10 Free Online Form Builders to Collect Submissions

Build your own web form to collect relevant information from people

Whether you want to put a contact form on your website, conduct an online survey with your email newsletter subscribers or receive applications for a job that you're advertising, using a free online form builder is an easy and convenient way for you to start collecting information from people who are willing to make submissions.

Lucky for you, it's possible to create your own web form without having to code it all yourself or pay a hefty fee. There are lots of powerful third-party web form providers out there that make it as easy as possible for regular internet users to create and customize their own forms using both simple and advanced options, completely free of charge.

Have a look through some of the most popular and versatile choices below.

Google Forms: Quick and Versatile With Seamless Integration

Google Forms
What We Like
  • Embed forms on web pages.

  • Drag and drop.

  • Integrated with Google Spreadsheets.

What We Don't Like
  • Difficult to customize.

  • Complicated to find data spreadsheet.

  • Bare bones form templates.

Google Forms lets you create impressive web forms for everything from event registrations and quick polls, to email newsletter subscription forms and pop quizzes. You can make a survey with all sorts of different question style types including multiple choice, dropdown options, checkboxes, short answers, paragraphs and linear scales.

To make your form look as appealing possible, you can also add your logo, insert photos/videos in questions and even customize your form's theme or color palette. Forms can be shared via Google itself or embedded seamlessly into a website.

Wufoo: Form Templates for Everyone

Wufoo
What We Like
  • Easy to embed in websites.

  • Simple interface.

  • Easy to use.

What We Don't Like
  • Limited form design features.

  • Email notifications are unencrypted.

Wufoo is another fantastic online form builder tool to choose if you want to whip a pretty simple form pretty quickly and add payment processing as an option. There are over 400 form templates to choose from, which you can either share via a Wufoo link or embed it on your own site. Detailed reporting is another huge plus.

Besides the convenience of simplicity, Wufoo also gives its users the flexibility to create custom rules that follow logic they've set up for their form questions. Free users can create up to five forms with up to 10 different fields for collecting up to 100 submissions. 

JotForm: Featuring the Most Easy-to-Use Form Builder

JotForm
Screenshot of JotForm.com
What We Like
  • Affordable pricing for premium options.

  • Responses stored in a database.

  • Cloud hosted forms.

What We Don't Like
  • Very limited free offering.

  • Poor customer service.

  • Changing form design can be complicated.

JotForm is great if you need to create a form fast and don't necessarily require it to look too pretty and flashy. Definitely take advantage of their free templates available for everything from contact forms and registration forms, to membership applications and payments forms. If you do want to customize the look of your form, you can always have a look through their themes for some better-looking designs.

When you preview your finished form, you can copy the URL for its hosted page on JotForm or alternatively embed it into your own WordPress site using the Embed Form plugin. JotForm allows up to five forms for free users that can receive up to 100 monthly submissions.

EmailMeForm: Professional Forms for Your Business

EmailMeForm
What We Like
  • Easy to create web forms.

  • Excellent documentation.

  • Easy to use.

What We Don't Like
  • Difficult to customize.

  • Slight learning curve.

  • Some templates are low quality.

If you're looking to make a professional web form that fits your company or website brand, EmailMeForm is worth considering. You can easily create your own web forms with its drag-and-drop form builder software and either take advantage of one of its many themes to make it stand out or use some of the other advanced customization options to make it look just the way you like.

Once your form is completed, you can embed your forms on your website or even on social networks like Facebook. All forms are mobile responsive, and as a free user, you can create unlimited forms with up to 50 different fields that can receive up to 100 monthly submissions.

Typeform: Conversational and Gorgeously Designed

Typeform
What We Like
  • Easy to use.

  • Well-designed forms.

  • Embed logic into forms.

  • Affordable.

What We Don't Like
  • Some aspects of the interface are not intuitive.

  • Slight learning curve.

  • Difficult to customize embeds.

Want to take your web form to the next level? Typeform is an online form builder tool that makes your form stand out from all the rest with beautiful and seamless user experiences that go beyond simple form fields and checkboxes.

You have to check out their examples to get a real sense of what you can do with Typeform. Built with versatility in mind, you can use it to create a simple contact form or even a complicated IQ test. Free users can create unlimited forms and get access to lots of extra goodies, with the opportunity to upgrade for power users and teams.

