Which online form builder should you pick in 2026 without paying too early?
A signup that stops at response 101, a form that can't take a payment: picking a form builder comes down to two lines nobody reads.
An online form builder lets you collect responses (signups, quote requests, surveys, payments) without code. For most small teams, our first pick is Tally: its free plan has no response counter, and data is hosted in Belgium. If responses must go into Airtable or Notion, pick Fillout (1,000 free responses a month). If you need signatures and calculations, Jotform.
Most top Google results for this search are written by vendors that rank themselves first. None compare free-plan quotas side by side. That is the angle of this page. For a broader, feature-led ranking, see our best form builders page.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The right form builder for your need
The 7 form builders side by side
Ranked by score. Check the free-quota column and its unit first: per month, per form or account-wide. Data hosting is compared right after the tool cards.
| Best for | Free-plan quota | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tally | Best free plan, hosted in the EU | No counter (fair use) | 4.3/5 | Free, Pro $24/mo | ✓ | Freelancers, nonprofits, small teams | Visit → |
| 2 | Fillout | Most generous counted quota | 1,000 responses a month | 4.2/5 | Free, Starter $15/mo | ✓ | Teams with a database | Visit → |
| 3 | Jotform | Most complete, with EU servers for an EU account | 100 submissions a month, 5 forms | 4.0/5 | Free, Bronze $34/mo | ✓ | Schools, nonprofits, HR | Visit → |
| 4 | Paperform | Best for taking payments with no platform fee | 30 submissions a month | 3.9/5 | Free, Pro $49/mo | ✓ | Coaches, small shops | Visit → |
| 5 | Typeform | Most polished for respondents | 10 responses a month, account-wide | 3.8/5 | Free, Basic $28/mo | ✓ | Marketing teams | Visit → |
| 6 | Drag'n Survey | The European pick for surveys | 200 respondents and 20 questions per survey | 3.7/5 | Free, Plus $20/mo excl. tax | ✓ | EU public sector, health | Visit → |
| 7 | Microsoft Forms | Simplest if you already use Microsoft 365 | 200 responses per form (personal account) | 3.6/5 | Included with a Microsoft account | ✓ | Microsoft 365 organizations | Visit → |
Scores on five criteria, taken from our full reviews for Tally, Fillout, Jotform and Typeform. Prices in US dollars read in 2026 on vendor pages, monthly when billed yearly.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
This page is for the person who has to put a form online this week: a nonprofit lead, a school admin, a small business owner, a coach. It does not cover WordPress plugins or enterprise survey suites.
We asked three questions, in order. How many responses does the free plan really give, and is the counter per month, per form or account-wide? Where are responses stored, and can you keep them in the EU? What does the first useful paid tier cost? Every number comes from the vendor's pricing or help page.
Scores for Tally, Fillout, Jotform and Typeform come from our full reviews: a ranking never changes a tool's score. Paperform, Drag'n Survey and Microsoft Forms are scored on the same five criteria. Google Forms is covered outside the ranking, because Google publishes no clear page on its free-tier limits and we do not rank a tool without checking the core criterion. For a feature-led ranking, see best form builders.
- Ease of useTime to publish a first form, clarity of conditional logic.
- Value for moneyReal free quota, first useful paid tier, hidden costs.
- FeaturesLogic, calculations, payments, uploads, signatures, templates.
- SupportResponsiveness and answer quality in user reviews.
- IntegrationsLinks to spreadsheets, databases, CRMs and automation tools.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Vendors change free quotas without notice. Get the updates
Tally
Tally is a Belgian company. You build a form the way you write a note: type "/" to add a question, a payment field or a logic block. The free plan has no response counter and no form limit, within fair use. Conditional logic (show a question based on a previous answer) and calculations are included. Uploaded files are capped at 10 MB each.
It is also the only tool in this ranking that is "made and hosted in the EU" by default: responses sit on Google Cloud in Belgium, and the GDPR data processing agreement (DPA) is accepted with the terms of service. Nothing to sign, nothing to switch on.
Two catches. Email notifications go through SendGrid and payments through Stripe, both US providers, so "100% EU data" is not quite true if you use them. And support is the weak spot in user reviews: answers that contradict each other on advanced cases like quizzes.
- No response or form counter on the free plan
- Hosted in Belgium, DPA included by default
- Free conditional logic and calculations
- Stripe payments from the free plan
- 10 MB per upload on free, no cap on Pro
- Response history: 30 days on Pro, 90 on Business
- ✓The widest free plan in this ranking
- ✓No setting to change for EU hosting
- ✓You can publish a first form in minutes
- ✗Notifications and payments run through US providers
- ✗Uneven support on advanced cases
- ✗Data retention controls only on Business
Our first pick for most readers: a real free plan, data in Belgium, and $24 a month billed yearly when you want to remove the Tally branding or add teammates.
