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15 Best Form Builders for Small Business

Most small businesses need to deal with clients and make them loyal customers, isn’t it? Websites and social media do not always mean they will have a clear and legitimate channel to give feedback, contact business owners, and purchase products. That’s why contact forms have been invented. It’s time to go through them and see what can be helpful for your particular business. 

1. Google Forms

Google Forms

Price: Free

Probably, everyone knows this Google form builder, which is very easy to use because of its simple interface and minimum settings. So, there’s no learning curve, and it’s probably the fastest way to create a form if you need it urgently. The results will be automatically recorded in a Google Sheet of the connected account. 

Google Forms Key Features

  • free and easy to use;
  • forms don’t expire;
  • data is automatically saved in the Google account sheet.

Pros & Cons of Google Forms

Pros

  • easy to use;
  • almost no setup is needed;
  • forms are not tied to the specific website and are available via a link;

Cons

  • only simple fields and no advanced options are available;
  • you can’t embed them into a webpage;
  • very limited design and customization options.

2. Typeform

Price: Limited free version/ From $25 to $83 a month if billed yearly. 

Typeform is a Barcelona-based company founded in 2012, and besides forms, they have two other projects: for video testimonials and surveys and for building chatbots.

What Makes Typeform Unique?

The first thing that impressed me about Typeform is its highly visual dashboard and, of course, the abundance of integrations. This online instrument offers a variety of tools for surveys, lead generation, research, etc. You can create a form from scratch or use one of 800+ templates with a bunch of questions already there – so the template is not about the design only; it’s about doing some job for you and creating some question logic that can be edited and extended. 

Question logic is my other favorite feature of Typeform. So, besides the normal form builder interface, you also get a mindmap view of all the questions you have in the form. And by dragging and drawing connections between them, you can easily modify a conditional logic, jump to particular questions, and branch them if certain answers are given.

Each question takes a separate screen; it doesn’t require any coding skills and has visual customization controls. I think there could be more such controls to give more design freedom to modify shapes and make them aligned with your company’s branding. 

Typeform Key Features

  • Building various forms visually;
  • hundreds of third-party integrations;
  • advanced question logic;
  • calculator and hidden fields;
  • 800+ premade forms with different designs;
  • 30 field types;
  • it has survey functionality;
  • webhooks. 

Pros & Cons of Typeform

Pros

  • powerful form-building options and logic;
  • a lot of native and even more Zapier-driven integrations;
  • tons of premade templates.

Cons

  • only Stripe payment integration;
  • the price is more on the expensive side;
  • a very limited free version

3. Zoho Forms

Zoho Forms

Price: Free / From $8 to $80 a month if billed yearly.

Zoho Forms is part of the Zoho software suite, including CRM, finance, marketing, HR, IT, and other platforms. And, apparently, nothing can work without forms. But this instrument can be used separately.

What Makes Zoho Forms Different From Others?

This form builder offers a lot even in the Basic plan, and the difference with more upgraded ones is mostly in the number of submissions and storage space (but even in Basic, they are already 10 000/month and 500MB, respectively).

What concerns me is why the company that already exists for more than 25 years hasn’t invested in design upgrades – most of the templates look like they are straight from the nineties.

Zoho Forms Key Features

  • the accent is on functionality;
  • 30+ field types;
  • repeater sections (subforms);
  • tasks and filters for responses processing;
  • 47 templates;
  • the user can save and resume filling form;
  • one or multipage forms
  • Payment integration (PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay, Authorize.net, 2CC Checkout);
  • checkout calculation 
  • 500+ integrations with third-party, 11 of Zoho services, and webhooks support

Pros & Cons of Zoho Forms

Pros

  • not expensive
  • you can edit CSS, HTML, and JS before embedding to the website
  • it offers a variety of payment options;
  • it has a mobile form application;
  • the free plan is quite functional (yet limited by three forms only).

Cons

  • surveys functionality comes as a separate solution and is not included;
  • number of templates is pretty limited, and most of them look outdated;
  • no customization controls to edit the form design.

