Whether you're a flourishing tech company in Silicon Valley or a small, local business aspiring to gain customer insights, the choice of an online form builder is a crucial part of your digital strategy.
We’re weighing up the pros and cons of three heavy-hitters in the realm of online form builders – Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Feathery.
Typeform, with its intuitive interface and eye-catching design, has been a top choice for marketers and small businesses. But its design-focused approach comes at a cost.
Adding multiple fields to a single step or introducing custom validation logic might prove as challenging as fitting a square peg into a round hole.
SurveyMonkey, on the other hand, is known for its wide range of question types and excellent data analytics tools. It's the go-to choice for many who seek simple, effective, and user-friendly forms.
For those with more specialized needs or unique brand aesthetics, this "one-size-fits-all" approach may leave much to be desired.
Feathery offers an enticing alternative that builds upon the established model and breaks new ground in form building. What sets Feathery apart is our low-code platform.
While other form builders might require extensive coding knowledge or the support of a dedicated development team to create complex forms, Feathery puts the power directly in your hands.
Try the demo flow below to see how you can use Feathery to create highly customized forms without using code.
In this detailed comparison, we’ll dissect the marketing chatter and delve into the features, strengths, and weaknesses of each platform.
You’ll gain insights into how each form builder performs, enabling you to make the best choice for your team.
A quick comparison of the tools
Let's quickly glance over this comparative table to get a general idea of where each platform shines.
Typeform
Up first is Typeform, a tried and tested form-builder with a solid reputation in this niche. Typeform is often lauded for its interactive and intuitive interface. It allows users to create visually appealing, user-friendly forms and surveys that can boost response rates.
The platform's conversational approach ensures that questions are displayed one at a time, which minimizes the chances of survey fatigue and helps maintain respondents' interest.
One of Typeform's notable strengths lies in its design capabilities. It offers customizable templates and the flexibility to adjust colors, fonts, and backgrounds, resulting in forms that align well with brand identity.
Another advantage is its unlimited fields and questions feature, even for the free plan, making it ideal for creating detailed surveys.
Integration is also a strong suit of Typeform. It offers compatibility with various platforms, such as Zapier and HubSpot, allowing for seamless data transfer across different tools.
But Typeform has its drawbacks. On its free plan, it only allows 10 responses per month, which can limit its utility for more extensive surveys or businesses with high traffic. While it provides a range of features, the most advanced ones are only available with higher-tier plans. These include payment gateway integration, file upload, and respondent notifications.
The platform's API capabilities are also limited, offering basic APIs that might not satisfy the needs of users looking for more complex and detailed customization.
In terms of support, Typeform provides email assistance and priority support but only for paid plans, which can be a drawback for users who may need immediate assistance.
While Typeform's interactive design and unlimited questions feature make it an excellent choice for engaging surveys, considerations regarding response limitations, advanced feature access, and level of support are crucial when determining if this tool is the right fit.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Seamless integration with CRM tools, notably Salesforce
- Dynamic and engaging forms which present one question at a time
- Customizable design options for logic features
- Forms adapt well across different screen sizes
- Easy sharing of results and locating past forms
Cons
- Initially challenging to use features like driving respondents to different URLs based on their responses
- Embedding forms in certain email providers can be troublesome
- Customer support response times can be improved
- One question per screen might not appeal to users who prefer seeing more information at once
- Customization can be less detailed compared to Feathery
SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey stands out as a prominent player in the realm of online survey tools, offering a wide variety of survey templates and question types.
With its comprehensive question library, SurveyMonkey provides a wealth of pre-made questions for a wide array of scenarios. This feature can significantly streamline the form creation process, saving valuable time.
One of the key strengths of SurveyMonkey is its advanced survey analytics. This includes features like cross-tabulation, which can help uncover relationships between different data points, providing deeper insights into survey responses.
While the versatility and robustness of the platform offer valuable benefits, the interface can initially appear intimidating. It doesn't have the immediate ease of use one might encounter with other more streamlined or intuitive form builders like Feathery or Typerform.
Users may need to familiarize themselves with the interface and functionality before fully leveraging the platform's comprehensive features.
