Top 20 Best Online Form Builder Software(2022): Compared & Reviewed

Introduction

Forms are one of the basic things that are required for businesses with websites and an online presence. They are also one of the first steps to follow if you are trying to capture leads and convert them into sales. Forms are used by businesses to obtain customer feedback and conduct market research, surveys, polls, and quizzes regarding the latest trends in the industry. Before discussing the top 25 form building software available online, let us see what a form builder software is exactly. 

What is a Form Builder Software?

A form builder software is a computer program which can be used to create different kinds of forms that can be linked to your company’s official website. The guiding principle behind online forms is to promote customer engagement by taking their feedback, opinions, suggestions, requests as well as their data and respond to them accordingly. 

At a given moment of time, there are a number of visitors to your website. If your website has SEO optimized content, it is bound to receive a lot of internet traffic by people who are interested in a particular concept, product, or service. The aim of online forms is to capture this random traffic and convert it into relevant leads. These leads can then be taken as the target audience for marketing and finally be converted into regular customers. 

How Does it Work?

The question that arises is, how do forms help in capturing leads? The answer is quite simple. If a visitor happens to encounter a form and fill it, they provide not only their feedback or opinions but also their contact details- be it their email ids or phone number. They can also choose to sign up for regular emails and notifications from a particular brand.

1. HubSpot

Final Thoughts: You can tag the forms to your company’s website so that visitors can fill it and be a part of the lead generating system for the marketing and sales departments of your company. The anonymous visitors that fill out a form are registered by the HubSpot CRM from where they can be further contacted.

2. Gravity Forms

3. JotForm

Final Thoughts: If you want a smart, all in one platform with a sophisticated user interface then use JotForm. It provides partnerships with multiple marketing and messaging platforms so that you can nurture your leads with ease and steadily grow your business.

4. Pabbly

5. Paperform

Final Thoughts: Use Paperform if you want to attach smart forms with advanced lead capturing and data collection abilities.

6. Forminator

Final Thoughts: If you own a small-scale business with a WordPress based website, then Forminator is the software for you. It provides all the features for free that most other apps offer in their premium packages. 

7. Google Forms

Final Thoughts: Anyone, irrespective of their profession can use Google Docs with ease to create polls and surveys which interact with the respondents in real time. It is mostly used by students and researchers to ease their workload and anyone can try it for free.

8. Ultimate Form Builder Lite

Final Thoughts: Ultimate Builder Lite is a versatile software which supports a number of integrations and is compatible with a number of devices. It is also available as a mobile app to be downloaded on Android and iOS devices so that you can create forms on the go, anytime, anywhere. It also offers a form preview feature before the form is completely created so that you can check it for any errors before hitting the create button.

9. Typeform

Final Thoughts: Typeform is ideal for polls, surveys, and research. If you are a student looking to create a survey-based project, or a marketing firm that requires general opinion on a particular trend then this app would be perfect for you. 

10. Microsoft Forms

Final Thoughts: Any business or research organization can use the services of the popular and trusted Microsoft Form creating software to quickly churn out forms, collect data in real time and export it to the Office Suite where it can be analyzed.

11. FormCrafts

Final Thoughts:  With the facility to create unlimited numbers and types of forms and automatic lead capturing and nurturing features, FormCrafts is the way to meet all your form building requirements. 

12. Form Tools

Final Thoughts: A compact software that combines data management, lead nurturing as well as form building features, Form Tools is an all-in-one platform which is definitely worth investing in

13. Wufoo

Final Thoughts: With the existing 3 Million clients and counting, Wufoo has been a trusted software for big companies like Amazon, BestBuy, Disney, Microsoft, Twitter, Sony, National Geographic and a lot more. If you already have a properly established business with regular profits and investment capital then you should definitely invest in Wufoo.  

14. Ninja Forms

Final Thoughts: With its wide range of lead capturing and lead nurturing features, Ninja Forms is perfect for all marketing businesses, regardless of their size and scale. In fact, the software encourages expansion and scaling which makes it tailor made for fast growing businesses.

15. Cognito Forms

Final Thoughts: If you’re looking for a form builder with sound logic branches and robust payment fields, Cognito Forms is for you. The form tool also offers calculated fields, conditional logic, repeating fields, and more, making it easy and simple to create advanced forms.

16. FormStack

Final Thoughts: If you want to create professional forms for your business then FormStack is the software for you. It can be used by companies that want to create a sustained engagement with their customers. It can assist with marketing and project management as well.