4. Paperform

Paperform

Price: From $20 to $135 a month if billed yearly. For small businesses, the $ 40-a-month plan would be the best option. 

Paperform is rather a hybrid product, and it’s not only about forms but something in between a form and a site builder. It offers a really powerful builder with almost every little detail that can be customized. It’s intuitive but has a learning curve to grasp what are the tools and integrations this service provides and how to use them the best way possible. 

What Makes Paperform Different From Others?

Paperform offers to make a storefront, even with discount prices, coupons, etc. But all of this is in a frame of form-building logic, where, let’s say, goods are actually “answer options” within a question. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of such hybrid services when it’s difficult to say what it is: it’s a bit too overwhelming for a form builder, but it’s not a real website builder yet. Especially considering the fact that the price for the plan that lets you use something a bit similar to a site-making functionality is a few times higher than website builders offer (not to mention a free WordPress) and is $480-$1620 a year. There you can remove a Paperform logo, connect your own domain, and use calculated forms and HTML / CSS.

However, if you want to enjoy a well-designed and highly functional form builder and also feel that this toolkit is exactly what you need for your project, this product might be for you. There’s no free plan but a 14-days testing period. 

Paperform Key Features

  • 26 field types
  • 650+ templates
  • 2000+ integrations and webhooks support;
  • auto-close submissions (based on a date or number or submissions)
  • translate form support;
  • REST API access to forms;
  • 2-factor authentication support;
  • save & resume response functionality;
  • dashboards and tags for organizing forms.

Pros & Cons of Paperform

Pros

  • many modern, well-designed templates;
  • full design customization is available;
  • conditional and hidden fields;
  • a lot of direct third-party integrations;
  • powerful functionality and flexibility.

Cons

  • it’s expensive;
  • your country should support Stripe to receive payments;
  • there’s a certain learning curve if you want to build complicated projects;
  • no free plan;

5. Jotforms

Jotform

Price: Free / From $39 to $129 per month if billed yearly. The unlimited Enterprise plan with the possibility to connect a custom domain starts from $199 a month plus $59-$79 per user. 

Jotform form builder is a bit similar to Paperform, but it positions itself as a “No-code app builder” and offers eight types of templates: forms, storefronts, apps, PDFs, tables, etc.

What Makes Jotform Stands Out?

They don’t use the term “form types” but “elements,” and over 80 of them can be used for building the app. Because of this thematic sorting, you don’t feel that you use some workarounds and try to turn a form builder into a landing page. There is a separate category of widgets, such as an animated block, a map, a table, and others, to easily drag and drop whatever you need. 

Overall, it feels very easy to use and intuitive. The result can be shared via a link embedded into a webpage. And here I have a small question – why would I embed an app into a webpage if I still should create a webpage? 

Jotform Key Features

  • 250+ integrations;
  • 500+ templates;
  • it’s very mobile-oriented;
  • monthly submissions are limited, from 100 in a free plan to 10 000 in the most expensive, unless you use an Enterprise plan where you can assign a custom domain name, too;
  • it offers a wide variety of direct and indirect payment gateways that can suit any country;
  • it has after-submission approval visual conditions and a flow builder.

Pros & Cons of Jotform

Pros

  • the free version can be useful at the beginning of the small business because it can deal with up to 100 submissions;
  • a big choice of payment providers;
  • visual and intuitive builder;
  • you can customize the design and add custom CSS even in a free plan.

Cons

  • a limited number of submissions and payments in main plans;
  • the unlimited Enterprise plan is very pricy;

Free WordPress Form Builders

It’s a great idea to have a solid full-fledged representation of your business in a WEB and get a form builder based on your platform. Let’s say you’ve chosen the most popular CMS in the world – WordPress. Here’s the list of the free form builders (plugins) that can help you. They might have additional features in a Pro plan, but their free version is enough for building forms on a professional level.

