Public Forms are standalone web forms you can share via link or embed on a website. They can send data to a SharePoint list, even for people without Microsoft 365 accounts.

SharePoint Forms replace the built-in list or library forms inside SharePoint and are used only by your internal team members with access to your SharePoint. 

Choose Public Forms if you need to:

• Collect data from external users.
• Embed forms on your public website or share by anonymous link.
• Send submissions directly to Airtable, SharePoint, or other systems without requiring login.

Choose SharePoint Forms if you need to:

• Go beyond the look and functionality of default SharePoint list forms.
• Design advanced layouts with multiple steps, tabs, or containers.
• Use features like cross-site lookups, related lists or documents, conditional logic, custom validations, and more that the built-in forms can't provide.

Yes. Many customers collect data externally through Public Forms and then process and manage it internally using SharePoint Forms. All in the same list.

No. Public Forms let anyone send data to your SharePoint lists without requiring login or access to your tenant. If needed, you can enable authentication to control who can access and submit the form.

Yes. With Power Automate or direct integration, you can pull data from SharePoint to fill in form fields or validate submitted information.

Yes. Both products can work with the same SharePoint list — Public Forms for external submissions, SharePoint Forms for internal updates.

Yes. Public Forms and SharePoint Forms are licensed separately, even if you use them together for one process. Public Forms also offer a Free plan, which is often enough for small teams or for handling smaller data volumes.