17. FormSite

Final Thoughts: FormSite is one of the most simple and basic form building apps available in the market, due to this it is perfect for small, inexperienced businesses that have recently opened an online wing. You can use it for a while to get a hang of how form building works and diversify to other apps as your business expands.

18. Survey Anyplace

Final Thoughts: Survey Anyplace is perfect for conducting research. People from both business and academic fields can use this software to make sense of the data and to ease their workload.

19. Contact Form 7

Final Thoughts: Go with Contact Form 7 if you want a minimalist software which is easy to use and has all the necessary features to create online forms. Best known for customer contact forms, this software will get your work done quickly and efficiently. It is worth investing in owing to the number of options that it provides for free.

20. Conversational Form

Final Thoughts: Conversational Form is great for businesses that are based on intense customer engagement for their success. As the name itself indicates, the forms created with it are advanced enough to interact with the respondent in real time. It can be conceptualized almost as a simple chatbot which will guide the respondents through the entire process of form filling. 

By using a novel and clever way to gather data, this form builder is bound to drive user engagement. At the same time, though, due to its new entrance into the marketing space, it might be difficult to learn your way around the tool.

21. FormBakery

Final Thoughts: FormBakery is good for individual form creating purposes. It can also be used by students at a school or college level to create legitimate looking forms. In a professional setting however, it can only be used by small scale businesses that are trying to get a hang of the whole process and trying to branch out into online lead based digital and content marketing.

22. DeviceMagic

Final Thoughts: FormBakery is good for individual form creating purposes. It can also be used by students at a school or college level to create legitimate looking forms. In a professional setting however, it can only be used by small scale businesses that are trying to get a hang of the whole process and trying to branch out into online lead based digital and content marketing.

A Case Study

This can be understood better through an example. Imagine that you own an online clothing business and a potential consumer is looking for a particular skirt in their size. The website then would offer them a size chart and a form within which they can enter their dimensions. The visitor can then use various filters to get clothes of their size and you can notify them about their size being in stock, other clothes in their size and a lot more. This is how forms capture leads and promote customer engagement.

The next step would be to nurture these leads. The data that a customer enters into a form is stored in a database which may or may not be cloud based. This database is usually integrated with an office suite. You can choose to export or the software sometimes automatically exports this data to any of the data processing apps in the suite in order for you to make sense of and respond to. The database makes sure that the contact details of all the leads are recorded and displayed as a coherent list. 

It also ensures that the submissions or response data is exported either to a CMS server or a data sheet with ease. Continuing the example further, the marketing department could make use of the size related data to target the consumer with personalized mails regarding the availability of other kinds of clothes in their size, availability of any discounts in that size, how to style clothes of a particular size or anything that might be relevant to a particular consumer’s tastes without imposing too much on them.

Why Should You Use Online Form Building Software?

Form building software automates and eases the process of form design, lead capturing and filtering, data transfer and analysis etc. Some software also generate real- time reports based on the data obtained.  They provide an all-in-one platform which complements and supplements your work. 

These softwares take care of all the nitty-gritties so that you can focus on other important tasks. Most form building softwares are geared towards efficiency. Even if you conduct a simple research, a number of options- each better than the last will be displayed. These softwares are quite similar to each other and offer almost the same types of tools. Your task then, is to scrutinize these apparent similarities and find what distinguishes one software from the other and if there are other limitations that are not immediately apparent.

How To Create and Optimize an Online Form Using Form Builder Software?

This is one of the frequently asked questions. The following is a step-by-step guide to create online forms.

• Set down the scope, limit, purpose and the main aim of the form
• Conduct market research and make a list of possible options
• Narrow down your options using the comparison method
• Choose the software that best serves your purposes
• Choose the form builder tool depending on the goal of the form
• Pick out a title
• Prepare questions
• Select a target audience or demographic
• Choose whether the questions are multiple choice or subjective
• In case of subjective questions, set the word or character limit
• Choose which fields are necessary
• Ask for contact details 
• Prepare a follow- up email 

Step 1: Setting a goal: the first step towards creating a form is to clearly identify the purpose. That will help you in choosing a particular format, tool and even the nature of questions. For instance: are you looking to get feedback, customer contact details, capture leads for sales or merely identifying a demographic? These questions will narrow down the process considerably. 

Step 2: Conduct market research: This is also a crucial step. Investing in the right type of software is necessary to get your work done exactly as you’ve planned. This article will help you complete this step and acquaint you with all the options available to you. 