Fillout
Fillout is a US company. Its free plan counts responses, but the ceiling is high: 1,000 a month, with conditional logic and Stripe payments. Its real edge is that it reads and writes straight into Airtable, Notion or a database, so you skip the automation you would otherwise build between the form and your records.
On privacy, the DPA with standard contractual clauses (the legal framework for sending EU data to the US) is offered on every plan. EU hosting of responses is only available on Team or Enterprise, by quote, and support turns it on.
The catch: pricing follows volume. 2,000 responses cost $15 a month billed yearly, 5,000 cost $40. If a campaign spills over, watch the counter before month end.
- 1,000 responses a month free
- Reads and writes to Airtable, Notion and databases
- Free logic and payments
- DPA with standard contractual clauses on all plans
- EU hosting on Team or Enterprise, by quote
- Business at $75 a month billed yearly, unlimited responses
- ✓A clear, comfortable free quota
- ✓Fewer automations to maintain
- ✓The cheapest first paid tier in this ranking
- ✗US data storage by default
- ✗EU hosting only on Team or Enterprise, by quote
- ✗Price scales with response volume
Pick it when responses must land in Airtable or Notion. For health, student or employee data, check which plan unlocks EU hosting first.
Jotform
Jotform, a US company, has the widest toolbox here: thousands of templates, e-signatures, calculations and payments. If your form needs to do something unusual, Jotform probably does it already.
The free plan is tight: 5 forms, 100 submissions a month, 10 payments a month. A 150-person event signup blows through it in one campaign. Accounts created from the EU are stored on European servers by default; elsewhere, you switch it on in account settings (Data, "GDPR Datacenter"). A support reply mentions backups with another provider, so do not promise "100% EU" without written confirmation.
The catch is price. Bronze at $34 a month billed yearly is the first useful tier, and reviewers complain about upgrade prompts once file storage fills up. Human support is also criticized. The 50% nonprofit and education discount changes the math: ask for it before you pay.
- EU servers by default for accounts created in the EU
- E-signatures, calculations and payments built in
- Thousands of ready templates
- 50% off for nonprofits and education
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Enterprise plan for multi-user teams and data residency
- ✓The most features in this ranking
- ✓EU data with no setup for EU-created accounts
- ✓A real nonprofit discount
- ✗Free plan capped at 100 submissions and 5 forms
- ✗Upgrade prompts once uploads pile up
- ✗Hard to reach a human in support
The pick for schools, nonprofits and HR teams that need signatures and calculations. Claim the nonprofit discount before your first payment.
Paperform
Paperform, an Australian company, blends a landing page and a form: your pitch, photos and questions live on one page. It stands out on payments. Stripe, Square, Braintree and PayPal Business are supported, and Paperform takes no fee on payments, even on the free plan.
The free plan is small: 30 submissions a month. Enough to check your booking form works, not to run a business. Payments work there, but subscriptions and product sales need Pro ($49 a month billed yearly), which also lifts the submission cap within fair use and adds coupons. Conditional logic is on every plan.
The catch: we found no EU hosting commitment on its pages, and its free plan is the shortest here after Typeform.
- No Paperform fee on payments
- Stripe, Square, Braintree and PayPal Business
- Subscriptions and coupons from Pro
- Conditional logic on all plans
- Free-form layout, close to a sales page
- 7-day trial, no card
- ✓You only pay your payment processor's fees
- ✓A sales page and a form in one link
- ✓Unlimited submissions from Pro
- ✗Free plan capped at 30 submissions a month
- ✗No subscriptions on free
- ✗No EU option on its pricing page
The right tool when your form sells a session, a workshop or a subscription. For sensitive personal data, Tally or Jotform on EU servers are safer bets.
Typeform
Typeform, based in Barcelona, is known for the one-question-per-screen form. Respondents move through it like a conversation, which makes long surveys less painful. It is the most polished experience in this ranking.
It is also the tightest on price. The free plan gives 10 responses a month, across the whole account, not per form. Basic, at $28 a month billed yearly, goes to 100. You need Plus ($56) for 1,000. Choosing an EU data center is only possible on Enterprise, by quote.
Billing is the other complaint: customers report renewals charged without warning. Put the renewal date in your calendar the day you pay, and turn off auto-renew if you only need one campaign.
- One question per screen
- Logic jumps from Basic
- Tiers from 100 to 10,000 responses a month
- Talent plan for hiring
- Based in Barcelona
- EU data center on Enterprise
- ✓The nicest respondent experience
- ✓Good for long surveys
- ✓Clear response-based tiers
- ✗10 responses a month on free, account-wide
- ✗EU data only on Enterprise
- ✗Complaints about surprise renewals
Choose it when the respondent experience matters more than price. On a tight budget, Tally does more for less.
