How to install LimeSurvey on a Cloud VPS

LimeSurvey is the open-source survey platform for building questionnaires with advanced logic, quotas and multilingual support.

The self-hosted version removes per-user subscriptions: you pay only for the server, no matter how many teammates use the app.

One-click install on cloudlinux.ro

The fastest way: LimeSurvey installs automatically at the first boot of a new server.

1. Create a Cloud VPS from the control panel.
2. In the configuration step, pick LimeSurvey from the app catalog.
3. Start the server. The install runs in the background for a few minutes and its status shows on the server page.
4. Access details and generated passwords are saved on the server in /root/app-credentials.txt. The app will be available on port 8080.

Manual install on any Ubuntu server

If you prefer doing it yourself, below is the exact script our automatic install runs. Execute it as root on a fresh Ubuntu server (24.04 recommended). It stops at the first error, and when it finishes you will find the access details in /root/app-credentials.txt.

export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
DB_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-20)
ADMIN_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 24 | tr -dc 'A-Za-z0-9' | cut -c1-16)
docker network create limesurvey
docker volume create ls_db
docker volume create ls_uploads
docker run -d --name ls-db --restart=always --network limesurvey \
  -e MARIADB_DATABASE=limesurvey -e MARIADB_USER=limesurvey -e MARIADB_PASSWORD="$DB_PASS" -e MARIADB_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=1 \
  -v ls_db:/var/lib/mysql mariadb:11
sleep 15
docker run -d --name limesurvey --restart=always --network limesurvey -p 8080:8080 \
  -e DB_TYPE=mysql -e DB_HOST=ls-db -e DB_NAME=limesurvey -e DB_USERNAME=limesurvey -e DB_PASSWORD="$DB_PASS" \
  -e ADMIN_USER=admin -e ADMIN_NAME=Administrator -e [email protected] -e ADMIN_PASSWORD="$ADMIN_PASS" \
  -v ls_uploads:/var/www/html/upload martialblog/limesurvey:latest
IP=$(hostname -I | awk '{print $1}')
printf 'LimeSurvey: http://%s:8080/index.php/admin\nUtilizator: admin\nParola: %s\n' "$IP" "$ADMIN_PASS" > /root/app-credentials.txt

You can also save this script as a recipe in your account and reuse it on any new server.