Step 3: Narrow down your options using the comparison method: Here, you compare your options in order to isolate the software that best serves your purpose. This process involves an intense evaluation in terms of features, price points, pros and cons etc.

Step 4: Choosing a form building tool: Isolate the tool that can create the kind of form you want. It could be a template, a code or a drag and drop method- the choice is yours. 

Step 5: Pick out the title: The title or heading will determine to a large extent whether or not a visitor would fill the form. It needs to be concise and describe in a word or two, the purpose of the form and the nature of details required. 

Step 6: Prepare questions: Based on the nature of the form and the nature of details required, adjust the questions. Decide whether they will be multiple choice questions from which the respondents would have to select an option or subjective questions which would require them to give their opinions. The questions should be brief since no one wants to spend too much time filling out forms. 

Step 7: Select a target audience or demographic: This step is necessary to filter out the candidates that are required to submit a response. If the form is geared towards a particular demographic, then the software should make sure that only authorized respondents are able to access and fill that form. This can be done by putting up various filters which restrict users based on their details. 

Step 8: In case of subjective questions, set the word or character limit: Setting the word limit is necessary because one doesn’t want the response or the form to be too bulky or laden with irrelevant details. Brief yet necessary responses are encouraged.  This can also be done by putting barriers which restrict the response after the required word limit is met. 

Step 9: Choose which fields are necessary: Necessary fields are also crucial filters which do not let the process continue any further unless the respondent fills out a given field which is absolutely central to the aim of the form. While creating questions, select which fields are central and put the required filter. Make sure not to create too many necessary fields because that might seem coercive to the respondent and take too much of the respondent’s time. 

Step 10: Ask for contact details: Contact details help to identify a particular respondent and is crucial for sales leads capturing. You can use the contact address to get back to the respondent in case of any complaints, feedback or requests or to send them curated, personalized content for marketing purposes. These details can be used to create email lists which are crucial for lead generation and nurturing. 

Step 11: Prepare a follow- up email: Following up is an entire procedure in itself but the first step towards following up is the creation of an email address with which you will respond to the submissions. Follow up procedures are automatically triggered after the form is submitted and received by the database. Follow up message or email is also a way to thank the respondents for their time and to inform them in case there’s any results or other follow up news required.

How to Use This Article?

In this article, a comprehensive and a comparative analysis based on intense product research has been provided to ease your decision making process. Given the variety of form building apps available in the market, choosing the right fit for your particular needs becomes imperative. Make sure that you invest your money in a product that is tailor made to suit your purpose. The comparative analysis provided in the article will help you evaluate specific features of each product so that you can make an informed decision.

Things To Keep in Mind While Using a Form Building Software

A good form builder allows you to create flexible, customized forms which are very specific in nature. It not only helps in the process of creation, it also allows you to store, edit, and recirculate the existing forms as per your requirements. It modifies the pre-existing forms or templates according to the nature of the task by utilizing AI or various tools. 

It saves time by providing features that fit the procedure instead of changing the whole procedure to fit the feature. An online form would also reduce the amount of paperwork. Big paper stacks are difficult to fill, store as well as to keep track of. The information stored within it is not durable and sometimes highly variable and unreliable. Online forms introduce a kind of systematization as well as flexibility so that everyone can record their unique responses within the ambit of the system. 

Forms are especially helpful when it comes to:

• Registration for various events
• Applications
• Assessment
• Feedback
• Purchase requests

Form Building Software Should Improve on The Following Processes:

• Creating an optimized user interface to collect, record and display information. This facility is not available in the manual paper method. 
• Providing an all-in- one platform to record and submit information as well as payment.
• Ensuring that only the authorized person gets access to and fills the forms- higher accuracy in a nutshell.
• Easing the process of group registrations in case of teams rather than registering every member individually. 
• Setting the limit on the response and the number of respondents. 
• Modification of forms based on the nature of the task.
• Anticipating response in some cases- autocorrect or autofill.

Conclusion

Not all online form building softwares are the same, some are more suited to the unique requirements of your company. It therefore becomes imperative to conduct a detailed market research with a comprehensive comparative analysis which takes into account price, notable features, pros and cons, customer testimonials, client reviews et al to give you a sense of what the position of that software is, in the market and how well it will adapt to suit your needs. 

A further insight into this can also be had by visiting individual websites and contacting the customer service and availing free demos which give you an insight into the working of the software. Our article is based on all this and more and it hopes to ease you in the onerous process of decision making.