Fillout, the free Microsoft Forms alternative
Fillout is a powerful, free alternative to Microsoft Forms for making forms, surveys and quizzes your audience will answer.
Microsoft Forms vs Fillout
Hello! Looking to level-up your Microsoft Forms? We wrote this article to walk through the benefits and downsides of Fillout and Microsoft Forms, so you can make the best decision for your form needs.
If you like the simplicity of Microsoft Forms but want sleeker designs and smarter features, this guide is for you. Let's dive in.
Comparing the free plans
Microsoft Forms doesn't have a free plan, so in this section we will compare the Fillout free plan to the paid Microsoft Forms offering. Here's what you can expect from these plans:
Fillout free | Office 365 | |
---|---|---|
Unlimited forms | ||
Seats | Unlimited | Paid 365 users |
Responses | 1000/month | Unlimited |
Unlimited questions | ||
Self email notifications | ||
Hidden fields | ||
Unlimited file uploads | ||
Native scheduling | ||
Workflows | ||
PDF Generation | ||
SOC 2 | ||
Manage form access | Limited | |
Conditional logic | Limited | |
Calculations | ||
Redirect on completion | $15/mo |
Because Microsoft Forms doesn't have a free plan, we compared having an Office 365 subscription to Fillout's free tier. The main downside with Microsoft Forms is that they are missing a lot of basic features and offer little styling flexibility. Fillout, on the other hand, has the same capabilities as Microsoft Forms but with a bunch of powerful add-ons and more aesthetic form designs.
Fillout offers all the basics to build and scale your forms on the free plan. What's more, if you sign up you'll have lifetime access to the free plan features - no strings attached. Learn more about the Fillout free plan and pricing here.
Thousands of teams trust Fillout for building secure and powerful forms.
How do the products compare?
Pricing isn't everything. If you've previously used Microsoft Forms, you probably want to know: can Fillout really replace Microsoft Forms?
Microsoft Forms' main benefits are that it's bundled with your Office 365 subscription and takes a "just-the-basics" approach. On the other hand, Fillout gives your brand the chance to stand out from your competitors with a powerful theme designer.
Ok, but what about advanced features?
The Fillout form builder makes it easy to build modern-looking forms quickly, while also supporting advanced use cases.
Fillout offers two primary paid tiers, a starter tier for $15/month and a business tier for $75/month (paid annually). More details on the Fillout pricing page.
Here's how some of the paid features stack up with Microsoft Forms:
Fillout | Microsoft Forms | |
---|---|---|
Custom fonts | Pro | |
Workspaces | Free | |
Custom domains | Business | |
Custom CSS | Pro | |
Partial submissions | Business | |
Meta pixel | Pro | |
No payment commission | Free | |
Login forms | Starter | |
Respondent email notifications | Free | |
Calendly integration | Pro | |
Address autocomplete | Add-on | |
Enrichment | Add-on | |
Collect signatures | Starter | |
SMS & email verification | Add-on | |
Single Sign-On (SSO) | Enterprise |
TL;DR: The short version
So, what are the pros and cons? Fillout is the more modern form builder, with a generous free tier and better form styling capabilities. Whereas Microsoft Forms gives you a very recognizable, but not very customizable, form aesthetic.
Microsoft Forms may be a better choice when…
- You already have an Office 365 subscription and only need the very basics from your forms.
Fillout is best if…
- You want to make a form that impresses your audience, stands out from your competitors and converts well.
- You need features that go beyond the very basics, like calculations, redirects, answer piping, webhooks and payments.
- You use tools like Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable or Salesforce.
- You want more styling customizability, like multi-column layouts, animations and highly customizable themes.
That's all for now! Hopefully this guide was useful to give you a general overview of Microsoft Forms compared to Fillout.
Ready to give Fillout a try? Sign up here, for free.
Still researching? Head back to the alternatives page.
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