Zoho Forms offers affordable pricing plans that allow you to build an unlimited number of beautiful forms.
However, after speaking to several Zoho Forms users, we found that the platform does suffer from a few limitations:
- It doesn’t offer an AI form builder that’ll build forms for you from scratch
- You can’t use AI to analyze your form data and find areas for improvement
- You can’t see what users typed into your form unless they submit it, which makes it difficult to recover abandoned leads
- Zoho Forms only integrates with other Zoho applications and a limited number of third-party applications
So, in this guide, we walk you through five Zoho Forms alternatives that solve these pain points, starting with our own solution, FormBuilder (previously MightyForms). We then discuss other solutions on the market that you may want to consider: Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, SurveyMonkey, WPForms, SoGoSurvey, and EmailMeForm.
Who are we: We are FormBuilder and we aim to fix everything we believe is wrong with the form building industry. Specifically, we found that most form builders don’t have AI features that’ll analyze your form data for you and suggest improvements, nor do they allow you to see what users entered into your form if they didn’t submit it. This makes it difficult to improve form completion rates and recover leads, so we built a tool with all these functionalities. If you’d like to give FormBuilder a shot, you can sign up for a free trial here.
1. Best AI features: FormBuilder
Here’s how we solve the Zoho Forms limitations mentioned above:
- You can use AI to build personalized forms within seconds
- You can use AI to analyze your form data and suggest areas for improvement
- You can automatically recover abandoned leads
- You can connect to over 100 third-party applications
You can use AI to build personalized forms within seconds
Although Zoho Forms has over 50 form templates that you can use to kickstart your form-building process, it doesn't have an AI that'll build a form for you.
This is why we added an AI form building feature into FormBuilder. It ensures that you don't have to create forms from scratch. All you have to do is type a prompt into the AI chatbot, and the AI will respond with a form customized around your preferences.
This form won't be perfect, and you'll have to make tweaks, but it's a much better starting point than a generic template.
You can use AI to analyze your form data and suggest areas for improvement
With most form builders, including Zoho Forms, the interface will give you all your form statistics, like how many people completed your form, where these respondents came from, and where they dropped off.
However, it's up to you to analyze this data and A/B test different things. Often, this can leave users feeling like they aren't making progress because their form completion rate stays the same.
This is why, in addition to our AI form-building feature, we also have an AI analytics feature that analyzes your form data and suggests areas for improvement.
For example, if the AI sees that most of your users are dropping off before the payment field, it might conclude that respondents are not ready to buy yet and recommend removing the payment field. Or, if the AI sees everyone dropping off before the signature field, it might think that respondents aren't comfortable signing your form and suggest making it optional.
This type of constructive criticism is unique to FormBuilder, as most other tools provide only data and no feedback.
You can automatically recover abandoned leads
Another problem with Zoho Forms is that you can't see what respondents typed into your form unless they submit it. So, for example, if someone types in their full name and email address and then bounces, you won't be able to send them a recovery email and ask them to complete your form.
This is why we built an abandoned lead recovery feature into FormBuilder. This feature is unique to FormBuilder and allows you to see what users typed into your form, even if they didn't submit it. If someone types in their full name and email address and then bounces, you'll be able to automatically send them an email prompting them to complete and submit their form.
With many form builders, you can't do this, so you'll have to use Google Ads to retarget these respondents, which can work, but it doesn't have the same conversion rates as directly emailing them.
You can connect to over 100 third-party applications
Another problem we encountered when using Zoho Forms is the limited integrations. Zoho Forms mainly integrates with other Zoho applications, such as Zoho CRM, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Sheet, and Zoho Sign. It also connects to a handful of third-party applications like Office 365, Salesforce, WordPress, and G Suite.
However, this is quite limited compared to most online form builders. Most form builders connect to hundreds of different applications, which is why we found many Zoho Forms users complaining about the limited integrations.
So, we built hundreds of integrations into FormBuilder, including Stripe, Google Analytics, Zoom, Shopify, Trello, Slack and more! You can basically connect to almost any application you're currently using and have FormBuilder automatically send data to this application.
And even if you're using an application that FormBuilder doesn't directly connect to, you can always use Zapier to access even more integrations like ChatGPT, Trello, and Calendly.
