Tally vs Qualtrics
Tally is a European alternative to Qualtrics: same surveys & forms use case, headquartered in Belgium and governed by EU GDPR, while Qualtrics is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Create unlimited online forms for free with an intuitive, doc-like builder. Features conditional logic, payments, and robust privacy. Hosted in Europe.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
Survey design here goes well past forms, with branching logic, panels and analysis that research teams genuinely rely on. A free account really does exist, capped at three active surveys, 30 questions and 500 responses; past that nothing is priced publicly and everything goes through sales. Qualtrics, LLC operates from Provo, Utah under Silver Lake ownership since 2023.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
Tally vs Qualtrics at a glance
| Tally | Qualtrics | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Belgium | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need surveys & forms built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Qualtrics ecosystem |
Choose Tally if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You want to start free and scale up later
- Open-source code and self-hosting matter to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Qualtrics if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Qualtrics ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
Why choose Tally over Qualtrics?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Qualtrics is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Tally removes that overhead. As a Belgium-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.