6. Contact Form 7

contact form 7

Price: Free

Contact Form 7 is, without exaggeration, the most popular WordPress contact form plugin and has almost 245 million downloads. It’s completely free and very simple, doesn’t have a visual builder whatsoever, and uses shortcodes. However, it’s very easy to use. 

What Makes Contact Form 7 Stands Out?

But this plugin has a lot of free third-party add-ons that cover probably every aspect of form builder functionality – from design to conditional logic or front-end post submits. So, you can choose the add-ons you need for your project and just add them to the core plugin. The downside of this approach is that you can end up with too many plugins from different developers. 

But if you need a simple and lightweight contact form, this might be an option. 

Contact Form 7 Key Features

  • 13 form fields;
  • Stripe, Sendinblue, and Constant Contact integrations;
  • a lot of third-party add-ons.

Pros & Cons of Contact Form 7

Pros

  • it’s completely free;
  • it has tons of free and premium add-ons;

Cons

  • limited functionality of the core plugin;
  • to customize a design, you need either write CSS or install an add-on. 

7. JetFormBuilder

JetFormBuilder

Price: Free / Pro version from $39 per year

JetFormBuilder is quite a new plugin on the market, so it still doesn’t have its first million downloads. But it’s powerful, and the free version can cover a lot of tasks.

What Makes JetFormBuilder Stands Out?

One of the features that make it stand out is 14 post-submit actions (which is a lot, and I haven’t seen such variety somewhere else) and a very flexible conditional logic with rules that can be stacked over each other. 

So, except for the obvious functionality of any form plugin, using JetFormBuilder, users can register and update their profiles, post and update content from the front end, call hooks and webhooks and interact with third-party integrations. This plugin uses a classic Gutenberg interface for assembling the forms. For visual customization of the form, you would need a free JetStyleManager add-on. 

JetFormBuilder Key features

  • 24 form fields;
  • 14 post-submit actions with conditional logic;
  • marketing instruments native and any webhook integrations;
  • repeater fields and conditional fields;
  • PayPal integration in a Free plan and more (including WooCommerce) in a Pro plan;

Pros & Cons of JetFormBuilder

Pros

  • has very powerful functionality, even in a free version;
  • calculated, conditional and repeater fields support;
  • macros, hooks, and webhooks support;
  • it supports dynamic values and pre-populated fields;
  • forms can be displayed only to certain users;
  • seamless integration with other Crocoblock plugins;

Cons

  • submission limits and various payment methods are in the Pro plan;

8. Fluent Forms Lite

Fluent Forms

Price: Free / Pro version starts from $35

Fluent Forms are quite powerful (but only in a Premium plan); however, even a free version will be useful for creating the most frequently used forms, such as subscription or lead generation.

Why Fluent Forms?

It has a nice label and placeholder customizer; also, Fluent Forms supports conditional logic and a few must-have integrations. In case you need more, there are premium plans that are not so expensive. 

Fluent Forms Key Features

  • 20+ form fields in a Lite version;
  • drag-and-drop form builder;
  • MailChimp and Slack integration in a free version;

Pros & Cons of Fluent Forms

Pros

  • easy to use;
  • custom CSS and JS are available;
  • nice multi-column form layout;

Cons

  • the free version doesn’t have important fields (e.g., CAPTCHA) and many integrations;
  • a form styler is not available in a free version.

9. WS Form Lite

WS Form

Price: Free / Pro version from $59/year

This plugin offers a clear and intuitive interface and a visual drag-and-drop builder. It has several templates to choose from and a nice editor, which shows how well the form looks on different devices. Yet, some really important fields (such as File upload and calculated) are available only in Pro.

Why WS Form?

Well, it’s a common story for most such plugins, and the Light version will be useful only for simple contact forms when you don’t need to connect it to any third-party service or create complicated surveys.

WS Form Lite Key Features

  • 20 form fields;
  • it has a nice auto-complete functionality;
  • WS Form offers a choice of a framework (a native one, Bootstrap, or Foundation);
  • three post-submit actions (send e-mail, redirect, show a message).