2. Best free Zoho alternative: Google Forms
If you're looking for a free form builder that still offers good features such as customizable templates, conditional logic, and integrations, then Google Forms is a good Zoho Forms alternative.
When you log into your Google Forms dashboard, you'll be greeted with a simple interface containing several templates for forms like contact forms, customer feedback forms, and surveys forms. You can then drag and drop various blocks onto your form, such as conditional logic and multiple-choice question fields, customizing the questions you ask respondents.
There's also a paid plan where you can send more emails and set up conditional notifications.
But keep in mind that Google Forms has a few significant limitations. For example, you can't collect customer signatures or payments, and the conditional logic is very basic. If these are drawbacks to you, consider FormBuilder.
3. Best Zoho Forms alternative for Microsoft users: Microsoft Forms
If you're already using Microsoft 365 and don't feel like signing up for another tool, you'll be glad to know there's a form builder inside Microsoft 365 called Microsoft Forms.
Microsoft Forms is more advanced than Google Forms as it offers more form templates as well as an AI that'll help you build a form from scratch. All you have to do is tell the AI what type of form you want to build, and the AI will build one within seconds.
From here, you can tweak your form by adding and removing certain fields, such as question fields, open fields, Likert scale fields, and conditional logic.
Once you're happy with your form, you can use Microsoft Forms' integrations to connect it with Excel, Outlook, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams.
However, it's important to remember that Microsoft Forms doesn't have a Zapier integration, so you can't use Zapier to connect to other applications. You're limited to the applications that Microsoft Forms connects with directly.
4. Best Zoho Forms alternative for surveys: SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is for you if you mainly create surveys and are looking for a form builder specializing in surveys.
You can choose between over 150 surveys, including employee exit surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, and employee satisfaction surveys. Once you've collected data from respondents, you can use various graphs, such as bar graphs, pie charts, and pictographs, to better understand your survey data and communicate survey results to managers and colleagues.
With this data on hand, you can compare the results you're getting to industry benchmarks, identify where you need to improve, and focus on these initiatives.
5. Best Zoho Forms alternative for WordPress users: WPForms
If you're hosting a website on WordPress and you're mainly looking for a form builder that can easily embed forms on WordPress, consider WPForms.
You can find this form builder inside your WordPress plugins dashboard, and once installed, you can create a contact form, survey form, newsletter form, payment form, and more!
Creating a form is quite simple: All you have to do is choose a template, drag and drop a couple of blocks onto your form, and add your questions. But WPForms’ true strength is embedding forms on your WordPress website. The form embedding process is really easy because everything is inside your WordPress dashboard; you don't have to download a third-party form builder.
6. Best Zoho Forms alternative for multilingual surveys: SoGoSurvey
If you're creating forms in various languages, maybe because your customers and employees live in different countries or you have a bilingual website, SoGoSurvey is your best bet. When creating a form inside SoGoSurvey, the form builder will accurately translate it into whatever language you'd like; Spanish, French, German, you name it.
According to many reviews, SoGoSurvey's translations are more accurate than typical Google translations.
Apart from its accurate translation features, SoGoSurvey is like your typical survey builder. It has hundreds of beautiful form templates for collecting user information, signatures, and payments. You can also set up conditional logic rules, which help tailor your form to a user's responses.
7. Best Zoho Forms alternative for collecting sensitive information: EmailMeForm
If you're in a heavily regulated industry like legal or healthcare and have to abide by government regulations like GDPR and HIPAA when collecting user information, opt for EmailMeForm. This form builder complies with most government regulations, so you can use it to collect sensitive user information, be it patient health records or client financial records.
It's also worth mentioning that major organizations like Harvard, Starbucks, NASA, American Red Cross, and HP have used EmailMeForm to collect sensitive user information.
Once you've collected sensitive user information, you can set up secure workflows to push it into your CRM, CMS, or internal messaging tool.
Next steps
If you're looking for an alternative to Zoho Forms, consider signing up for a free FormBuilder trial. You don't have to enter your card information and you can access features specific to FormBuilder, such as AI analytics, automatic lead recovery, and hundreds of third-party integrations.