FormSite: Great for Payment Processing

Formsite
Screenshot of Formsite.com
What We Like
  • Integrates with 3rd party services.

  • Lots of premade themes.

  • Impressive features.

  • Many styles to choose from.

What We Don't Like
  • Gets expensive at higher tiers.

  • Can be difficult to navigate.

FormSite is a good alternative to consider if you're serious about using your form to not only collect important user information but payments too. Its checkout feature allows you to complete payment transactions through PayPal and Authorize.net, or alternatively accept credit cards and checks.

Have a look at some of their examples to get some ideas of what you can build. You can design your form to match your style, add multiple pages, embed the form into your site, calculate values or scores using fields and so much more. Free users can create up to five forms with up to 10 results per form.

Cognito Forms: Featuring the Best Free Form Features

Cognito Forms
What We Like
  • Easy to embed in websites.

  • Well-designed form builder.

  • Simple form preview.

  • Very easy to use.

What We Don't Like
  • No coding required.

  • Lacks advanced features.

  • Can take time to load.

Cognito Forms claims to offer more free features than any other form builder and is a top choice for users who want to integrate payments with their forms. Two of its most powerful features include repeating sections to minimize work for applicants and the ability to save forms and return to them later.

You can embed your form into your site or share it via a link, and then manage all of your entries from any device as they come in. Payments can be accepted by credit card or PayPal. As a free user, you can create unlimited forms to collect up to 500 entries a month.

123ContactForm: Get Total Control Over Your Form

123ContactForm
What We Like
  • Free option available.

  • Easy to use.

  • Simple to customize.

  • Useful form templates.

What We Don't Like
  • Few advanced design features.

  • Form theme is somewhat fixed.

  • Slight learning curve.

123ContactForm aims to provide the most user-friendly web and mobile forms that can be automated and used for payment processing as well. You can use its easy drag-and-drop tool to drop a field into your form, select your notification email and publish your form anywhere online.

Forms can be integrated and automated with other popular services like Salesforce, MailChimp or Google Drive, and payments can be accepted via PayPal, Authorize.net or Stripe. Free users can create up to five forms and accept up to 100 submissions per month.

Ninja Forms: Ideal for Self-Hosted WordPress Sites

Ninja Forms
Screenshot of NinjaForms.com
What We Like
  • Functional contact form plugin.

  • Simple template forms.

  • Easy to use form builder.

  • Anti-spam feature.

What We Don't Like
  • Difficult for beginners.

  • Expensive premium plan.

If you run a WordPress website and want to embed forms into your web pages, then you'll want to check out Ninja Forms, which is a free drag-and-drop form builder plugin made specifically for WordPress users.

You can build your forms and manage your submissions all within the WordPress dashboard, creating anything as simple as a regular contact form, to something more complicated with rich text editors, calculations and more. Ninja Forms also has a wide variety of premium extensions it works with as well.

Zoho: For Businesses Looking to Eventually Upgrade

Zoho
What We Like
  • Drag and drop form builder.

  • Useful mobile app.

  • Affordable.

What We Don't Like
  • Very limited free version.

  • Proprietary scripting language.

  • Limited template selection.

Zoho provides a suite of online applications for businesses, one of which is an online form builder. Like many of the alternatives above, Zoho's drag-and-drop functionality allows you to create a variety of simple and advanced forms, with an advanced option to add logic to your forms.

You can embed your form onto your website, build custom reports, process payments, get instant notifications upon submission and export your data in a variety of different formats. Unfortunately, there's one catch to this one: you only get a limited free trial (three forms and 500 monthly submissions) before you have to upgrade to at least an $8/month plan to be able to continue using the service. Its most basic membership lets you create unlimited forms with 10,000 submissions a month.

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Moreau, Elise. "10 Free Online Form Builders to Collect Submissions." ThoughtCo, Dec. 6, 2021, thoughtco.com/free-online-form-builders-3866348. Moreau, Elise. (2021, December 6). 10 Free Online Form Builders to Collect Submissions. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/free-online-form-builders-3866348 Moreau, Elise. "10 Free Online Form Builders to Collect Submissions." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/free-online-form-builders-3866348 (accessed April 20, 2024).