Online form builders come in all shapes and sizes. Although they generally do the same thing, the differences can sometimes be astounding.
That’s exactly the case with SurveyMonkey and Microsoft Forms.
In this post, we’ll compare these two platforms to help you understand which one is the right fit for your business in particular.
Let’s take a look!
Key takeaways
- SurveyMonkey is a feature-packed survey platform with impressive customization solutions and data analytics. However, the cost of using it is on the higher side as it mainly targets medium and large-scale organizations with extensive data collection needs.
- Microsoft Forms is a free tool with basic form-building features. Although it lacks some more advanced features, the platform is great for individuals and small teams looking for a simple and cost-effective way to collect responses.
SurveyMonkey vs Microsoft Forms: Comparison table
Before we get into details, here’s a quick overview of these two platforms.
Main features compared
Now we’ll walk you through the essentials by comparing what both SurveyMonkey and Microsoft forms look like in action. Here are the main features tested and compared.
Ease of use
SurveyMonkey offers a fairly intuitive interface for such a versatile form builder. It’s easy to start working — just pick one of these options:
- Start from scratch
- Start from template
- Copy a past survey
- Build with AI
- Import your questions
| Note: Another option is to buy targeted responses. It’s an easy way for companies working in a specific niche to reach the target audience in record time, but it comes with the price of at least $1 per response. |
If you’re a first-time user, our recommendation is to pick a template and edit it as needed. That way, you can send your first survey in a matter of minutes. For example, here’s a preview of SurveyMonkey’s Volunteer Feedback template:
Despite its comprehensive feature set, the platform maintains ease of use through a well-organized dashboard and helpful tooltips, making it accessible even for those new to survey creation.
Microsoft Forms, on the other hand, is even simpler than SurveyMonkey.
Its clean and minimalist interface helps you build forms quickly even if you’ve never done it before. The platform lets you create a brand new form, import questions, or use a template. For the sake of this guide, we picked the Event Registration template:
As you can see, there are no redundant elements or details that can confuse you. There are only a handful of features to take care of in Microsoft Forms, but we’ll get to that in the coming sections.
Templates
SurveyMonkey has a great library of surveys, form templates, and quizzes divided into several categories. You can find hundreds of survey templates through the search box or by exploring categories such as customer feedback, product development, nonprofits, market research, and so on:
On the other hand, Microsoft Forms features only 21 templates. These primarily focus on evaluations, requests, and signup forms, so you’ll likely need to build your own questionnaire from scratch.
Related: Jotform vs Microsoft Forms: Choosing the right form builder
Customization
The sheer range of customization features is the biggest difference between SurveyMonkey and Microsoft Forms.
SurveyMonkey excels in customization options as it gives you the option of tailoring surveys using 20+ question types, multiple themes, branching logic, and other style-related solutions. There’s even a question bank with recommended questions based on specific survey types:
With so many options at your disposal, it’s easy to modify surveys and match your branding guidelines or specific project requirements.
Microsoft Forms is more limited in customization compared to SurveyMonkey, but it still offers essential options to personalize online forms. For instance, you get to choose from a selection of themes and backgrounds to add a touch of visual appeal:
The platform supports basic question types like multiple-choice, text, and rating scales, which can be reordered and adjusted to fit the questionnaire’s purpose.
It’s also important to add that integration with other Microsoft 365 tools, such as adding conditional formatting in Excel or embedding forms in SharePoint, provides additional layers of customization within the broader Microsoft ecosystem.
Analytics
SurveyMonkey offers truly robust data analytics features. It’s possible to access real-time data reporting and analyze insights as responses come in. The platform also provides a wide range of visualizations to help interpret data quickly:
Advanced users will appreciate extra tools such as cross-tabulation, filtering, and sentiment analysis. In addition, SurveyMonkey’s integration with third-party systems like Salesforce or Tableau allows for seamless data export and further analysis.
Microsoft Forms isn’t as comprehensive as SurveyMonkey in terms of data analysis, but it still provides essential analytics features. For instance, you can view real-time response summaries with automatic chart generation for quick insights.
However, it’s fair to mention that Microsoft Forms lets you export data to Excel and Power BI so you can create advanced pivot tables, charts, and conditional formatting.
Pricing plans
SurveyMonkey dominates in many areas, but it can’t compete with Microsoft Forms pricing-wise.
The reason is obvious — if you already have a Microsoft account, you can use its form builder for free without any limitations whatsoever. But even if you don’t, the cost of signing up can be as low as $5.49 per user/month.
SurveyMonkey also has a free (Basic) plan, but it’s only good for testing purposes because the number of features, surveys, and responses is very limited. On the other hand, the platform offers a whole range of paid plans:
- Individual: Different types of individual plans cost from $40 to $105 per month.Â
- Teams: Team plans can cost $33 per user/month (Advantage) or $80 per user/month (Premier). It’s mandatory to take 3 seats minimum for each of these.
- Enterprise: Available upon request.
Related: Google Forms vs Microsoft Forms: Who has the upper hand?
What’s the best alternative? Content Snare
Microsoft Forms obviously has some limitations, while SurveyMonkey works better for large-scale organizations interested in surveys more than individual client-oriented forms.
If you’re looking for an in-between tool that solves all of these pain points, the best alternative is Content Snare.
Our platform adds a few important elements to the form-building process to make the user experience a lot better. For instance, respondents can’t really save progress with SurveyMonkey or Microsoft Forms, while Content Snare does it automatically on their behalf:
Another important detail is the ability to discuss specific questions with your clients directly within a form. Instead of exchanging countless emails, you and your client can initiate a conversation through comments:
Features like these help Content Snare users spend less time gathering information and focus on the actual work. We recently surveyed our clients, and the results were outstanding — a typical user spends 71% less time collecting data compared to the pre-Content Snare period. They also see a huge reduction in data gathering costs and stalled projects.
Content Snare isn’t just a form builder but also a major efficiency booster.
If you’d like to see it in action, sign up for a free 14-day trial right now.