Alternatives to Google Forms

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One of the biggest requests we received during the lockdown period was to find some alternatives to Google Forms. It is in fact one of the most used methods for creating surveys on the internet and its use is now common practice for companies, many companies and private individuals.

Its use, as often happens with Google products, is actually simple, fast and intuitive. We know well, however, that Google's privacy is always the same and the products are free because, in fact, Google is an advertising company ¹.

Alternatives to Google Forms: Who Pays for Free Products?

Unfortunately, the methods we are going to suggest are not always completely free, but we know well that the work must be paid for and that it is also time to pay for the services we use. When you find something free on the internet you always think: “who is paying for all this?”. Many projects live on donations such as Tor Project ². Telegram, for example, lives only thanks to the generous donations of Pavel Durov ³. Mozilla in addition to donations, he earns above all thanks to the millionaire agreement made with Google to leave him as Search engine defaults to Firefox ⁴.

The alternative to donations and paying for the product is advertising. And unfortunately, as we well know, advertising on the internet, except in rare cases such as DuckDuckGo ⁵, And always invasive.

Alternatives to Google Forms

CryptPad Form

Open source
free up to 1GB of space

Cryptopad it is a multipurpose software that we have already known in the past. For some time now it has also offered excellent free service (up to 1GB) for online questionnaires. There are many options available: anonymous forms or upon registration, multiple answers or with the possibility of replying. AND Open source and you can use the official website cryptpad.fr or even theInstance offer from Devol: cryptpad.devol.it.

EUSurvey

totally free
server in Europe and European project

For some time the European Union has allowed anyone to create surveys and quizzes in totally free way. To be able to do them it is necessary register on the site EUSurvey: attention: to create a survey you need two-factor authentication by installing it on your smartphone the EU Login application.

Later it will be possible create polls and quizzes in a simple way with the possibility of making them anonymous and many other options. A very useful tool and that we already pay with our taxes and which therefore may make sense to exploit without giving away our data to Google.
Being a European Union project it is also available in all languages, including obviously the Italian one!

The system as a whole works well and is not complex to use however you have correctly reported to us which turns out to be very mechanical and this can be a big problem if you have to enter a lot of questions.

Thanks for having suggested it to us.

JotForm

JotForm is one of alternatives to Google Forms most famous and used. It is not Open source but its privacy policy is more than decent ⁶. Also offered is a free plan for those who need to use it occasionally. For all the others, however, there are monthly and annual plans ⁷. There are many predefined templates and using it is really very simple.

LimeSurvey

Open source

Another very simple product to use and this time also Open source ⁸. Is called LimeSurvey and it is a great alternative to Google Forms. However, its free plan is slightly more limited and its monthly and annual plans more expensive ⁹ Of JotForm. Give it a chance and you might not be disappointed!

Webform

Open source

Webforms it is a much less professional method than the previous ones but equally valid for many situations. Its use is very simple, as are its forms. Furthermore, their free plan is very interesting and the prices for the monthly one are affordable ¹⁰. It is a software-based form and survey service Open source Drupal And Webforms.

Framaforms

Open source
totally free

Let's get back to talking about Framasoft, the French association that wants to free the internet from Google's dominance (they see themselves a bit like Asterix's Gaul). We have already talked about in the past because they offer an infinite number of free and alternative services to Google and beyond. They therefore also offer excellent alternative to Google Forms call Framaforms. The only flaw: unlike their other products, there is no Italian translation of this one.
As you have us pointed out on Reddit: Framaforms it is nothing but Drupal+Webform, only made by Framasoft.

Formularios del Komun

Open source
totally free

We talked about the project Komun within ours ethical servers, among other things offer an interesting and free alternative to Google Forms to try! They use the project Open source GNGFOrms LiberaForms.

Framadate

Open source
totally free

Framadate It is mainly used to create surveys, very useful and well made. Furthermore, it is very simple to use. You can find it on several instances including that of Framasoft and that of Snopyta.

Tally

can also be used for free

It is not Open source and some things make people turn up their noses like the use of Google Fonts and of Google Cloud. However, it is used for statistics Plausible and in general it is said that the data is not sold to third parties and that it is not collected by the forms ¹¹. Its strong points are certainly the ease of use and the modern and pleasant graphics. It is European (but uses Google Cloud for servers, as mentioned) and most of the options are free, for these reasons it can certainly be an interesting alternative to use if all the free ones you have found are not for you. Thanks for suggesting it ¹².

OpenSondage

Open source
totally free

If instead of a form you need to create a survey then OpenSondage, hosted by Devol collective (an Italian reality which, like Framasoft, offers an impressive amount of alternative services). OpenSondage It works really well, it's fast and really simple to use.

Servizi Linux.it

Open source
totally free

The site linux.it offers a series of free services including a survey service. Just sign up and start using it by installing the app you need such as SandForms.

PINGO

totally free

We highlight this interesting alternative to receive real-time and interact with people with different types of questionnaires. It is mainly designed for schools, in fact the University or organization that will use the tool is required to register. It is not entirely intuitive but once you understand how it works it is an interesting tool for getting interactive and real-time feedback. No registration is required to respond and anyone with a Browsers and an internet connection can respond to the link you have created.

Thanks for suggesting it.

Alternatives to Google Forms

Other alternatives, if you feel like spending a little time on it, is installing a Hosting dedicated for these operations. We suggest it to you because it is easier said than done. For example Nextcloud proposes his Nextcloud Forms, to be able to use them, however, you will need to have aInstance of Nextcloud. Read the our article on Nextcloud to know more!

One last idea: buy a domain and a Hosting for a few years, maybe one of those that offers WordPress already pre-installed so even if you are not capable you already have everything ready. Installed one of many plugins for forms. This way you will own the data and you can also be cool with a custom domain.

1. How Big Tech makes money[↩]
2. Donations to Tor Project[↩]
3. How are you going to make money out of this?[↩]
4. Google remains the Search engine default of Firefox until 2023[↩]
5. Advertising and Affiliates[↩]
6. JotForm privacy policy[↩]
7. JotForm prices[↩]
8. LimeSurvey on GitHub[↩]
9. LimeSurvey prices[↩]
10. Price webform[↩]
11. How we use your data[↩]
12. Tally tip on Telegram[↩]

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