Great Cognito Forms alternative with full customization

If you’re looking for an alternative to Cognito Forms, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we compare Cognito Forms with Plumsail Forms. Both products excel in what they do, but we'll highlight some features that you might find desirable.

Plumsail Forms offers a free Scooter plan that doesn’t require starting a trial or a subscription. Create a Plumsail account and try all the features you will discover in this article.

Contents

• What is Cognito Forms?
• Why look for Cognito Forms alternative?
• Top Cognito Forms alternatives/competitors
  • Cognito Forms vs Google Forms
  • Cognito Forms vs JotForm
  • Cognito Forms vs TypeForm
  • Cognito Forms vs Paperform
• Why Plumsail Forms is a good Cognito Forms alternative?
  • Ease of use
  • Mobile layouts
  • User authentication
  • Advanced elements
  • File upload and storage
  • Customization & branding
  • Share forms options
  • 100 + integrations & payment buttons
  • Advanced forms with HTML and JavaScript
  • Team access
• Try free Cognito Forms alternative

What is Cognito Forms?

Cognito Forms is one of the best web form builder solutions on the market. It has a drag-and-drop interface, and a variety of customization options, features and tools.

What are the major benefits of Cognito Forms?

• Payment integrations
• Wide range of templates
• Design customization
• Conditional logic
• Form analytics
• Power Automate, Zapier and Workflow support

However, it also has drawbacks that may not fit your project.

Why look for a Cognito Forms alternative?

There are a few features that are lacking in Cognito Forms though:

• Somewhat outdated form builder interface
• No authentication features for anonymous users
• Limited customization - no HTML or JavaScript support
• Some features are locked behind higher plans of subscription

It might be worth checking out the alternatives to see what works better for you.

Top Cognito Forms alternatives/competitors

There are many alternatives to Cognito Forms on the web - some are free, some are commercial, some like Cognito forms have both free and paid plans.

Among the most well-known Cognito alternatives are the following, which you can also compare to Plumsail Forms:

Cognito Forms vs Google Forms

Cognito Forms and Google Forms are both online form builder tools that allow users to create and distribute forms for various purposes. However, there are some differences between the two:

1. Customizability: Cognito Forms provides more advanced customization options compared to Google Forms. Users can design forms with advanced layouts, branding, and conditional logic. Google Forms offers limited customization options with basic themes and templates.

2. Form types: Cognito Forms provides more complex form types, including multi-page forms, calculated fields, file uploads, and repeating sections. Google Forms offers basic form types with options for multiple-choice, short-answer, and paragraph questions.

3. Integration: Cognito Forms integrates with popular third-party applications like SharePoint, MailChimp, and PayPal, allowing seamless data transfer and automation. Google Forms integrates with other Google services, such as Google Sheets, allowing easy data collection and analysis.

4. Pricing: While both platforms offer free versions, Cognito Forms has a paid tier with additional features and more form submissions, whereas Google Forms is completely free for all users.

Find a comparison between Plumsail Forms and Google Forms here.

Cognito Forms vs JotForm

Cognito Forms and JotForm are both popular online form builders that offer a range of features for creating and managing forms. However, there are some notable differences between the two.

1. Design and Customization: Both platforms provide users with a range of design and customization options. However, JotForm offers a more extensive collection of pre-designed templates and themes, making it easier to create visually appealing forms without extensive design knowledge.

2. Integration and Compatibility: JotForm supports a wide range of integrations with popular apps and services, including payment gateways, CRM systems, and email marketing tools. Cognito Forms also offers integrations, but the selection is somewhat more limited compared to JotForm.

3. Conditional Logic: Both Cognito Forms and JotForm allow users to create forms with conditional logic, meaning that certain fields or sections of the form will appear or disappear based on the user's responses. This feature can help create more user-friendly and streamlined forms.

4. Pricing: Cognito Forms offers a free plan with limited features, while JotForm has a more robust free plan with more features. Both also offer paid plans with varying features and pricing.

Find a comparison between Plumsail Forms and JotForm here.

