KoBoToolbox

What KoBoToolbox does

KoBoToolbox is an open-source data collection, management, and visualization platform purpose-built for field use in challenging, low-resource, and offline environments. Founded in 2009 as a project at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and now operating as an independent nonprofit (Kobo, Inc.) headquartered in Cambridge, MA, the platform serves humanitarian, development, environmental, peacebuilding, and human rights organizations across more than 220 countries and territories. Its product surface includes a web-based form builder, the KoboCollect Android app for offline data collection, the Enketo web-form renderer, a REST API, and an EU-hosted server for organizations with data-residency requirements. The platform processes more than 20 million survey submissions per month and is used by 32,000+ organizations worldwide, including UN Women, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and BRAC.

The platform combines offline-first mobile data collection with complex form logic, multi-language support, and strong security features including optional public-key encryption with local decryption via ODK Briefcase. It offers native integrations with Microsoft Excel, Power BI, SPSS, Stata, GIS software, and monday.com, and supports GDPR and HIPAA compliance postures. The business model is a hybrid freemium-plus-enterprise construct: a free Community Plan with unlimited projects and 5,000 monthly submissions drives mass adoption, while paid subscriptions, an Enterprise tier (custom-branded servers, SSO, dedicated support), fee-based services (custom development, training, support), grants, and donations sustain the organization. A global volunteer Ambassador Program and the KoboToolbox Academy reinforce community-led growth and user capability.

Name

KoBoToolbox

Legal name

Kobo, Inc.

Website

https://kobotoolbox.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

KoBoToolbox is an open-source nonprofit platform for offline-capable field data collection, serving 32,000+ humanitarian, development, and human rights organizations across 220+ countries. It combines a free community tier with paid enterprise subscriptions, services, and grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Field Data Collection Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Humanitarian Coordination, Information Management & Needs Assessment (BPADADAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Dashboarding & KPI/Performance Management (HDAEAMAF), Survey, Formative Assessment & Classroom Response (Quizzes/Polls) Tools (EDAFADAN), Data Storytelling & Collaborative Analytics (HDAEAMAJ)

Keywords

• Field data collection
• Open source platform
• Humanitarian software
• Survey management
• Mobile data collection

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans (Paid Upgrades): Free Community Plan with basic limits. Paid subscription plans provide additional data storage, survey submissions, and advanced features. Subscriptions are billed monthly or annually in USD.
2. Enterprise Solutions: Enterprise subscription for international nonprofits and multilateral agencies providing comprehensive organization-wide solution, custom-branded servers, dedicated support, and strategic partnership.
3. Services Revenue: Fee-based services including custom feature development, organization server setup and maintenance, custom training sessions, and scalable support plans for mission-critical projects.
4. Grants & Donations: As a nonprofit organization, KoBo is sustained by grants and donations in addition to service revenue. Accepts recurring and one-time donations via Stripe, Fundraise Up, PayPal, and Google Pay.
5. Free Tier (Freemium): Free Community Plan drives adoption among nonprofits and individual researchers. Platform is publicly available as open source software with free access for nonprofit organizations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

KoBoToolbox provides an open-source data collection, management, and visualization platform purpose-built for challenging field environments. The platform enables organizations to design survey forms, collect data offline via the KoboCollect Android app or web-based Enketo forms, manage projects and teams, and analyze submissions through built-in visualizations and integrations with tools such as Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and SPSS. It is offered free to nonprofit organizations through a Community Plan, with paid subscriptions and Enterprise solutions for organizations requiring additional capacity, advanced security, SSO, and dedicated support.

Product overview

KoBoToolbox is a data collection, management, and visualization platform comprising multiple integrated products. The core product is the KoboToolbox Platform, which provides form development, offline data collection via KoboCollect mobile app, and project management tools. Users can access the platform through the free Community Plan or paid Enterprise tiers, with an EU-based server option for data residency requirements. The KoboToolbox API enables programmatic access for custom integrations with tools like Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and monday.com. Additional offerings include KoboToolbox Academy for training, the Ambassadors Program for community support, and Enketo Express web form technology for browser-based data collection.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KoboToolbox Platform: Data collection, management, and visualization platform for humanitarian and social impact organizations.

Products and services

• KoboToolbox Platform The core SaaS platform for designing survey forms, collecting field data, managing projects and teams, and visualizing results. Supports offline data collection, multi-language forms, form logic, and integrations with Microsoft Excel, Power BI, SPSS, Stata, GIS, and monday.com. Used globally by humanitarian, development, environmental, peacebuilding, and human rights organizations.
• KoboCollect Android mobile application that enables offline-capable field data collection in low-resource and challenging settings. Supports encrypted form submissions and automatic data sync once connectivity is restored.
• KoboToolbox API REST API (v2) that allows developers to programmatically access and manage surveys, form submissions, and data, supporting synchronous exports, data retrieval, and integration with external tools such as Microsoft Excel (Power Query), Power BI, and monday.com.
• Professional Services Custom feature development, organization server setup and maintenance, multilingual custom training sessions, and scalable support plans for mission-critical humanitarian and development projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• 32,000+ organizations worldwide rely on KoBoToolbox for data-driven change
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core infrastructure, secondary, core integration, foundational, core and strategic.

