Can't decide between SurveyMonkey vs Google Forms vs Formidable Forms? Check out our ultimate comparison guide to make your choice more easily!
If you're looking for a form tool, you might have narrowed it down to a few popular choices. You may be considering SurveyMonkey vs Google Forms vs Formidable Forms, but how can you decide?
To make the right choice when building a WordPress website, you'll need to study each of your options carefully. Fortunately, this decision can be easy if you understand key features like usability, payment options, and WordPress compatibility.
In this post, we'll show you how each of these form tools work. Then, we'll compare them to help you decide between SurveyMonkey vs Google Forms vs Formidable Forms. Let's get started!
An introduction to SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Formidable Forms
Before we jump into our detailed comparison, let's learn a bit about the basics for each option.
SurveyMonkey
You may have heard about SurveyMonkey simply because it's been around for so long:
The SurveyMonkey software has been helping people create surveys since 1999, and it has 19 million users worldwide. With this tool, you can quickly make shareable surveys and get instant results.
Features:
- Choose from 200+ survey templates.
- Collect data using links, email, chat, and more.
- Export results to data analytics applications.
Pricing: SurveyMonkey has a free plan, but it's limited, putting a monthly cap on survey responses. Individual premium plans start at $16 per month. This is the most expensive survey tool on our list.
Google Forms
Google Forms is another household name because it comes with Google Workspace:
This form-builder is known for its simplicity. Using Google Forms, you can create forms and surveys that use grids, short answers, checkboxes, dropdown menus, and more. You can also adjust your form designs to match your company's branding.
Features:
- Get automatic data summaries.
- Customize your designs.
- Share forms via email, link, or website.
Pricing: Google Forms is free for individual users, and there are no limits on the number of responses. However, the free plan has a storage limit of 15 GB. If you want more space, you'll need to buy a Google Workspace plan. Business Starter plans costs $6 per month.
Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms the best SurveyMonkey alternative and the most powerful WordPress forms plugin:
With our tool, you can easily create various forms and surveys. For example, you can use templates to make sign-up forms, registration forms, customer satisfaction surveys, and more.
Features:
- Build and customize static and interactive forms for your website.
- Analyze data and integrate it with marketing and analytics software.
- Use file uploads, email address fields, date picker fields, spam protection, and more.
- Export your survey data for use in google sheets, excel or other forms.
- Generate reports with statistics, pie charts and more.
Pricing: Formidable Forms plans start at $39.50 per year. Paid versions also include a 14-day money-back guarantee.
SurveyMonkey vs Google Forms vs Formidable Forms (3 key factors)
Here is a quick summary table of some of the features we'll be talking about:
| Features | SurveyMonkey | Google Forms | Formidable Forms |
| Customizable | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom CSS | No | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional Logic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export your data | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Accepts payments | Yes | No | Yes |
Now that you have a general idea of what these survey platforms can do, let's dive into three key features you might want to consider when deciding among them.
1. Ease of use
Let's see how SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, and Formidable forms compare with user-friendliness!
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey offers quick and easy sign up. To do this, you'll just need to enter some basic personal details:
When you're finished, you'll be led to the SurveyMonkey dashboard:
Click on Create Survey in the upper right-hand corner to start making a new survey. On this page, you can Start from scratch or select Start from template to save some time:
Be warned, most templates require paid plans. Additionally, keep in mind that SurveyMonkey is designed specifically for surveys. That means all of its template choices are geared toward this. Therefore, if you're looking for a simple form tool, it may not be the best choice.
However, if you only want surveys, a premium plan offers over 200 templates. Overall, SurveyMonkey's user interface is straightforward and beginner-friendly.
