely to satisfy it.\n\n### Tier 3 — source-available, not open source\n\n**Typebot** is licensed under the **Functional Source License, Version 1.1, Apache 2.0 Future License (FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0)**. FSL is a source-available licence: you can read and modify the code, but commercial-competition use is restricted, and it only converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release.\n\nFSL is **not an OSI-approved open source licence**. Typebot is an excellent conversational form builder and its licence is published transparently — but if you landed on it from a search for \"open source Typeform alternative,\" you should know that the licence does not mean what the search term implies. If a genuinely open licence is a procurement requirement, this one will fail review.\n\n## What each tool is actually good for\n\n### Surveys and forms\n\n**LimeSurvey** is the serious one. Twenty-plus years of development, 30+ question types, advanced branching logic, quota management, and 80+ languages. It is a PHP application backed by MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL. If you need a rigorous standalone questionnaire — academic research, regulated environments, complex conditional logic — nothing else on this list is close. Hosted plans start at **€34/month** (Basic, 1,000 responses/month), with Expert at €348/year (10,000 responses/year) and Business at €900/year (50,000 responses/year). All hosted prices include 21% VAT.\n\n**Formbricks** is the modern in-product option — link, email, pop-up and in-app surveys targeted at specific user segments, deployable with Docker. Its cloud tier is free for 250 responses/month, then **$74/month** for Pro (2,000 responses/month) and **$325/month** for Scale (5,000 responses/month). It is the closest open-source analogue to an in-app micro-survey tool. The docs comparison [Koji vs Formbricks](/docs/koji-vs-formbricks) covers where the two diverge.\n\n**HeyForm** (AGPL-3.0, 8,911 stars) is a clean, genuinely open form builder. **SurveyJS** is different in kind: the `survey-library` package is MIT-licensed and is a set of JavaScript components you embed in your own application — but the visual **Creator** is a commercial product. If you have engineers and want survey rendering inside your own app, SurveyJS is the right shape. If you want a product rather than a library, it is not.\n\nFor teams comparing these against commercial options, see our roundups of [the best survey software](/blog/best-survey-software-2026) and [Typeform alternatives](/blog/typeform-alternatives-2026).\n\n### Analytics and session replay\n\n**PostHog** is the most-starred tool on this list at 37,457 stars, combining product analytics, session replay, feature flags and experiments. **Matomo** (21,737 stars, GPL-3.0) is the privacy-focused Google Analytics replacement, and remains the strongest genuinely-open option for teams whose driver is GDPR rather than cost. **OpenReplay** does session replay with self-hosting so recordings never leave your infrastructure — a real advantage when replays capture personal data. See [the best session replay tools](/blog/best-session-replay-tools-2026) for how these compare with commercial platforms.\n\nAll three answer **what** users did. None answers **why**.\n\n### Qualitative analysis\n\nThis is the thinnest corner of the open-source landscape, and worth knowing about because commercial QDA software is expensive.\n\n**QualCoder** (LGPL-3.0, 657 stars) is actively maintained — it had commits on the day we checked — and handles coding of text, images, audio and video. **Taguette** (BSD-3-Clause) is the simpler, friendlier option for highlighting and tagging interview transcripts, though at 87 stars and a last commit in February 2026 it moves considerably more slowly.\n\nBoth are credible free alternatives to NVivo or ATLAS.ti for a solo researcher or a student. Neither offers AI-assisted theme detection, and both assume you already have transcripts. Our guide to [NVivo alternatives](/blog/nvivo-alternatives-2026) and [qualitative research tools](/blog/best-qualitative-research-tools-2026) covers the commercial and AI-native options.\n\n## What open source does not cover\n\nLay the ten tools out by research activity and a gap appears immediately:\n\n| Research activity | Open-source option? |\n|---|---|\n| Surveys and forms | **Yes** — LimeSurvey, Formbricks, HeyForm |\n| Behavioural analytics | **Yes** — PostHog, Matomo |\n| Session replay | **Yes** — OpenReplay |\n| Qualitative coding | **Yes** — QualCoder, Taguette |\n| Card sorting / tree testing | **No maintained option** |\n| Participant panel / recruitment | **No** — panels are inherently commercial |\n| **Moderated interviews** | **No** |\n| **AI-moderated interviews** | **No** |\n\nOpen source covers the parts of research that are **software problems**. It does not cover the parts that are **conversation problems**. You cannot self-host a participant panel, and until recently you could not self-host — or automate — the interview itself.\n\nThat is not an accident. A survey tool renders a form; an interview requires something that listens to an answer and decides what to ask next. That has only recently become buildable, and no open-source project has shipped it.\n\n## The real cost of \"free\"\n\nZero licence cost is not zero cost. Before choosing self-hosting for a research stack, budget honestly for:\n\n- **Infrastructure** — a server, a database, object storage for recordings, plus backups you have actually tested.\n- **Engineering time** — deployment, upgrades, and security patches. LimeSurvey self-hosting specifically requires a server, PHP familiarity, and comfort with configuration files.