Drag'n Survey
Drag'n Survey is a French company built for surveys and questionnaires more than contact or payment forms. It states GDPR compliance and HDS certification (France's health data hosting standard).
The free plan reads in three numbers: 20 questions and 3 pages per survey, 200 respondents per survey, and 50 invitation emails a month. Survey count is unlimited. Conditional logic is not on free; it comes with Plus, along with quotas and 2,000 respondents per survey. HDS hosting is listed on Premium only.
The catch: Stripe payments only come with Premium, and the interface targets French-speaking teams. The vendor lists its plans excluding tax with a $ sign: Plus at $20 a month billed yearly ($28 monthly), Premium at $38 ($47). Check the final amount at checkout.
- French vendor
- HDS hosting on Premium
- Unlimited surveys on free
- Quotas and logic from Plus
- Stripe payments and SMS invitations on Premium
- SSO and SLA on Enterprise
- ✓The only European-built tool in this ranking besides Tally
- ✓Built for large surveys
- ✓A health-data option in the same tool
- ✗No conditional logic on free
- ✗20 questions per survey on free
- ✗Stripe payments on Premium only
A fit for European health or public-sector surveys. For a contact or signup form, Tally is simpler.
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is already in your subscription if your organization runs Microsoft 365. It handles forms and graded quizzes, with simple branching from one question to the next.
The trap is the account type. On a free personal account, each form stops at 200 responses. A paid personal account goes to 1,000. Only business and education accounts reach up to 5 million responses per form. An account can hold up to 400 forms and quizzes. Microsoft 365 Personal users report getting stuck at 200 mid-campaign, so check your account before opening a public signup.
The catch: no payments, little styling, and a tool built for internal use more than a public website.
- Included in Microsoft 365
- Graded quizzes for teaching
- Nothing to install
- Up to 400 forms per account
- Branching between questions
- Up to 5 million responses on business accounts
- ✓Nothing extra to buy at work
- ✓Great for student quizzes
- ✓Everyone already knows it
- ✗200 responses per form on a free personal account
- ✗No payments
- ✗Limited visual customization
Right for internal forms inside a Microsoft 365 organization. For a public form on a personal account, the 200-response cap arrives too fast.
The real free quota, and where your responses go
A per-month counter resets. A per-form counter means duplicating forms. An account-wide counter gets eaten by your other forms.
| Free-plan quota | EU hosting | |
|---|---|---|
| Tally | No counter (fair use) | Belgium, by default |
| Fillout | 1,000 responses a month | Team or Enterprise, by quote |
| Jotform | 100 submissions a month, 5 forms | EU servers by default for EU accounts |
| Paperform | 30 submissions a month | No EU option on its pricing page |
| Typeform | 10 responses a month, account-wide | Enterprise only |
| Drag'n Survey | 200 respondents and 20 questions per survey | French vendor, HDS on Premium |
Quotas and options read in 2026 on vendor pricing and help pages. Tally's EU hosting does not cover its US email and payment providers.
How to choose your online form builder
Three questions cut the list in half: how many responses a month, what data you collect, and whether you take payments.
A nonprofit or club
Tally's free plan covers memberships and signups with no counter. For signatures or fee calculations, Jotform with its 50% nonprofit discount.
A school
If the school runs Microsoft 365, Forms handles graded quizzes. For a public signup, avoid a personal account (200 responses per form).
Health data
In the US, look at Jotform's HIPAA-ready forms on Gold and get the terms in writing. In France, health data also requires an HDS-certified host, which Drag'n Survey lists on Premium.
You sell a service
Paperform takes no platform fee and handles subscriptions from Pro. Tally and Fillout also take Stripe payments on free. Google Forms and Microsoft Forms take none.
You feed a database
Fillout writes straight into Airtable, Notion or your database, with 1,000 free responses a month.
You are leaving Google Forms
Usual reasons: no payments, fixed design, uploads filling your Drive. Our switch from Google Forms guide covers the move.
- Is the free quota per month, per form or account-wide?
- What happens at the next response: blocked, hidden or billed?
- Where are responses stored, and is the EU option paid?
- Is the DPA signed by default?
- Which providers (email, payments) sit outside the EU?
- Is conditional logic in the plan you pay for?
- Is there a file size cap on uploads?
- Does the plan auto-renew, and when?
Four tools worth knowing
They come up in searches. Each has a reason to be here, and a reason not to be ranked.
Google Forms: free, but no published quota
FreeGoogle Forms is free with a Google account and can show questions based on earlier answers. Three limits matter. It takes no payments. Uploaded files land in the owner's Drive and use its storage. And respondents must sign in to a Google account to upload a file. Google publishes no clear page on free-tier caps, which is why it is not ranked. Moving off it? Read switch from Google Forms.