Pros & Cons of WS Form Lite

Pros

  • easy-to-use interface;
  • auto-fill from previous fields functionality;

Cons

  • third-party integrations are not available in Lite;
  • many useful fields and conditional logic are available only in Pro;
  • doesn’t have customization options.

10. Bit Form

Bit Form

Price: Free / Pro version from $20/year

Bit Form is a freemium plugin that offers an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This builder has a quite unique functionality of limiting submission by days of the week (except a date range).

What Makes Bit Form Unique?

It’s nice for a free plugin, as well as flexibility. Overall, Bit Form can be useful, especially if you need to play with user restrictions by IP, time, etc. Its free version is quite powerful; the only problem is that it doesn’t offer native integrations, yet it can be fixed with webhooks (but it requires some technical skills or reading the documentation).

Bit Form Key Features

  • 16 form fields in a free version;
  • extensive form design editor with breakpoints and CSS filters;
  • limited conditional logic after submission;
  • five actions after the form submission: redirect, e-mail, webhook, double opt-in, and successful message. 
  • form submissions can be limited by number, period, or even days of the week. 

Pros & Cons of Bit Form

Pros

  • many design customization options for forms and each field;
  • quite many fields to choose from;
  • the number of submissions from one IP can be limited;
  • custom webhooks are available. 

Cons

  • doesn’t have third-party services integrations in a free version;
  • doesn’t support payment services in a free version.

11. Kali Forms

Kali Forms

Price: Free / Pro version from $29

Compared to many freemium competitors, Kali Forms plugin offers a variety of form fields in a free version: file upload, CAPTCHA, and a hidden field.

What Makes Kali Forms Unique?

They even have a product and a PayPal field, but for the calculated one, creating multistep forms, or using conditional logic, you will need to buy a Pro. However, this plugin’s free version can be enough for many purposes, including contact form and some lead generation. 

Kali Forms Key Features

  • 19 form fields in a free version
  • you can change the form size by simply dragging the field’s border;
  • the validation text can be customized for each field.

Pros & Cons of Kali Forms

Pros

  • a very intuitive form builder;
  • donation and PayPal fields in a free version.

Cons

  • Kali Forms plugin has third-party integrations only in the Pro version;
  • no design customization, only a few themes at your disposal. 

12. Forminator

forminator

Price: Free / Pro version from $7.50/mo

Forminator is a powerful and well-designed form builder to deal with leads, payments, quizzes, polls, and surveys. It has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, powerful calculated fields that support formulas, conditional logic, and form expiration after a certain number of submissions or a certain date. 

Forminator Key Features

  • 25 form fields;
  • six premade form templates;
  • nine native and a lot of other integrations with webhooks and automation services (Zapier, Integrately, etc.);
  • conditional visibility for each field;
  • users can submit posts via the front end;
  • it offers three post-submit actions.

Pros & Cons of Forminator

Pros

  • its free version has almost everything you might need;
  • well-thought-out poll and quiz functionality;
  • intuitive interface.

Cons

  • it doesn’t offer a visual design customizer, only colors and fonts editor.

13. Easy Form Builder

Easy form builder

Price: Free / Pro version from $19/year

As the name suggests, this plugin lets you create forms quite easily and intuitively. But, as with most such plugins, it wants you to purchase a Po version. 

Easy Form Builder Key Features

  • 15 field types;
  • one post submit action: a success message;
  • multipage forms (but no more than two in a free plan);
  • progress indicator.

Pros and Cons of Easy Form Builder

Pros

  • design customization and CSS classes available;
  • quite many form fields available;

Cons

  • only a success message post-submit action;
  • no database storage of the form entities, only e-mail notifications;
  • doesn’t have add-ons except for Stripe payment. 

14. Formidable Forms

Price: Free / Pro version from $39.50/year

It’s an easy-to-crate forms with most of the necessary fields represented in a free version. It has mask formats for each field and mask settings that actually give multiple usages to one field. 