Nonetheless, for those who value convenience, comprehensive pre-set questions, and robust analytics, SurveyMonkey can be a powerful asset in the arsenal of form-building and data-collection tools.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Effective guidance for survey creation
- Easy to distribute and share your surveys
- Wide range of ready-to-use templates
- Strong analytics capabilities
- Customizable survey campaigns
Cons
- Some form designs seem outdated compared to competitors
- Bulky survey builder
- The search functionality doesn't always deliver comprehensive results
- The support page could be more helpful and intuitive
Feathery
Feathery positions itself as a cutting-edge solution that excels in creating advanced, bespoke form flows like sign up, onboarding, payment, and more.
This makes it more valuable in comparison to popular form builders Typeform and SurveyMonkey, which may not fully satisfy your need for highly customized, professional forms that seamlessly blend into digital products.
It would be nearly impossible to create something like this in SurveyMonkey or Typeform.
Feathery's power lies in its use of advanced rules and actions, open-source Software Development Kits (SDKs), and detailed CSS customization options.
This gives product teams the power to build forms that are as functional as they are beautiful, without compromising on their technological needs.
Feathery forms can be fully branded and self-hosted, delivering a cohesive user experience.
In terms of data analysis, Feathery offers advanced tracking and analytics capabilities, including the ability to run A/B tests natively on the platform – an option not offered by Typeform.
A/B tests are vital for form optimization because they help identify what works best for your audience, increasing form completion rates and enhancing user experience.
For instance, you might run an A/B test on a sign-up form where version A asks for the user's email first, while version B asks for the user's name first. Analyzing the results could reveal which ordering leads to higher completion rates, allowing you to refine your form for optimal performance.
If your needs stretch beyond basic surveys and simple forms, and you require a tool for product-grade use cases, Feathery may prove to be the superior choice. It offers an impressive combination of customization, flexibility, and advanced features.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Feathery packs a multitude of features, allowing for complex conditional logic and fields
- Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- Forms created with Feathery are highly aesthetic and professional in appearance.
- The support team is highly responsive and proactive in resolving issues and incorporating user feedback
- A speedy turnaround on feature requests and development updates
Cons
- Occasional bugs in the system
- The process of having to go through email for each login is a minor inconvenience
A detailed look at the features provided
Let’s explore the cutting-edge features that set these powerhouse tools apart.
Visual interface
With its flexible 2D visual editor, Feathery empowers users to not only customize forms extensively but also to create complex, bespoke form flows.
This level of customization and sophistication outpaces the capabilities offered by both Typeform and SurveyMonkey, making Feathery the standout choice for those looking for a truly integrated, professional-grade form builder.
Typeform is known for its unique conversational style, presenting one question at a time, which transforms the typically mundane survey-taking process into a dynamic and interactive experience.
Despite its drag-and-drop interface and ability to create beautiful forms that are visually appealing, some users have observed that the workflow of constructing a form can sometimes feel non-linear and fragmented. They feel that Typeform lacks the seamless collaborative features offered by some of its competitors.
SurveyMonkey presents a more traditional form interface, allowing users to view multiple questions at once, depending on the survey design.
The platform offers several design customization options, such as theme colors and fonts, yet the overall visual appeal might not be as compelling as Typeform's or Feathery's.
Advanced logic
This sophisticated logic setup can be a game-changer in creating highly interactive and personalized forms.
Typeform and SurveyMonkey, while offering competent form building solutions, fall short when it comes to advanced logic.
Typeform's logic jumps, although user-friendly, doesn't natively support loops or multiple exit points. This limits the ability to handle more intricate form logic that a growing company might require.
Typeform excels in creating engaging, conversational forms but may lack the complexity needed for more sophisticated use-cases.
Similarly, SurveyMonkey's skip logic offers a straightforward approach to conditional logic, allowing respondents to skip irrelevant sections based on their answers.
But like Typeform, it lacks support for loops and multiple exit points, restricting its ability to tackle complex user flows.
Customizability and flexibility
Typeform has made a name for itself in the field of interactive and user-friendly form builders, offering numerous customization options. From tweaking fonts and colors to adding images or GIFs, users are empowered to construct visually captivating forms that truly represent their brand's identity.
However, despite its popularity, it lacks advanced functionality and powerful tools that are imperative for complex form-creation tasks.
SurveyMonkey, on the other hand, leans more towards functional capability, presenting a broad spectrum of customizable question types, survey structures, and design elements.