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)core infrastructureTechnology or IntegrationAWS provides hosting for KoboToolbox servers. Physical access control measures including video surveillance, key card access control, and restricting access to authorized personnel are implemented by AWS at its data centers. AWS also provides logging of all activity in the AWS Console and hosts KoboToolbox's point-in-time recovery (PITR) capabilities. This is Kobo's primary infrastructure partner.
• Stripecore infrastructureTechnology or IntegrationStripe is Kobo's third-party payment processor used for processing payments for paid subscriptions and donations. Stripe receives payment card information directly and Kobo does not maintain sensitive financial account information unless users choose to make a recurring donation with stored payment information. Stripe installs cookies on browsers to authenticate identity and provide seamless payment processing.
• HubSpotsecondaryTechnology or IntegrationHubSpot is used as Kobo's customer relationship management (CRM) tool for processing registration data, providing user support, documenting communications, and improving services. HubSpot cookies track user behavior on the website for analytical and marketing purposes.
• Google AnalyticssecondaryTechnology or IntegrationGoogle Analytics is used to collect information on user use of the Services for the purpose of improving the Services. Google Analytics installs cookies on browsers and receives information from partner applications.
• ODK Briefcasecore integrationTechnology or IntegrationODK Briefcase is used to download encrypted form submissions from KoboToolbox and decrypt them locally on the user's computer using a private key, ensuring single-access control over sensitive data. Essential for users with data-level encryption needs.
• Fundraise UpsecondaryTechnology or IntegrationFundraise Up is Kobo's online donation platform used to collect donations and analyze donor behavior on the website. Processes recurring and one-time donations.
• Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI)foundationalStrategic or Co-development PartnerKoboToolbox was originally developed as a project at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI). Co-founders Phuong Pham and Patrick Vinck are both affiliated with HHI. Kobo has since become an independent nonprofit organization, but maintains close ties with Harvard-affiliated research. The HHI connection is foundational to the platform's origin and mission.
• Data-Pop AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerData-Pop Alliance is a Big Data partnership involving MIT and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), co-founded by Patrick Vinck. It represents a key knowledge and research partnership contributing to Kobo's data expertise in humanitarian and development contexts.
• BRACstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerBRAC is one of the world's largest NGOs and a Kobo board member (K.A.M. Morshed, Senior Director) sits on the Kobo Board of Directors. BRAC represents a major user organization and strategic partner in the humanitarian-development sector.
• Microsoft Excel & Power BIcore integrationTechnology or IntegrationKoboToolbox offers direct integrations to Microsoft Excel (via Power Query) and Power BI, enabling users to pull and analyze data within familiar business intelligence tools. These are key analytics integrations for data-driven organizations.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• SurveyCTO: Commercial field data collection platform built on the ODK ecosystem, directly serving academic, research, and development organizations with paid hosting, support, and advanced security features. Most direct paid competitor to KoBoToolbox in the same use cases and customer segments.
• Ona Data (Ona Systems): Open-source data collection and analytics platform originally spun out of the same ODK lineage, serving NGOs, governments, and health programs. Competes head-to-head with KoBoToolbox in humanitarian and ICT4D deployments, including offline mobile data collection.
• Open Data Kit (ODK): Open-source standards and tools (ODK Collect, ODK Central) underlying much of the mobile data collection ecosystem, including KoBoToolbox. A peer at the technology layer; many users choose between ODK and KoBoToolbox for field deployments.

Emerging players

• CommCare (Dimagi): Mobile data collection and case management platform widely used in frontline health and humanitarian programs. Overlaps with KoBoToolbox in ICT4D and field worker data workflows, but extends further into case management and decision support.

Broad incumbents

• Qualtrics: Enterprise experience management and survey platform with broad research-grade capabilities. Overlaps with KoBoToolbox in survey design and data analysis, but is positioned for commercial and academic enterprise rather than low-resource humanitarian field use.
• SurveyMonkey: Mainstream online survey platform with a large SMB and enterprise footprint. Competes for general survey workloads but lacks the offline-first, humanitarian-grade capabilities that differentiate KoBoToolbox.
• FormAssembly: Enterprise form and data collection platform with strong compliance, workflow automation, and CRM integrations. Overlaps with KoBoToolbox in form-based data capture but targets regulated enterprise use cases rather than humanitarian field deployments.

Regional players

• Akvo: European-headquartered (Netherlands) nonprofit focused on data and monitoring tools for international development, particularly in water, sanitation, and agriculture. Comparable as a digital public-good-style data platform for development, but with a narrower sector and geographic focus.

Others

• Kobo (Rakuten Kobo): E-reading hardware and platform company; same name as KoBoToolbox but an entirely different business. Included only to flag the naming collision, not as a substantive peer; the connection is purely lexical.
• 人道主义数据共享平台 (Humanitarian Data Exchange, HDX): UN OCHA-managed open data sharing platform for humanitarian datasets. Not a direct software competitor, but an ecosystem participant and a potential complement/partnership target for KoBoToolbox users sharing field-collected datasets.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/kobotoolbox
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kobotoolbox
• Xx.com/kobotoolbox

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about KoBoToolbox