Field Data Collection (Mobile Surveys)

Field data collection is one of civic tech's mature wins. KoboToolbox and ODK (Open Data Kit) together cover most humanitarian / NGO / public-health survey work on the planet, and both are FOSS. Pair with Civic Tech Overview, Forms for the web-form layer, Validation for schema thinking, and Self-Host Notes & Wiki if you're documenting deployments.

Free / FOSS (start here)

• ★ ★ KoboToolbox — AGPL-3.0; the humanitarian standard. Originally built by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative + UNHCR + UNOCHA. Form designer (XLSForm), Android Collect app, KoboCollect (offline), KoboNG (Web). UN agencies, MSF, Red Cross run on this. Free hosted tier at kobotoolbox.org for humanitarian users; self-hostable Docker stack. The default in 2026.
• ★ ★ ODK (Open Data Kit) — Apache 2.0; the original. ODK Collect (Android), ODK Central (server), XLSForm, Briefcase. Used widely in public health (CDC, Gates Foundation projects, polio surveillance). Self-hosted-first; Get-ODK Cloud is the official paid hosting. KoboToolbox is technically a fork of an early ODK; today the two ecosystems share the XLSForm spec and Collect app lineage.
• ★ CommCare (Dimagi) — Apache 2.0 + commercial layer; case-management-shaped (vs. survey-shaped); used widely in community-health-worker programs. Freemium.
• ★ Frappe Forms / ERPNext Forms — GPLv3; broader ERP context; less specialized than ODK/Kobo but useful when you already run Frappe.
• Epicollect5 — free for academic use; web + mobile; UK CEH-built; lighter weight than ODK.
• Survey Solutions (World Bank) — free; CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing); used for World Bank household surveys.

XLSForm (the shared spec — important)

• ★ ★ XLSForm — open spec; you build a form by filling in an Excel sheet (survey, choices, settings tabs); it compiles to ODK XForm XML. Both Kobo and ODK speak XLSForm natively. This is one of the most successful low-code formats in civic tech.
• ★ pyxform — Apache 2.0; Python; the reference XLSForm → XForm compiler.

Paid SaaS (when you need SLAs)

• SurveyCTO — paid; ODK-derived; the commercial polish on the ODK ecosystem; J-PAL / IPA / Innovations for Poverty Action use it heavily for RCT-grade survey work. Encrypted forms, server-side audit trails. Paid per-user, generous academic discounts.
• Magpi — paid; older mobile data collection SaaS.
• Fulcrum — paid; geospatial-leaning data collection; ESRI-adjacent.
• Esri Survey123 — paid; ArcGIS-integrated XLSForm-compatible surveys; the GIS-shop choice.
• Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Typeform — general-purpose SaaS; not built for offline / low-bandwidth field work; don't use them for field data collection if you have any reason to expect intermittent connectivity.

Connectivity-aware / offline-first

This is the actual reason ODK/Kobo exist: enumerators in places with no reliable internet need to record forms offline and sync later.

• ★ ★ ODK Collect (Android) — fully offline; encrypted local store; syncs on connectivity. The reference enumerator app.
• ★ KoboCollect — KoboToolbox's branded build of ODK Collect.
• ODK-X / Survey — heavier; supports complex case management offline.

Geospatial / GIS angle

• GeoODK — ODK + maps; lightly maintained.
• QField — GPL-2.0; QGIS-on-Android; not a survey tool but pairs well for ground-truthing.
• Mapeo (Digital Democracy) — MIT; offline-first peer-to-peer mapping app for Indigenous land-rights documentation.

Honest take (2026)

• KoboToolbox is the default for NGOs / humanitarian work; the free tier is generous and the hosted instance carries decades of institutional trust.
• ODK Central is the default if you'd rather self-host and own your data end-to-end.
• SurveyCTO is the right call when you're running an RCT and need audit-grade encryption + paid support (academic econ / public-health research).
• Both Kobo and ODK output XLSForm-compatible forms. Migrate freely.
• Don't use Google Forms / Typeform for field work — they break offline, leak metadata, and often store data in ways that violate humanitarian-data-protection norms.

Pick this if…

• Humanitarian / UN-shaped work: KoboToolbox (hosted or self-host).
• Public-health surveillance, you're the IT shop: ODK Central self-hosted.
• Community health worker / case management: CommCare.
• RCT-grade encrypted surveys with vendor support: SurveyCTO.
• Indigenous land-rights / fully offline P2P: Mapeo.
• You want to see the format: read XLSForm — the Excel-as-DSL is genuinely good design.