Cognito Forms vs TypeForm

Cognito Forms and TypeForm are both online form building tools that provide customizable and user-friendly form creation experiences. However, they differ in some key aspects:

1. User interface: TypeForm focuses on creating interactive and visually appealing forms with a conversational interface. It offers a unique and engaging user experience that encourages higher response rates. Cognito Forms, on the other hand, has a more traditional form layout and design, offering a straightforward approach.

2. Features: Both Cognito Forms and TypeForm offer a range of features such as conditional logic, file uploads, payment integration, and data exports. However, Cognito Forms also provides advanced features like calculations, repeating sections, and the ability to create powerful workflows using their rules and integrations.

3. Integration: Cognito Forms integrates seamlessly with various popular platforms such as Microsoft Excel, SharePoint, Zapier, and more. TypeForm also offers integrations with popular tools but has a slightly more limited selection compared to Cognito Forms.

4. Pricing: TypeForm offers a free plan with limited features and paid plans that start at a higher price point compared to Cognito Forms. Cognito Forms, on the other hand, offers a free plan with generous features, as well as affordable paid plans, making it suitable for individuals, small businesses, and large enterprises.

Find a comparison between Plumsail Forms and TypeForm here.

Cognito Forms vs Paperform

Cognito Forms and Paperform are both online form builders that allow users to create and customize forms without coding knowledge. However, there are a few key differences between the two:

1. Ease of use: Cognito Forms is known for its user-friendly interface, making it easy for beginners to create forms quickly. Paperform offers more advanced customization options, but it may have a steeper learning curve for novice users.

2. Design options: Paperform offers more design flexibility with its drag-and-drop editor, allowing users to create visually appealing forms with customizable themes and styles. Cognito Forms has a simpler design editor, but it still provides a good range of customization options.

3. Features: Cognito Forms offers features like conditional logic, calculations, and file uploads, making it suitable for more complex form requirements. Paperform offers similar features, along with additional options like e-commerce integration and the ability to embed videos and maps.

4. Pricing: Cognito Forms offers a free plan with limited features, and more affordable paid plans starting at $15 per month, while Paperform's pricing starts at $24 per month, making it more expensive.

Find a comparison between Plumsail Forms and PaperForm here.

Why Plumsail Forms is a good Cognito Forms alternative?

Plumsail Forms can be a perfect alternative to Cognito Forms. Most features are shared between the apps like a drag-and-drop interface, a wide range of advanced features and integrations, and responsiveness, but there are different strengths to both.

You can design a responsive form from scratch in a few minutes or use one of the ready-made form templates. You can also enrich the form functionality by adding a custom JavaScript code, more flexible than Cognito Forms code.

In addition, Plumsail Forms pricing is very affordable. All features are available on any plan and there are no other restrictions, unlike Cognito Forms.

Let's take a closer look at what you can get by using Plumsail Forms instead of Cognito Forms:

• Ease of use
• Mobile layouts
• User authentication
• Advanced elements
• File upload and storage
• Customization & branding
• Share forms options
• 100 + integrations & payment buttons
• Advanced forms with HTML and JavaScript
• Team access

Ease of use

Both Cognito Forms and Plumsail Forms have a drag-and-drop interface that makes creating forms very easy, even for beginners. Cognito Forms have a more cluttered design, with all features piled together:

Plumsail Forms has a minimalistic and intuitive interface that’s easy to get used to:

One of the key features is the ability to select multiple elements to instantly adjust their common properties. It incredibly speeds up the design process:

Mobile layouts

One of advantages of Plumsail Forms over Cognito Forms is the ability to design completely unique layouts of the same form for phones and tablets:

User authentication

Probably the biggest advantage Plumsail Forms gives you is the variety of authentication options that you can employ, and Cognito Forms has none, except to password protect your form, but that's a little clunky:

In Plumsail Forms, as an option you can require users to authenticate before they can work with the form:

You can select either MS Account authentication, with ability to limit access to certain AAD groups or users, or provide Azure B2C authentication, which would allow authentication via various social media platforms:

After the form is submitted, you'll see who submitted the form. Learn more about Managing forms users.

Advanced Elements

Plumsail Forms has powerful and highly customizable elements. Some are similar to Cognito Forms, but you can apply more complex logic to elements.