- Price
- Free with a Google account
- For
- Quick internal polls
- Limit
- No payments, uploads in your Drive
Youform: a free plan with no counter, still young
FreeLike Tally, Youform offers forms and responses with no counter on free (fair use), conditional logic and 10 MB uploads. Stripe payments need Pro, at $20 a month billed yearly ($29 monthly). Business costs $60 a month billed yearly and adds email and SMS verification. Ask the vendor where responses are stored before collecting personal data.
- Price
- Free, Pro $20/mo billed yearly
- For
- A free Tally alternative
- Limit
- Stripe payments on Pro only
Formstack: built for enterprise, no free plan
From $83/moFormstack has no free plan. Its Forms plan costs $83 a month billed yearly for one user, 25 forms, 1,000 submissions per form and 2 GB, with a 14-day trial and no card. It is an IT-department tool, outside this page's scope.
- Price
- $83/mo billed yearly
- For
- Large organizations
- Limit
- No free plan
WordPress plugins: a different job
WordPress onlyGravity Forms, WPForms and Formidable live inside your WordPress site, so responses sit with your web host. You handle updates and security yourself. Our Gravity Forms review covers that route.
- Price
- Yearly license
- For
- WordPress sites
- Limit
- You maintain it
Six tips to stay free longer
Drawn from vendor pages and user reviews.
Read the counter's unit before the number
10 responses a month account-wide (Typeform) is nothing like 200 per form (Microsoft Forms). A per-form cap can be worked around by duplicating; an account cap cannot.
Check EU storage before your first form
Jotform stores accounts created from the EU on European servers by default; otherwise, switch it on in settings (Data, "GDPR Datacenter"). Check it on signup day, not after responses start arriving.
Mind the sub-processors
Even Tally, hosted in Belgium, sends notifications via a US provider and payments via Stripe. If your privacy policy promises EU-only data, turn off notifications that include responses.
Ask for the nonprofit discount first
Jotform gives 50% off to nonprofits and education. It is not applied automatically: request it before your first payment.
Write down the renewal date
The most common Typeform complaints are about unexpected renewal charges. Calendar the date the day you pay. Jotform has a 30-day refund window.
Watch upload storage
Google Forms uploads fill the owner's Drive, and a full Drive can stop new responses. Tally caps each file at 10 MB on free. Ask for compressed PDFs, not phone photos.
A new form builder deserves a spot? You'll hear it here
Go further
These pages extend your choice.
Quotas, databases and price compared.
You want Tally in detailTally reviewScores per criterion and limits.
Typeform feels too priceyTypeform alternativesTools that replace it.
You want a feature-led rankingBest form buildersOur general ranking.
You mostly run surveysSurveys and quizzesSurvey tools compared.
You run a nonprofitForm builders for nonprofitsMemberships, donations, signups.
Online form builder FAQ
What is the best free online form builder?
Tally, for most uses. Its free plan has no response or form counter within fair use, and includes conditional logic and Stripe payments. If you want a written quota, Fillout gives 1,000 responses a month. Avoid Typeform on free: 10 responses a month for the whole account.
What is the best free alternative to Google Forms?
Tally, because it stays free with no counter while adding what Google Forms lacks: payments, calculations and EU hosting. For forms that feed Airtable or Notion, Fillout. Keep Google Forms for quick internal polls.
Which form builder can take payments for free?
Tally and Fillout take Stripe payments on their free plans, and Paperform charges no platform fee. Jotform limits free to 10 payments a month, Youform keeps payments for Pro and Drag'n Survey for Premium. Google Forms and Microsoft Forms take none. Your payment processor still charges its own fees.
What happens when you go over the free quota?
It depends on the tool, so ask before you launch a signup. Microsoft Forms stops accepting responses past the form limit. Google Forms can stop when the owner's Drive is full. Elsewhere, the vendor pushes you to a paid tier. Pick a tool whose quota beats your expected volume by at least a third.
Is Typeform or Jotform better?
Jotform for features, Typeform for respondent experience. Jotform's free plan gives 100 submissions a month against Typeform's 10, and Jotform stores EU-created accounts on European servers while Typeform keeps EU data centers for Enterprise. Typeform's one-question flow is nicer for long surveys. Our Typeform vs Jotform page goes deeper.
Can I collect health data with an online form?
Yes, with the right plan and agreement. In the US, look for a HIPAA option and get the terms in writing; Jotform offers HIPAA-ready forms on Gold. In France, an HDS-certified host is also required; Drag'n Survey lists HDS hosting on Premium.
Do I need EU hosting for GDPR?
Not strictly, but it is much simpler. Sending EU data to the US needs a legal framework, such as the standard contractual clauses Fillout offers. EU hosting, like Tally by default or Jotform for EU-created accounts, avoids that paperwork for the responses themselves.