Zoho Forms review

Zoho Forms is an online form builder and front-end data collection system offered by Zoho, a cloud-based software suite for businesses. You can design and deploy online forms and integrate them with other apps with zero coding. It allows you to customize and embed your forms on web pages or share them via email or custom links for easy access. 

With Zoho Forms, you will receive instant alerts when someone has submitted their response. Further, you can integrate seamlessly with other Zoho applications like Zoho CRM to improve your customer relationship and sales. It will let you create the best data collection and management system for your business needs. 

Additionally, you can access all the functionalities and features the online form builder offers on your mobile devices. Compatible with iOS and Android operating systems, the mobile application allows you to create forms online and offline, consolidate data, and collaborate with your team remotely. 

Zoho Forms: Plans and pricing

You can sign up for free and design three forms, generate unlimited reports, and take in up to 500 submissions/month. You can also accept ten payments and access around 200 MB of file storage. Apart from an entirely free plan, Zoho Forms offers four paid subscriptions:

Basic Plan

Available at $10 per month (billed annually), this plan allows a single user to build unlimited forms, takes in 10,000 submissions/month, and offers 500 MB of cloud storage. You can generate unlimited reports, merge documents, use payment integration, and access built-in or custom themes during form building. 

Note that most of Zoho Forms features are available with this plan. However, you can consider a higher-level plan if you need more submissions or storage.

Standard Plan

Available at $25 per month billed annually, this plan allows up to 10 users to design and deploy unlimited forms with an entry intake of 25,000 submissions/month, with 2 GB of cloud storage. Apart from everything in the basic plan, the standard plan offers features like task assignment, task management, private sharing, reports approval, and form ownership management.

Professional Plan

Priced at $50 per month (billed annually), this plan allows up to 25 users to create unlimited forms. With a massive upside of 75,000 submissions/month and 5 GB of cloud storage with unlimited report generation, it’s ideal for medium-scale businesses. 

Note that there’s no real difference in the features offered by the Standard and Professional plans - the only difference is in the number of users and submissions, along with cloud storage capacity.

Premium Plan 

If you’re looking for more capacities for your large organization, consider the Premium plan. Available at $90 per month billed annually, up to 100 users can design unlimited forms with a data processing limit of 150,000 submissions/month, along with 10 GB of cloud storage. 

Apart from the features in the Professional plan, you get to enjoy auto-trash submission, record and export audits, and report scheduler. 

Zoho Forms: Features

Zoho Forms offers several features allowing you to create and customize forms per your requirements. You can compile and share form data, set up email notifications, and generate tracking analytics to see your performance. Creating custom themes, CSS, and branding options like custom domains make your forms more appealing. Let’s explore more Zoho Forms features to see if this is the form builder you’ve been looking for.

Intuitive form builder

Zoho Forms’ drag-and-drop builder will help you create engaging forms with 30+ field types and 65 premade templates to help you save time. The templates are neatly organized into various sections such as business, human resources, requests, e-commerce, non-profit, and more for easy access.

You can set field rules to direct respondents to the desired question/page/field according to their responses. Suppose a particular question asks if the respondent requires chauffeur services. If the user enters yes, only then will they be asked if an airport pickup is needed. If their answer is no, they’ll not have to answer an irrelevant question and will be directed to the next one. 

Share forms easily

With Zoho Forms, you can easily share your forms across different platforms. You can generate a custom permalink or embed them in webpages. Additionally, Zoho also allows you to circulate your forms via QR codes or email. If you aim for a higher response rate, you can distribute through email campaigns using integrations like Zoho Campaigns or MailChimp. You’re also free to use your domain or subdomain name in the form's URL while sharing. 

Analytics and report

I found Zoho Form’s analytics dashboard too basic. You can only view the number of forms filled each day and the geographical region from where it was filled - both of which are irrelevant business data. A free form builder like Google Forms offers better analytics than Zoho Forms. 

That said, you’ve got the option to integrate your form with Zoho Analytics for better data visualization. Moreover, you can also integrate Zoho Forms with Google Sheets for a consolidated view of all the entries collected. Build basic reports with customizable and auto filters and options to hide columns, which can be exported in both CSV and PDF format.

Form integrations

Zoho Forms allow seamless integration with the Zoho Suite of apps such as Zoho Desk, Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho Sheet, Zoho Project, and more. Moreover, you can connect your forms with over 4,000+ third-party apps via Zapier. However, you can only integrate one application at a time with the form.  

Payment portals

With Zoho Forms, you can design forms with leading payment portals like Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, 2Checkout, Authorize.Net, and more. Further, you can perform field calculations, which allow simple and complex calculations based on the respondent’s input making the form flexible and efficient.  

Mobile application

Create and access your forms online and offline with the Zoho Forms mobile application. You can also capture images through your device’s camera and upload them to the form. The option to autofill specific fields through live geolocation and QR codes is a delight. 

For instance, it can automatically capture the address of the job site - you will not have to type it manually. You can also collect data offline and sync it to the cloud when you've connected to the internet again, making it excellent if you're on the move and are experiencing network issues. 

Security

Zoho Forms offer features like SSL certification and GDPR compliance for enhanced security. With SSL certification, data like your name, numbers, and addresses remain secure. Besides, GDPR compliance offers trust and credibility to Zoho Forms and helps understand the collected data better.

Zoho enables you to improve your email delivery rates with DKIM or DomainKeys Identified Mail authentication. It ensures the emails are sent to the intended recipients without being tampered with during the transit. 

Zoho Forms:

Zoho Forms:

Zoho Forms: Interface and use

As mentioned earlier, Zoho Forms offers many features without compromising the interface's ease of use. With over 65 templates, integrations, and security features, you can quickly build functional and mobile responsive forms in a few steps. 

The form builder, on the whole, is very intuitive and easy to use. The drag-and-drop tool can help insert, remove, or rearrange form fields. Further, Zoho's form editor is very well designed, making editing a breeze. All you have to do is click on an element, move to the settings sidebar, and make changes. 

You can completely transform your form's overall look and feel by accessing premade themes and customizing them by editing backgrounds, colors, fonts, buttons, and other widgets. 

Zoho Forms: Support

You can avail of support from Zoho Forms by emailing them at [email protected]. You can also submit a ticket request from the Zoho Help section - access it by clicking on your profile icon at the top-right corner of the dashboard. Moreover, you can find everything you need on Zoho’s user guides, how-to articles, forums, FAQs, tips and tricks, and e-books.

Zoho Forms: The competition

Zoho Forms competes with more or less every heavyweight in the online form builder segment - such is its versatility. Jotform, Typeform, Formstack, Microsoft Forms, Google Forms, and Wufoo are Zoho Forms’ most prominent competitors. 

Google Forms is a free online form builder that offers basic question types and a barebones editor. On the other hand, Jotform, Wufoo, and Typeform provide both paid and free subscriptions. They have excellent capabilities for advanced data collection and customization features at different price points.

However, Zoho's smooth interface, intuitive drag-and-drop editors, and mobile application make it a lucrative deal. The best thing about Zoho Forms is its Basic plan, which includes most of all the features Zoho has to offer. You’d need to upgrade only if you have more data and form needs. It’s perfect for creating versatile and dynamic forms to streamline your workflow.

Zoho Forms: Final verdict

Zoho Forms offers several integrations and ready-made, customizable templates to take your forms to a new level. You can quickly build forms to automate workflows and optimize your business operations. 

If you’re looking for a cost-effective, cloud-based form builder offering a brilliant mobile application, Zoho Forms is your reliable bet. And the best part is you can try the free plan and play around with all the features to create compelling and engaging forms.

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