Hi all,
I wanted to share this project that might be relevant here.
SurveyJS is a set of open-source JavaScript libraries for building forms and surveys. It’s not a hosted service - you integrate it into your own app (React/Angular/Vue) and keep all data on your own backend.
What it offers:
- JSON-driven forms (easy to store, version, and reuse)
- Drag-and-drop form builder (Survey Creator)
- No vendor lock-in - everything runs client-side, all libraries are open-source on GitHub
- Works with React, Angular, Vue, or vanilla JS
- MIT-licensed form rendering library
It’s more of a toolkit than a ready-to-use platform, but that also means you can fully self-host and customize everything.
Would love to hear if anyone here has built (or is building) their own form/survey systems - curious how you approached it.
Link: https://surveyjs.io/ GitHub: https://github.com/surveyjs
This is what I call junk open source. They use the open source label, but it’s not really open source in spirit. The license is restrictive and I’d recommend against using any such software in favor of something that’s actually, properly open source. If you’re bothering to self host, I feel like this freedom is important to most users.
Also, I think this is an advertisement and should be removed.
Just to clarify, SurveyJS uses a mixed licensing model. The core Form Library is MIT-licensed, while other components (like Survey Creator, Dashboard, and PDF Generator) are commercial. All source code is available to review and fork is needed. The team behind the project is transparent that not everything is released under a permissive license.
I appreciate this approach won’t suit everyone, particularly those looking for fully permissive or copyleft solutions across the entire stack, and that’s completely fair.
As for the post, the intention was to share a tool that aligns with self-hosting principles (no data lock-in, runs on your own backend), rather than to advertise.
Thsnks!
deleted by creator
Yeah, the example repositories’ license files explicitly state:
Please note that the Survey Creator component is proprietary software and requires a developer license to be integrated and used in your own application.
If the Survey Creator component is the part everything else is using to make the magic happen, then it’s definitely not open source
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters LTS Long Term Support software version LXC Linux Containers NAS Network-Attached Storage SSD Solid State Drive mass storage VPN Virtual Private Network
5 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 9 acronyms.
[Thread #201 for this comm, first seen 30th Mar 2026, 13:30] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
There’s no link to it
added the link. thank you!
So the builder isn’t actually open source, only the renderer?
The form builder is open-source too, all libraries are: https://github.com/surveyjs You can try it out here without registration: https://surveyjs.io/create-free-survey (it’s a demo)
Most of the repos, including the creator, dashboard, and analytics, are not under an open source license.
Just to clarify, SurveyJS libraries are open-source in the sense that the full source code is publicly available and can be reviewed. Some components (like the Form Library) are released under the MIT license, while others (such as Creator, Dashboard, and PDF Generator) are distributed under a commercial license.
So it’s a mixed model: open-source with both permissive and proprietary licensing, depending on the component.
Also, my understanding is that this community focuses on self-hosted tools and software, which is what SurveyJS is, as it’s designed to be integrated and hosted within your own infrastructure.
Happy to clarify further if needed 🙂
Okay, that’s not open source then. https://opensource.org/osd