\n- **Compliance ownership** — self-hosting moves GDPR responsibility to you. It does not remove it. You now own the retention schedule, the deletion requests and the breach plan. See [GDPR-compliant AI user research](/docs/gdpr-compliant-ai-user-research) and [research data residency](/docs/research-data-residency-international-transfers) for what that actually involves.\n- **The enterprise licence anyway** — if you need SSO, you will likely end up paying for one of the commercial tiers on top of the hosting you are already running.\n\nTeams often find the honest comparison is not \"free versus $74/month\" but \"$74/month versus a server plus several engineer-days a year plus the compliance burden.\" Our roundup of [free user research tools](/blog/best-free-user-research-tools-2026) covers the forever-free commercial plans that avoid both.\n\n## Where Koji fits\n\nKoji is not open source, and we will not pretend otherwise. What it does is fill the gap the table above exposes: **the conversation itself**.\n\nKoji runs **AI-moderated voice and text interviews**. The AI conducts the session, follows up in the moment on vague or contradictory answers, and probes for reasoning the way a skilled researcher would — with no moderator bias and no scheduling. It then produces **automatic thematic analysis** across every transcript and a shareable report in one click. No open-source project on this list does any part of that.\n\nIt also does what most of these tools split across three deployments. Instead of a survey tool plus an analytics tool plus a QDA tool — three servers, three upgrade cycles, three sets of GDPR obligations — Koji combines six [structured question types](/docs/structured-questions-guide) (open_ended, scale, single_choice, multiple_choice, ranking, yes_no) with open conversation in a single study, so the number and the reason arrive together.\n\nOn cost, the comparison is more even than you would expect. Koji Insights is **€29/month for 29 credits** and Interviews is **€79/month for 79 credits**. A text conversation costs 1 credit, a voice interview 3, and a report refresh 5 — so €79 buys roughly **26 AI-moderated voice interviews a month**. And **only conversations scoring 3 or higher on a quality gate consume credits**, so junk responses do not bill you. That is comparable to Formbricks Pro at $74/month, except you are getting moderated interviews rather than a form, with no server to run and no compliance burden to absorb.\n\nFor teams whose driver is genuinely data sovereignty rather than budget, the right answer may well be LimeSurvey or Matomo, and we would not argue. For teams whose driver is understanding customers faster, [enterprise security and SOC 2 posture](/docs/enterprise-security-ai-research-platforms) is worth reading alongside this list — a well-run vendor is often a better privacy outcome than a self-hosted deployment nobody has patched in eight months.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is the best open source user research tool in 2026?\nIt depends on the activity. For rigorous standalone surveys, **LimeSurvey** (GNU GPL, free self-hosted Community Edition) is the strongest genuinely open option. For in-product surveys, **Formbricks**. For privacy-first analytics, **Matomo** (GPL-3.0). For qualitative coding, **QualCoder** (LGPL-3.0). There is no open-source option for moderated or AI-moderated interviews, card sorting, or participant panels.\n\n### Is Typebot open source?\nNo. Typebot is licensed under the **Functional Source License, Version 1.1, Apache 2.0 Future License (FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0)**, which is a source-available licence, not an OSI-approved open source licence. It restricts competing commercial use and converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. Typebot is a strong conversational form builder, but it will fail a procurement requirement that specifies open source.\n\n### What does \"open core\" mean for tools like PostHog and Formbricks?\nIt means the main codebase is open source but specific directories are carved out under a commercial licence. PostHog''s root licence reserves its `ee/` directory under the PostHog Enterprise Licence; Formbricks does the same for `apps/web/modules/ee` under the Formbricks EE Licence. Typically the enterprise-gated features are SSO, granular access control and audit logging — precisely what security reviews require — so check which side of that line your requirements fall on before deploying.\n\n### Is self-hosting actually cheaper than a SaaS research tool?\nOften not, once you count everything. Zero licence cost still means paying for servers, storage, backups, upgrades and security patches, plus engineering time. Self-hosting also transfers full GDPR responsibility to you — retention, deletion requests and breach handling. Compared with a €29–79/month SaaS plan, a self-hosted deployment plus several engineer-days a year frequently costs more in total.\n\n### Is there an open source alternative to UserTesting or Dovetail?\nNot a complete one. You can approximate parts of the stack — OpenReplay for session replay, QualCoder or Taguette for transcript coding, LimeSurvey for surveys — but no open-source project provides moderated interviews, a participant panel, or AI-driven thematic analysis. Those remain commercial capabilities.\n\n### Can I run AI-moderated interviews with open source tools?\nNo. As of August 2026 there is no open-source project that conducts AI-moderated research interviews. Survey tools render forms and branch on answers; they do not listen to a response and decide what to ask next. Koji does this with AI voice and text interviews, automatic thematic analysis and one-click reports, starting at €29/month with 10 free credits to try.