Google Forms alternatives: 12 form builders compared
People look for a Google Forms alternative when a form has to look like their own, take payments or signatures, or be handled by someone outside their organisation. Teams that already pay for Google Workspace stay because the form is included; those that do not move to a dedicated builder priced by forms, responses or users, or to an open source one they can host themselves.
Short answer: The closest replacements for Google Forms in our form builder ranking are Tally, Fillout and Jotform. Choose Tally if you want a free builder with payments and signatures and without response limits. All 12 alternatives below are ranked products from Best Online Form Builders in 2026, and each says where it differs from Google Forms.
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Pricing: Included in Google Workspace, per user per month, published; 14-day trial
Established in: United States
Built for: Organisations already on Google Workspace that need internal surveys and quizzes
Not for: Teams wanting a standalone form vendor and contract
01
Why buyers look past Google Forms
01
Analysis happens somewhere else
Google describes the workflow plainly: automated charts of respondents' answers in real time, and an export of the raw data into Google Sheets for deeper analysis. Anything beyond the charts therefore lives in a spreadsheet. Teams that want routing, approvals or reports inside the form tool look at builders where those are part of the product.
02
Branding is limited to colours, images and fonts
Google's product page says you can choose colours, images and fonts to match your organisation's branding. Dedicated builders sell more on that axis, such as removing the vendor badge, custom domains, custom CSS and conversational layouts, and several of them put those on a paid tier. If the form is a customer-facing page, that gap decides the choice.
03
The price is the suite, not the form
Forms is one product inside Google Workspace, whose pricing page lists per-user monthly prices (the entry plan was shown at €6.80 per user per month, before tax, on the page we read). Organisations already on Workspace get the form tool as part of that bill, while every alternative here prices the form tool directly, by forms, responses or users.
Free plan to 5 forms; monthly tiers by forms and submissions, published
Timisoara-built form tool, owned by Kiteworks since 2024
you are already a Kiteworks customer or want a form tool from a security-focused vendor
#11
03
What each one does differently
1
Tally
Belgium · Free plan within fair-use limits; flat monthly plans, published
Tally lets you type a form like a text document, and its pricing page says unlimited forms and submissions are free within fair-usage guidelines, including payments, signatures and file uploads. Pro, shown at €20 a month, removes Tally branding, adds custom domains and unlimited team members. Tally BV is a Belgian company registered in Ghent.
Switch from Google Forms if you want a free builder with payments and signatures and without response limits.
United States · Free plan to 1,000 responses a month; flat monthly tiers, published
Fillout gives every plan, the free one included, unlimited forms and unlimited seats, and meters only responses: 1,000 a month free, then 5,000 on Pro at $40 a month. Payments, PDF generation, calculations and workflows are in the free plan too. Branding comes off from Pro.
Switch from Google Forms if you want payments and workflows without per-seat charges.
United States · Free plan to 5 forms; monthly tiers by forms and submissions, published
Jotform has a free Starter plan and paid Bronze, Silver and Gold plans plus Enterprise, and meters several things separately, including monthly submissions, total submission storage and upload space. HIPAA features are available only on Gold and Enterprise. It is the widest catalogue in the group, which makes the plan table harder to read than Google's.
Switch from Google Forms if you need a large template and integration catalogue and optional HIPAA forms.
Spain · Free plan to 100 responses a month; monthly tiers by responses and users, published
Typeform is built around one-question-at-a-time forms. Its pricing page lists Basic at $28 a month billed annually ($39 monthly) with 100 responses and one user, Plus at $56 with 1,000 responses and three users, and Business at $91 with 10,000 responses and five. Branding comes off on Plus. The price scales with responses and seats.
Switch from Google Forms if the look of the form matters more to you than the cost per response.
Australia · Free plan to 30 submissions a month; flat monthly tiers, published
Paperform lets you build forms like a document with payments and bookings, and every plan bundles Papersign for signatures and Stepper for automation with unlimited users. The free plan takes 30 submissions a month, and its page shows Pro from $49 a month and Business from $124 billed annually. It is priced above the other flat-fee builders.
Switch from Google Forms if you want forms, signatures and automation under one subscription.
United States · Free plan for one user; monthly tiers by users and entries, published
Cognito Forms is built for forms that calculate and route. The free Individual plan has one user, unlimited forms and 100 entries a month with 100 MB of storage, and it takes payments. Pro is $24 a month for two users, with extra users at $5 each, and Team at $49 adds workflow features. Seats are rationed by tier.
Switch from Google Forms if your forms do arithmetic and need approvals, and you can count your users.
France · Free plan; flat monthly tiers, published; self-hosted licence per instance
OpnForm is open source: you can self-host the core for free, limited to 2 users across an instance, or use the hosted service, whose free plan has unlimited forms and submissions. Hosted Pro costs $25 a month and adds branding removal, custom domains and analytics, and Business costs $67. Self-hosting means you run it yourself.
Switch from Google Forms if you want to keep the software and the submissions on your own server.
