The best Google Forms alternatives

When Google Forms stops being enough

Google Forms is free, quick and good enough for plenty of jobs, especially inside a company where everyone already uses Google. People start looking elsewhere when:

• the form goes to customers, and it has to look like their brand rather than Google's;
• the logic gets more complex, since, when we checked, branching only worked from multiple choice and dropdown questions;
• respondents need to upload files, which needed a Google sign-in when we checked;
• the form is long, and people need to see one question at a time and be able to come back.

This list covers the alternatives that fix those problems. We make one of them, so read our entry with that in mind. Every limit in the table above comes from each product's own pages, with the date we checked, and each links to a full comparison.

How we compared

1. Is it still free? Most people leaving Google Forms don't want to start paying straight away.
2. Does it look like yours? Colours, fonts, pictures, and whether the badge can go.
3. Can it branch on anything? Logic on every question type, not just choices.
4. Can anyone answer, and upload? No accounts for respondents.

1. hootform: best for forms people outside your company finish

hootform is free, like Google Forms, with unlimited forms and responses. The difference is what respondents see: one question at a time, in your colours and fonts, with a picture or video on any screen. Logic works on every question type, and on hidden fields from the link, jumping forward to any question or to one of several endings. Anyone can upload files or draw a signature without an account, and those answers are encrypted at rest.

Answers are saved as they're given, so you see where people drop off and respondents can come back. Premium, at $19 a month for the whole organization, adds AI follow-ups, AI insights and your own branding.

Worth knowing: there's no importer, so forms are rebuilt rather than copied over. Answers can still end up in a spreadsheet, as with Google Forms: connect Google Sheets and each response is added as a row as it arrives. See hootform vs Google Forms.

2. Tally: best for a free, document-style builder

Tally feels closest to Google Forms to build: you type questions onto a page. When we checked, its free plan included unlimited forms and submissions, logic, payments, file uploads and a native Google Sheets integration.

Worth knowing: removing the badge takes Pro. See hootform vs Tally.

3. Microsoft Forms: best if your company runs on Microsoft 365

For a Microsoft 365 organization, Forms is the natural counterpart to Google Forms, with answers in Excel. When we checked, a free personal account could collect up to 200 responses per form, and business and education plans raised that a long way.

Worth knowing: it has the same "internal tool" feel as Google Forms. See hootform vs Microsoft Forms.

4. Typeform: best known for conversational forms

Typeform popularised one-question-at-a-time forms, and it's polished. When we checked, its free plan allowed a small number of responses a month, and paid plans were metered by responses and seats.

Worth knowing: it gets expensive as forms get busy. See hootform vs Typeform.

5. Jotform: best for long forms with many field types

Jotform has a vast library of templates and widgets, and conditional logic on every plan. When we checked, its free plan allowed five active forms and a hundred submissions a month.

Worth knowing: the free limits arrive quickly. See hootform vs Jotform.

6. Fillout: best for a team on the free plan

Fillout's free plan, when we checked, included unlimited seats, logic, file uploads, payments and scheduling, with a set number of responses a month.

Worth knowing: busy forms move you up the plans. See hootform vs Fillout.

7. Youform: best for a free Typeform-style form

Youform's free plan, when we checked, had unlimited responses, logic and file uploads in a one-question-at-a-time format, for one person.

Worth knowing: team members come with paid plans. See hootform vs Youform.

8. Zoho Forms: best if you already use Zoho

Zoho Forms connects to Zoho CRM and the rest of the Zoho suite. Its free plan, when we checked, allowed three forms and 500 submissions a month.

Worth knowing: the free plan is small. See hootform vs Zoho Forms.

How to choose

• For free forms that look like yours and go to customers, hootform.
• For the Google Forms way of building, with more power, Tally.
• For a Microsoft 365 company, Microsoft Forms.
• For long forms with unusual fields, Jotform.
• For forms that take payment, Tally or Fillout, since hootform doesn't take payments yet.

Moving a form off Google Forms

Moving is simpler than it looks, because Google Forms' question types have direct equivalents almost everywhere. For hootform, and most of the tools here:

1. Recreate the questions. Short answer and paragraph become text questions. Multiple choice, checkboxes and dropdowns become choice questions. Linear scales become scales, multiple-choice grids become matrices, and date and time stay as they are. Starting from a template often saves most of the typing.
2. Rebuild sections as logic. In Google Forms, branching is "go to section based on answer". In hootform each question is its own step, so the same thing is a logic rule on the question: if the answer is this, jump to that question or ending.
3. Replace the linked sheet. hootform keeps answers in its own responses table with a CSV export, and its Google Sheets integration adds each response to a new spreadsheet as it arrives: connect a Google account, then choose Create a spreadsheet in the form's settings.
4. Keep the old responses. Your Google Forms responses stay in your Google account and its linked sheet. Nothing about switching touches them.
5. Update the links. Replace the old form's link wherever it's shared, or embed the new form on the same page.

Test the new form on a phone before you send it. One question per screen is the change people notice first.

Every price and limit above was read from each product's own pages. The newest check for each product is on its comparison page, and we re-check them at least every four months.

• Tally pricing
• Tally Help: plans and pricing
• Microsoft Support: form, question, response and character limits
• Microsoft Support: use branching logic in Microsoft Forms
• Typeform pricing
• Typeform Help Center: Free plan
• Jotform pricing
• Jotform: conditional logic on every plan
• Fillout pricing
• Youform pricing
• Zoho Forms pricing
• Zoho Forms price list (the data the pricing page loads)