\n\n## Get the part open source cannot give you\n\nOpen source is genuinely excellent for surveys, analytics and transcript coding — and if data sovereignty is your driver, LimeSurvey and Matomo deserve a serious look. Just read the licence file before you commit, because \"open source\" in this category means three different things, and one of them means \"not open source.\"\n\nWhat no repository on this list can give you is the conversation: someone asking a good follow-up question at the moment a customer says something surprising.\n\n**[Try Koji free](https://www.koji.so/signup)** with 10 credits, no credit card required. Launch a study in minutes, let the AI moderator run voice interviews at any scale, and get themes and a shareable report automatically — from question to insight in hours, not weeks, with no research expertise required.\n","category":"Comparisons","lastModified":"2026-08-03T03:21:47.386+00:00","metaTitle":"10 Best Open Source User Research Tools 2026 (Licences Verified)","metaDescription":"We checked the LICENSE file of every major open source user research tool. Most are open-core, Typebot is source-available only, and none can run an interview. Verified GitHub data.","keywords":["open source user research tools","open source survey tools","self-hosted user research","open source ux research software","limesurvey vs formbricks","open source typeform alternative","self-hosted survey tool"],"aiSummary":"Licence and repository data verified from the GitHub API on 3 August 2026 across ten open source user research tools. Genuinely open source: LimeSurvey (GNU GPL), Matomo (GPL-3.0, 21,737 stars), HeyForm (AGPL-3.0), QualCoder (LGPL-3.0) and Taguette (BSD-3-Clause). Open core, with enterprise features carved out under commercial licences: PostHog (37,457 stars, ee/ directory), Formbricks (12,707 stars, apps/web/modules/ee) and OpenReplay. Typebot (10,234 stars) uses FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0, a source-available licence that is not OSI-approved open source. SurveyJS survey-library is MIT but its Creator is commercial. No open-source project covers card sorting, participant panels, moderated interviews or AI-moderated interviews. Koji fills that gap at EUR29-79/month with credits charged only for conversations scoring 3+.","aiKeywords":["open source research tools","self-hosted survey software","software licensing","data sovereignty","GDPR research compliance"],"aiContentType":"comparison","faqItems":[{"answer":"It depends on the activity. For rigorous standalone surveys, LimeSurvey (GNU GPL, free self-hosted Community Edition) is the strongest genuinely open option. For in-product surveys, Formbricks. For privacy-first analytics, Matomo (GPL-3.0). For qualitative coding, QualCoder (LGPL-3.0). There is no open-source option for moderated or AI-moderated interviews, card sorting, or participant panels.","question":"What is the best open source user research tool in 2026?"},{"answer":"No. Typebot is licensed under the Functional Source License, Version 1.1, Apache 2.0 Future License (FSL-1.1-Apache-2.0), which is a source-available licence rather than an OSI-approved open source licence. It restricts competing commercial use and converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. It is a capable conversational form builder, but it will fail a procurement requirement that specifies open source.","question":"Is Typebot open source?"},{"answer":"It means the main codebase is open source but specific directories are carved out under a commercial licence. PostHog's root licence reserves its ee/ directory under the PostHog Enterprise Licence, and Formbricks does the same for apps/web/modules/ee under the Formbricks EE Licence. The enterprise-gated features are typically SSO, granular access control and audit logging — exactly what security reviews require — so confirm which side of that line your requirements fall on before deploying.","question":"What does open core mean for tools like PostHog and Formbricks?"},{"answer":"Often not, once you count everything. Zero licence cost still means paying for servers, storage, backups, upgrades and security patches, plus engineering time. Self-hosting also transfers full GDPR responsibility to you, including retention schedules, deletion requests and breach handling. Against a EUR29-79/month SaaS plan, a self-hosted deployment plus several engineer-days a year often costs more in total.","question":"Is self-hosting actually cheaper than a SaaS research tool?"},{"answer":"Not a complete one. You can approximate parts of the stack — OpenReplay for session replay, QualCoder or Taguette for transcript coding, LimeSurvey for surveys — but no open-source project provides moderated interviews, a participant panel, or AI-driven thematic analysis. Those remain commercial capabilities.","question":"Is there an open source alternative to UserTesting or Dovetail?"},{"answer":"No. As of August 2026 there is no open-source project that conducts AI-moderated research interviews. Survey tools render forms and branch on answers; they do not listen to a response and decide what to ask next. Koji provides AI-moderated voice and text interviews with automatic thematic analysis and one-click reports, starting at EUR29/month with 10 free credits to try.","question":"Can I run AI-moderated interviews with open source tools?"}],"relatedTopics":["open source","self-hosting","survey tools","data sovereignty","qualitative analysis","product analytics"]}],"pagination":{"total":1,"returned":1,"offset":0}}