The 7 Best Online Form Builder Apps for Collecting Data

Online forms are important for any business. Using contact forms, registration forms, and surveys, you can collect data from customers.

Are you looking to collect some data, but do not know how to go about it? Online form builder apps got you. Whether you're collecting qualitative data for research, conducting a quick poll, or even hiring, these forms have you covered.

Here are 7 online form builder apps that you can use to collect data.

1. Google Forms

Google forms are one of the most popular online form builders. It is free to use, easy to create, and they are best for conducting surveys. Google forms curate the themes of the form to match your logo or photo, if you use one.

Google forms save your data automatically in Excel format. It also integrates with Google sheets through Google Workspace. So, you can have access to your data in a spreadsheet view format.

Its limitation is that it is part of the Google ecosystem, and you need a Gmail account to use it. The design customization is also limited, and the user has to create a strong password to protect it. Lastly, you need the internet to use it.

Pricing: (Free for a personal account, starts from $6 for Google Workspace).

2. Microsoft Forms

Microsoft Forms is part of Office 365 and is mainly used to create surveys, polls, and quizzes. It is web-based, straightforward, and intuitive to build.

One of its key advantages is that it automatically converts your form data into charts and graphs that make your data easy to interpret and present. Furthermore, you can transfer data to Excel for further analysis, and it integrates with Microsoft Flow and SharePoint.

Its limitations include, you need to have a Microsoft account to access it. For each form, you can only have up to 100 questions. Also, there is no option to save a form when filling it. The filling is in one go. Lastly, if you use the ranking question, you will have only 2-10 as the available options.

Pricing: (Free to use basic plan, starting from $100 for 2,000 responses per month for pro).

3. Typeform

Filling out forms can be draining. Typeform took advantage of this and made forms that are interesting to fill. It designs beautiful forms and asks questions in a conversational tone to keep people engaged.

Typeform makes the forms more engaging using images, GIFs, and videos. It is done in a subtle way to encourage the filling of questions rather than being a distraction. It also has inbuilt integration with Google Sheets, Mail Chimp, and Zapier, with which it has more than 500 integrations.

Its shortcomings are that unlike Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, where you can easily export the data to a spreadsheet, the export to Typeform is a bit clunky. You also cannot change the look of the form readily. If you are looking to match your survey with your brand, you cannot.

Pricing: (Free basic plan and paid plans starting from $25).

4. Paper Form

Before you gather some data, how about you tell a story? Paper Form helps you do that. Its design lets you tell your story through photos, videos, and other media before asking questions.

Paperform looks like a landing page and acts as a landing page substitute. It helps you collect visitor data for targeted marketing campaigns and PPC ads. It's best to create forms that reflect your brand.

Its drawback is that if you create a multipage form and someone doesn't complete it, you can't have abandoned form fills emailed. It also has a limited trial period of 14 days.

Pricing: (Free 14 trial day period, starts from $12.50 for paid plans).

5. Wufoo

Wufoo is a cloud-based form builder that makes it easy to create registration forms, application forms, surveys, contact forms, payment forms, and more. To build a form with Wufoo, you just drag and drop. If you are looking for a simple form-building experience, then Wufoo is it.

Wufoo integrates with everything. You can sync Wufoo to Google Sheets, Zapier, Slack, Google Drive, payment gateways, email ESPs / CRMs, and so much more. Its drawback is that it has poor support that is base on a tiered ticketing system. Their response time will correlate to what plan you are on. If you are on a free plan, expect to wait longer when you have an issue.

Pricing: (Free with basic features, starts from $14.08 for paid plans).

6. JotForm

JotForm is an online form builder that allows you to create custom online forms. It has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to build forms. It also has more than 10,000 templates from registration forms, surveys, polls, application forms, and so much more.

JotForm is compliant with data privacy regulations. It meets PCI compliance for financial data privacy, HIPAA compliance for health compliance, and EU GDPR. It is compatible with over 80 app integrations among them Slack, HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Calendar, PayPal, Mailchimp, and so much more.

Pricing: (Free version, starts from $24 for paid plans).

7. Formstack

Formstack has an intuitive drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to build a form. It has over 300 templates that you can customize, a save and resume feature, and supports 36 languages. However, the form building interface is only in English.

Formstack has a library of tutorial videos, help articles, and walkthroughs which you can use to learn how to create forms. They come in handy when exploring more advanced features of Formstack. Another neat feature of Formstack is that it has a theme builder that allows you to build forms that match your brand. You can save your theme and use it in the future when creating other forms. Formstack also integrates with a range of third-party tools that include processing payments like PayPal and Stripe.

One major downside is that Formstack does not have a free plan. It only offers a 14-day free trial. The low-priced plans are very restrictive. They limit the number of forms you can create and monthly form submissions you can make. It also has data storage limits, and customer support is slow.

Pricing: (Free 14 day trial, starts from $50 for paid plans).

Online Data Management Using Online Forms

If you had to collect any data back in the day, you did it through paper forms. The process was tedious and stressful. Thanks to technology, those days are long gone.

Online form builders have made it easy, and everything is now online. Be sure to check out the above online form builders and see which one will meet your needs.

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