SurveyJS vs SurveyPlanet: the quick answer
SurveyJS wins this comparison with its 4.3/5 rating versus SurveyPlanet’s 4/5, but the real reason is control. SurveyJS gives developers complete power over survey UI and functionality. SurveyPlanet offers unlimited free surveys with a dead-simple interface, but SurveyJS lets you embed custom surveys directly into applications with logic branching, API access, and white-label capabilities that SurveyPlanet doesn’t even attempt.
Where SurveyJS wins
SurveyJS crushes the competition when you need surveys that live inside existing applications. Building a customer portal? SaaS dashboard? Mobile app? SurveyJS renders surveys directly within your interface using your styling and components. SurveyPlanet forces users to visit a separate platform, which breaks the experience entirely.
Development teams get survey logic and conditional branching in the free MIT-licensed core. Create complex survey flows where questions appear based on previous answers. Skip irrelevant sections. Customize validation rules. SurveyPlanet only offers basic question logic in its $20 Pro plan, and even then it’s limited.
Data ownership matters here. SurveyJS gives you complete control since surveys run on your infrastructure. You own the data. You can integrate responses directly into your database and build custom analytics dashboards. The JSON-based survey definitions make it easy to programmatically generate surveys or migrate data between systems.
White-label applications are SurveyJS territory. Surveys appear as part of your product rather than a third-party tool. Users never know they’re interacting with survey software because everything runs on your domain with your branding. Impossible with SurveyPlanet’s hosted approach.
Where SurveyPlanet wins
SurveyPlanet wins when you need surveys running in minutes, not hours. The no-code builder lets anyone create and launch surveys without touching JavaScript or managing hosting infrastructure. Marketing manager who needs customer feedback surveys tomorrow? SurveyPlanet’s drag-and-drop interface beats SurveyJS’s developer requirements every time.
Unlimited responses without paying anything is genuine value. SurveyJS is technically free, but you’ll pay for hosting, storage, and potentially development time to build response collection systems. SurveyPlanet handles all infrastructure costs.
Small teams without developers find SurveyPlanet far more accessible. Academic researchers conducting studies, nonprofit organizations gathering feedback, small businesses doing market research can start collecting responses immediately. The interface requires no learning curve compared to SurveyJS’s JSON survey definitions and JavaScript integration requirements.
Hassle-free survey distribution and response collection come standard. Built-in sharing options, automatic response storage, and basic reporting work out of the box. With SurveyJS, you build these features yourself or pay $999 annually for the commercial dashboard.
Pricing compared
Both tools offer genuinely free options, but with different cost structures as you scale. SurveyPlanet’s free plan includes unlimited surveys and responses with basic templates and multilingual support. Essential features like custom branding, question logic, and data export require the $20 monthly Pro plan.
SurveyJS takes the opposite approach. The MIT-licensed core library stays free forever, including advanced features like logic branching and API access. But you’ll pay indirect costs for hosting infrastructure and development time. The $999 annual commercial license adds PDF export capabilities and a hosted dashboard, making it expensive compared to SurveyPlanet’s Pro plan.
For teams sending fewer than 100 responses monthly, SurveyPlanet’s free plan often provides better value since you avoid hosting costs and development overhead. Beyond that threshold, especially if you need custom integrations or white-label surveys, SurveyJS becomes more cost-effective despite requiring technical resources.
The pricing crossover point typically occurs around 1,000 responses monthly. Or when you need surveys embedded in applications. Below this scale, SurveyPlanet’s simplicity outweighs SurveyJS’s flexibility advantages.
Features that matter for this decision
Logic branching creates the biggest feature gap between these tools. SurveyJS includes conditional question logic in its free core, letting you create surveys that adapt based on user responses. SurveyPlanet requires the $20 Pro upgrade for basic question logic, and even then offers less sophisticated branching options than SurveyJS’s JSON-based conditional rules.
API access creates another major divide. SurveyJS provides full programmatic control over survey creation, response collection, and data processing since it runs in your application environment. You can trigger surveys from user actions, pre-populate fields from your database, and process responses in real-time. SurveyPlanet offers no API access at any price point.
Custom branding capabilities differ significantly between platforms. SurveyJS allows complete visual customization since surveys render using your application’s CSS and components. Users never leave your domain or see third-party branding. SurveyPlanet restricts custom themes to Pro subscribers and still displays surveys on surveyplanet.com URLs rather than your domain.
Template availability favors simplicity versus flexibility. SurveyPlanet provides ready-to-use templates for common survey types like customer satisfaction and event feedback, requiring no customization. SurveyJS includes template examples, but these serve as starting points for developers rather than finished survey designs that non-technical users can deploy immediately.
Who should choose SurveyJS
Choose SurveyJS if you’re a developer or have development resources and need surveys integrated into existing applications with full control over user experience and data handling. This tool excels for SaaS platforms, mobile apps, customer portals, or any situation where surveys must appear as native features rather than external forms. Especially when you need advanced logic branching, API integration, or white-label functionality without ongoing subscription costs.
Who should choose SurveyPlanet
Choose SurveyPlanet if you’re a non-technical user who needs simple surveys launched quickly without development resources or hosting infrastructure. Perfect for academic research, customer feedback, or market research where unlimited free responses and ease of use matter more than advanced features or custom integrations.