While it supports answer piping and possesses a knowledge base for user assistance, its interface may not hold the same visual appeal as Typeform or offer the flexibility that Feathery brings to the table.
Feathery, in contrast, raises the standard of customizability and flexibility regarding form builders.
Advanced reporting is made effortless with its granular CSS customization options, paving the way for comprehensive branding and seamless integration with existing digital products.
Forms crafted with Feathery seamlessly blend into the user journey, unlike the standalone elements usually generated by other form building platforms.
Feathery shines with its pre-made templates, offering you a head-start to quickly set up your forms. This advanced functionality, coupled with powerful tools, makes Feathery the ideal choice for crafting user-centric forms.
When it comes to creating dynamic and customizable forms, Feathery emerges as the clear winner. Offering an unparalleled level of customizability and flexibility, it empowers users to craft forms that perfectly align with their brand identity.
Developer experience and SDKs
With its aim to meet the needs of growing tech companies, Feathery offers a highly extensible Embed SDK.
This SDK provides a wealth of customization options and advanced features that can be integrated into your product. The extensible APIs mean that developers have the freedom to craft an experience that perfectly fits their product's needs.
The ability to handle complex logic, provide real-time updates, and have granular control over the user experience sets Feathery's SDK apart from the others.
The Typeform SDK focuses on enabling the easy integration and display of forms, but it doesn't offer the same level of control over complex features like advanced form logic or real-time updates.
Like Typeform, SurveyMonkey's SDK focuses on basic form embed and display functionality, without offering extensive customization options or advanced features.
While it's possible to create and retrieve surveys using the SurveyMonkey API, its capabilities for advanced form control and real-time updates are not as comprehensive as Feathery's.
Integrations
For instance, Typeform’s interactive forms enable users to connect directly to popular platforms such as Salesforce, Mailchimp, Slack, and Google Sheets.
SurveyMonkey also offers a similar suite of integrations. Users can directly import data into platforms like Mailchimp for email marketing campaigns or Salesforce for CRM.
Feathery, though not offering as broad a range of pre-built integrations as Typeform and SurveyMonkey, provides some advanced integrations that align well with its focus on product-grade use cases. These aren’t offered by Typeform or SurveyMonkey.
Integrations with Stytch, Firebase, Plaid, and Segment are unique to Feathery in this segment. This affords users a high level of customization and functionality, making it an appealing choice for tech-savvy businesses with complex integration needs.
Support
Feathery offers strong support including a Slack Community. This allows users to have real-time interactions with the Feathery team as well as other users, providing a platform for sharing ideas, troubleshooting, and gaining insights.
Feathery also provides email support and comprehensive documentation to aid users in making the most out of the platform.
While Typeform and SurveyMonkey both provide robust support options like email and a help center, they don’t offer this type of real-time, interactive community support.
Customer reviews on independent platforms praise the Feathery team for their quick responses to questions and a readiness to implement feature requests.
Pricing
When comparing the pricing options of Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Feathery, the winner largely depends on your business's specific needs and budget.
Typeform's pricing model is quite competitive, starting at $29 per month for their Basic plan and going up to $99 per month for their Business plan. Given Typeform's intuitive interface, extensive customization options, and variety of question types, this can be a reasonable investment for businesses seeking an engaging and visually appealing form-building experience.
SurveyMonkey, on the other hand, offers a more expensive starting price and different plans depending on whether you’re joining as a team or individual.
Feathery is more expensive compared to the other two tools, with its Basic plan starting at $49 per month and its Pro plan priced at $190 per month.
Considering the advanced features and functionalities Feathery offers – advanced form logic, A/B testing, developer-friendly tools, and the ability to create bespoke form flows – it provides good value for product teams and businesses.
SaaS and small to medium-sized businesses often have complex form requirements that extend beyond the capabilities of traditional form builders.
Given these considerations, if the criteria is based solely on the lowest cost, Typeform would be the winner. However, Feathery is well worth the investment if you're considering the balance of cost versus advanced features and functionality.
What customers say
Navigating the multitude of available form builder tools can be daunting. Looking at what actual users say about the tools can provide invaluable insights.
Below, we’ve summarized real users’ experiences of the three popular form builders – Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Feathery.