Data Table control allows you to create dynamic tables for collecting repeating data, the same way as Repeating Section and Table in Cognito Forms. It's available in the free plan.

It is very flexible. You can populate column values for a new row, add custom validation to the table or particular column, perform column and table calculations. It also has unique dialog windows for mobile devices, making filling them easier on mobiles.

Ink Sketch control is the alternative to Cognito Forms' Signature element, but with higher potential. With the Ink Sketch control, you can not only collect e-signatures but also gather diagrams, schemes, and notes on an image. It's also available in the free plan.

With Likert Scale control, you can promptly and effectively gather valuable feedback from your customers or employees, measure the overall experience, or conduct competitive analysis, it's similar to Rating scaling, though with a bit extra options, such as different input types for rows.

These are just a part of the elements available in Plumsail Forms. Captcha, Masked Input, Image control, and other major elements are available in Plumsail Forms.

File upload and storage

Whenever your business needs to collect files online, create a Plumsail Form with the Attachments field. It lets users upload files such as photos, videos, documents, and more. You can store all files in your Plumsail Account or instantly upload them to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, and other cloud storage apps.

The free Plumsail Forms plan gives you 100 MB of storage space. But if you need more space, you can choose one of the available paid subscriptions or contact support to purchase additional storage.

Customization & branding

Cognito Forms allow you to customize form styles and sharing page, before you publish the form or share the link, but you can't do that in advance, or apply the same theme to all forms.

Plumsail Forms themes are highly customizable. You can choose one of the pre-designed themes or create a custom theme from scratch. You can change the form's primary colors and font style as well as add custom CSS.

But besides that, you can forget about creating a theme for each form. You can design a Sharing page that matches your company's branding and use it for all forms by default. Change colors, background, add hedears and logos. You can mix forms and page designs to make the form more engaging.

Share forms options

Plumsail form has two options for sharing the form: direct link and embedding form.

Sharing pages allow you to share forms directly with users - via the URL. As mentioned before, Shared Pages are highly customizable and can become a replacement for a landing page. Even on a free plan, you can customize the domain for your forms. For instance, change it to awesome.plumsail.io.

Also, embedding a Plumsail form into any website or platform is super easy. Copy the code snippet from the form settings and paste it into your website. Or, if you need guidance, follow a step-by-step instructions for the most popular platforms like WordPress, Wix, Tilda, Shopify, etc.

100+ integrations & payment buttons

Cognito Forms and Plumsail Forms have integrations with the most popular email marketing providers, CRMs, and over 2,000 more platforms with Zapier and Power Automate. In just a few clicks, it is possible to generate documents, create SharePoint items, add rows to Excel or Google Sheets, and save data to OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox on form submission.

Plumsail Forms has no built-in payment integrations but allows you to integrate payment buttons into any form using HTML code:

Advanced forms with HTML and JavaScript

No doubt, Cognito Forms has many advanced form features, such as conditional logic, question logic, and many widgets that you might find useful. But if you want to design more advanced forms with custom complex logic, you may need an alternative.

Plumsail Forms is more flexible. You can easily design simple forms like contact or feedback forms without any code. But you can also add new logic and elements to the form with a little knowledge of HTML and JavaScript:

For example, create a complex form with custom form validation, add RegEx to check field input, advanced calculations, payment buttons, etc. The only limitation is your imagination. If you’re looking for inspiration, you can find examples of what you can do in Plumsail Forms templates.

Team access

If you work in a team and want all users to have access to edit forms and manage collected data, in Plumsail Forms, you can invite other users as team members to collaborate on all available Plumsail services. The team members have access to all forms and submissions but still don't have access to manage the subscription or account settings. This functionality is available on all Plumsail Forms plans, including the free plan.

Cognito Forms offers collaboration options for editing forms and managing submissions, but there are limits to the number of developers, based on the subscription level, Plumsail Forms has no limit.

Try free Cognito Forms alternative

Both form builders are great. Cognito Forms have some amazing features, but there are things that they cannot do.

Try Cognito Forms alternative for free. Create a Plumsail Account, design your first form and make your choice.