United States · Monthly tiers by responses and team size, published; 7-day trial
HeyForm's code is published under AGPL-3.0 on GitHub, and a hosted service sits beside it. Hosted tiers are metered by responses: Basic at $15 a month billed annually for 5,000 responses a month, Premium at $24 for 20,000 and Business for 150,000. The page offers a 7-day free trial, and payment commission is waived only on the top tier.
Switch from Google Forms if you want a Typeform-like form with code you can deploy yourself.
Estonia · Free plan to 5 forms; monthly tiers by form count and storage, published
forms.app leaves responses, views and team members unlimited on every plan, including the free one, and meters forms and file storage instead: up to 5 forms and 10 MB free, 25 forms on Basic ($19 a month billed annually), unlimited forms on Pro. The 10 MB allowance makes the free plan poor for file uploads.
Switch from Google Forms if you collect many responses across a few forms and have few uploads.
United States · Monthly per product, published; 14-day trial
Formstack sells forms beside document generation and e-signature in a suite. Forms starts at $83 a month billed annually for 1 builder user, 25 forms, 1,000 submissions per form and 2 GB of storage, with a 14-day trial that needs no card. The company is now Intellistack, LLC.
Switch from Google Forms if you need generated documents and signatures attached to your forms and will pay for it.
United States · Quoted per organisation; trial on request
FormAssembly sells to regulated organisations that want data validated before it reaches Salesforce. Its plans page lists tiers by users and responses per year, with a Gov Cloud option for government, mentions HIPAA and FedRAMP, and asks you to request a trial. It is aimed at teams with a compliance function, not at a quick survey.
Switch from Google Forms if your forms feed Salesforce and compliance is a requirement.
Romania · Free plan to 5 forms; monthly tiers by forms and submissions, published
123FormBuilder is a Timisoara-built form tool that joined Kiteworks, a vendor of sensitive content communications, according to its own site. Its pricing FAQ describes a free plan with unlimited submissions and five forms. Check the current product direction before committing, because the form technology now sits inside a larger platform vendor.
Switch from Google Forms if you are already a Kiteworks customer or want a form tool from a security-focused vendor.
Google Forms is the right tool when the organisation already uses Google Workspace and the form is internal or simple: staff surveys, event sign-ups, quizzes and quick data collection. It shows questions based on earlier answers, grades quizzes and sends responses to Google Sheets, where analysis continues in a tool people already know. If nobody asks for payments, signatures or a form that carries your brand, a dedicated builder adds a second bill and a second place for data to sit.
05
What moving off Google Forms involves
01
Responses are in a spreadsheet, so keep it
Existing responses live in a linked Google Sheet. Keep that sheet as the archive, export it as CSV, and decide whether the new tool should import past data or start clean. Reports that read the Sheet will break when new responses go elsewhere.
02
Rebuild logic and quizzes by hand
Section branching and quiz grading are specific to Google's form model. Expect to recreate them in the new builder's logic editor, and check how the new tool counts a response, since Typeform, Fillout and HeyForm bill on responses and Formstack counts submissions per form.
03
Plan the shared-link switch
Anyone holding the old form link keeps getting the old form until you close it. Replace the link in emails, sites and printed material, and close the old form only when the new one is live.
06
Questions about replacing Google Forms
5 answers
What is the best free alternative to Google Forms?
Tally states unlimited forms and submissions are free within fair usage, including payments and signatures. Fillout's free plan allows 1,000 responses a month with unlimited forms and seats, and OpnForm offers unlimited forms and submissions on its hosted free plan or a self-hosted core.
Which Google Forms alternative is best for payments?
Tally, Fillout and Paperform list payments in their builders, and Cognito Forms takes payments on its free Individual plan. Check the processor and any fees on the vendor's own page before relying on it.
Is there an open source alternative to Google Forms?
OpnForm and HeyForm both publish their code and can be self-hosted. OpnForm limits the free self-hosted core to 2 users across an instance, and HeyForm's code is AGPL-3.0. Both also run hosted services.
Which alternative is best for a compliance-heavy organisation?
Jotform offers HIPAA features on Gold and Enterprise only. FormAssembly lists HIPAA, FedRAMP and a Gov Cloud option and targets Salesforce users. Confirm any agreements, such as a signed HIPAA business agreement, with the vendor.
Why would a team stay on Google Forms?
If the organisation already pays for Google Workspace, the form tool comes with it, including quizzes, branching and Sheets integration. The reasons to leave are branding, payments and signatures, not the basics.
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Sources
Checked 8 October 2026
Google Forms product page: Quizzes, questions based on previous answers, real-time charts, export to Google Sheets, colours, images and fonts.
Google Docs Editors help: Forms: Create surveys, quizzes and forms, grade quizzes, show questions based on answers, store responses in Google Sheets.
Google Workspace pricing: Per-user monthly prices (entry plan €6.80 per user per month before tax as shown).
Tally pricing: Unlimited forms and submissions under fair usage, payments, signatures, Pro at €20 per month.