Google Forms
If you don't already have a Google account, you'll need to create one to use Google Forms:
This process is quick and simple, just fill in your personal information and click on Next to complete the steps. Then, you can go to your Google Forms page:
The Google Forms home screen isn't the most fun or colorful for the free version. However, you can easily view your template options here, and click on the down arrow to see the entire Template Gallery:
With the free version, your template options are limited. Still, even with just a few samples, you can see these are high-quality forms and surveys to help with your market research:
If you like these templates, you can send and share them in a few clicks. Or, you can start a new form by clicking on the Blank option.
On the whole, Google Forms is pretty easy to use, though the interface is a bit boring. However, it might be a great option if you use any other Google Workspace tools since they are all compatible.
Formidable Forms
Unlike the other options on the list, Formidable Forms is a WordPress plugin. To start using the tool on your website, you'll need to install and activate it on the Plugins page in your WordPress dashboard:
You'll also need to sign up for one of our premium plans. This process shouldn't take more than a few minutes.
To create a form, navigate to your WordPress dashboard and click on Formidable in the left-hand panel:
This tab will show you all your existing forms. To get started on a new one, click on Add New:
You can use a Blank Form or choose from more than 175 templates at this stage. These are conveniently organized into categories such as Lead, Customer Service, Survey, and more.
Once you choose your form, give it a description and click on Create. Here's what the form builder for one of the contact forms looks like:
Due to the number of field options, this user interface can feel slightly overwhelming when you're getting started. However, it's overall very straightforward and convenient.
It allows you to build and modify almost any form or survey you can think of. Also, you can easily add and remove fields and customize design features all in one place. Plus, you'll never have to leave your dashboard if you're a WordPress user.
2. WordPress integration
If you're working with a WordPress website, you'll need a form builder compatible with the software. Here's how each tool compares in WordPress compatibility.
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey isn't a plugin, but it is compatible with WordPress. To add a SurveyMonkey form to your WordPress site, go to Collect Responses in your SurveyMonkey workflow. Then, click on Send surveys your way:
Next, scroll down to find Embed on a site:
You will then get an embed code that you can copy and paste into any post or page. This process is simple, but there is no comprehensive WordPress integration. Therefore, SurveyMonkey recommends copying surveys into an HTML testbed before adding them to your site.
Google Forms
Similar to SurveyMonkey, Google Forms doesn't have a WordPress integration. However, you can easily embed your forms and surveys using an embed code.
To use this feature, go to Send on your form's page:
This will trigger a pop-up that shows your sharing options. Click on the arrow symbols ( < > ) to find your embed code:
Then, simply click on Copy. You can now paste this code into your WordPress website. As with SurveyMonkey, it might be smart to test your surveys before making them live.
Formidable Forms
Since Formidable Forms is a WordPress plugin, integration isn't necessary. Our tool is designed with WordPress in mind.
That means adding Formidable Forms to your pages is quick and seamless. You can do this by clicking on Embed in the upper right-hand corner of your form page:
Then, choose Select an existing page to add your form to a page on your site:
With this option, there's no copying and pasting required. Just choose a page and click on Insert form. Alternatively, you can instantly create a new page for your form or use an embed shortcode if you prefer.
3. Accepting payments
If you're using forms or surveys on your e-commerce website, you might want to use them to accept payments. Here's what you need to know about form payments.
When it comes to accepting payments, here's how the three tools compare:
- SurveyMonkey: With a premium plan, survey respondents can make payments using Stripe.
- Google Forms: The tool doesn't accept payments in forms or surveys, but you can enable them with an add-on.
- Formidable Forms: With most premium plans, your forms and surveys can accept payments with Paypal or Stripe.
Accepting payments via forms is an essential part of online business for many. Therefore, we recommend looking carefully into the relevant documentation for each option.
Conclusion
Choosing between SurveyMonkey vs Google Forms vs Formidable Forms can be challenging. That's because online forms can significantly affect your site's success.
To recap, when choosing a form and survey builder, it's best to consider:
- Ease of use
- WordPress compatibility
- Available payment processors
Are you looking for a WordPress form tool to build modern and streamlined forms that also accept payments? Check out Formidable Forms' complete list of features!
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