Formidable Forms Key Features

  • 14 form fields;
  • many mask options that extend the functionality of those fields;
  • an extensive form styler plus custom CSS;
  • one post-submit action: e-mail notification.

Pros & Cons of Formidable Forms

Pros:

  • different Bootstrap column support;

Cons:

  • limited post-submit actions;
  • all the third-party add-ons are only available in a Pro plan;
  • limited form field types;
  • limited actions;

15. Form Maker by 10Web

Price: Free / Pro version from $30

Those forms have quite nice functionality, and a number of post-submit actions are among them. Also, custom conditions and a JS code. 

Form Maker by 100Web Key Features:

  • 30+ form fields;
  • conditions;
  • some variety of post-submit actions.

Pros & Cons of Form Maker

Pros

  • conditional fields;
  • form previews;
  • several form design themes;
  • multipage forms;
  • five after-submit actions: success message, e-mail, redirect, stay on the form, post. 

Cons

  • no payment gateway is included in the free version;
  • no third-party integrations and hooks.

How to Choose a Form Builder for a Small Business?

First of all, it’s important to define your goals and the functionality of the forms you want to have. Also, it plays a big role whether you have a website or not. 

If all you need is a simple contact form, there’s a huge choice of options from both sides: online forms, WordPress plugins, or website builder add-ons (if you use a website builder subscription). 

But in case the goal is to sell products, make polls or surveys, submit content, schedule applications from the front-end to the website, register users, and other particular activities, it’s better to write a list of all those features and find the right solution for you. 

Let’s break down this task into a few most frequently asked questions about the form builder functionality:

1. Do you need integrations with CRM and other marketing instruments? And, do you prefer some particular ones or just start building the system? 

If the answer is yes, it’s better to think about complex solutions, such as Zoho or Jotforms, or choose a website plugin that has native integrations with the tools you will use (or make sure this plugin supports webhooks).

2. What is your budget to spend on a form builder?

Most often, all the premium instruments have a subscription basis (not a lifetime purchase). So, choosing a particular platform or plugin means that you will continue paying that money regularly, and it’s kind of a commitment if you don’t want to remake forms and migrate form records, having a bit of a mess. That’s why it’s better to Take a sober look at the needs and possibilities in the very beginning. 
Some form builders are several times more expensive than others, but it doesn’t always mean that they offer some unique functionality. And there are free or cheap instruments that can do almost the same. Testing is the only way to find out how things work and if it is what you are looking for. 

3. Which form fields do you need? 

The bigger number of fields doesn’t always mean that you will really get more. Some fields you will never use, and some can be modified. For example, the Country field can be replaced by a Select field (if you don’t need all countries in the world) and a Phone by the Text field with proper mask settings (if it’s supported), etc.

4. Which post-submit actions and custom restrictions do you want to have?

If you want something more than a success message after the form submission, and a sequence of actions should take place after the user hits the Send button, pay attention to the list of post-submit actions.

5. Who will deal with the form creation and will manage them?

If this person is a developer or quite familiar with HTML/CSS, webhooks, etc., they will be able to deal with a wider variety of instruments and modify them the way it’s needed. But if the person has zero experience with forms, websites, or online services, investing some money in a more visual online service with great tech support is better. 

Which Form Builder is Right for You?

When choosing a form builder for a small business, the key point is to know your objectives well. I hope this list will help you. 

To boil it down, I think that among online form builders, Zoho forms tool has a nice value for money and a good ecosystem around it. 

If you need something fancier or just a few forms and submissions – why not try Jotforms

Using plugins will be a smart solution if your business already has a website run on WordPress. Among the free ones, JetFormBuilder has very powerful functionality and a huge list of post-submit actions, conditions, and integrations. If you need your forms mostly for forms and surveys, pay attention to Forminator. Bit Forms plugin also can be useful if you need some of its niche functionality. 

Overall, most WordPress form builder plugins are not very functional without a Pro version, but the three listed above are great options, according to our tests. 

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Article by Lana Miro

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