Typeform customer reviews
- "I really like Typeform for its user-friendly interface and modern design, which make it easy to create visually appealing surveys, forms, and quizzes." – Pedro A.
- "I would not consider this a proper survey tool. One of the biggest issues I have with Typeform, is wanting to limit what is shown to users, if they don't select certain things Like "if answer is NOT abc, skip question 5." – Marlana C.
- "While the options are there to customize forms to match branding, personalize questions, and build the right types of forms to grab attention, there are some areas that could be improved upon. Image placement in forms, for example isn't ideal, and some questions are limited with formatting." – Chad B.
SurveyMonkey customer reviews
- "Survey was easy to create and looked nice." – Maritta D.
- "Despite my overall positive experience with SurveyMonkey, one limitation I've encountered is the restricted flexibility in survey design. The platform has certain limitations on customization options, which can be frustrating when trying to achieve a specific survey format or layout." – Eduardo G.
- "I do wish I had the ability to integrate with my HCM System so I could have the data in an employee profile or with a specific group. For example, this specific group of new hires rated certain criteria a particular way." – John R.
Feathery customer reviews
- "Their team is super fast at not just responding to my numerous questions, but putting a fair amount of them straight into development." – Marius D.
- "The product is fantastic. It's packed full of features and allows you to create forms with complex logic, fields etc. It's also super easy to use and the forms look so slick." – Ben M.
- "The Feathery team are also super responsive to feature and support requests. Love working with them!" – Ben M.
- "Maybe not as feature rich as some other options, but this is not really a dislike as they're so open and quick at making development requests and updates to make the product more complete." – Marius D.
While Typeform and SurveyMonkey have unique strengths and appeal, Feathery is making a solid impression among users requiring more advanced, product-grade forms.
Its focus on customizability, form logic, and seamless integration has been exceptionally well-received by users.
The final verdict: should you choose Typeform, SurveyMonkey, or Feathery?
Choosing between Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Feathery depends largely on your specific needs, budget, and business goals.
If you’re a creative individual or small business owner that prioritizes visually stunning and conversational-style forms, Typeform offers a unique design perspective that could suit your needs. But its higher price tier and functional limitations might be a deterrent for some.
SurveyMonkey, with its extensive question library and robust data analytics platform, is an excellent choice if you’re focused on data collection and analysis. The outdated look and feel of some forms and the lack of direct Google Drive integration could be potential drawbacks.
Feathery's comprehensive set of features – advanced form logic, extensive customizability, third-party integration, and responsive customer support – make it an excellent choice for SaaS companies and enterprises.
In the end, the choice boils down to your specific needs and priorities. If you're after a unique, engaging design, Typeform could be a good fit. If comprehensive data analysis capabilities are crucial, SurveyMonkey might be the way to go.
But if you're looking for a sophisticated, flexible form builder capable of creating professional, tailored forms that seamlessly integrate with your digital products, Feathery is your software of choice.
Ready to try Feathery? Get started for free.
FAQ
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While user-friendliness can depend on individual preferences and tech-savviness, Typeform and SurveyMonkey are generally known for their intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces.
It's worth noting that other options are on the market, such as Feathery, which also provides a straightforward and flexible visual editor that makes form creation relatively easy, even for complex use cases.
Yes, both Typeform and SurveyMonkey allow for the creation of advanced form flows with logic and conditional branching. If you're looking for comprehensive support for multiple entry and exit points, loops, and other advanced form logic features, consider other options, like Feathery.
Both Typeform and SurveyMonkey offer solid analytics and reporting capabilities. SurveyMonkey has been praised for its robust analytics platform. Feathery offers advanced tracking, actionable insights, and even native A/B testing capabilities, which can be a game-changer for in-depth analysis.
Yes, both Typeform and SurveyMonkey allow for customization and branding to varying degrees. Typeform is known for its beautiful, interactive form designs. SurveyMonkey offers customization, though it may not be as visually appealing.
For more advanced customization options, like granular CSS customization and a flexible visual editor, you might want to consider alternatives like Feathery.
Integrations with other software tools are a key feature of both Typeform and SurveyMonkey, which offer a range of integrations with popular tools. Feathery sets itself apart with exclusive integrations with platforms like Stytch, Firebase, Plaid, and Segment for even better user experience.
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