Jotform vs Microsoft Forms

If your organisation runs on Microsoft 365 then one of these is already paid for. The question is whether it does what your form actually needs, and for a large class of forms it does not.

Three things one of them cannot do at all

Microsoft Forms has no payment collection, no calculations across answers and no signatures. Jotform has all three. If your form takes money, works out a total, or needs somebody to sign something, this comparison is already settled.

Microsoft Forms scores 1 for customisation and 3 for logic, against Jotform's 5 and 5. It also has no save-and-resume, so a long application has to be finished in one sitting.

There is a subtler constraint too: some Microsoft Forms capabilities require a work or school account rather than a personal one. That is fine for an internal survey and a problem the moment you send the form to customers.

What being inside the suite buys

A great deal, if you are already there. No extra cost on top of a Microsoft 365 subscription, responses syncing into Excel where most reporting already happens, and governance by the same accounts and policies as everything else your organisation runs. For an IT department that has to approve the tool, that last point often ends the discussion.

Microsoft Forms scores 5 for ease against Jotform's 4, and 4 for value against Jotform's 3.

Jotform's answer is breadth. An unusually large template library covering narrow use cases, HIPAA-enabled forms for health information, and a free plan that includes standard features rather than a reduced set — with the caveat that free forms carry Jotform branding and several limits apply at once, across submissions, storage and form views.

Which should you choose?

Choose Microsoft Forms if the form is internal, collects no money and no signature, and you would rather not add a vendor your organisation has to review — that last point is worth more than it looks in a large company.

Choose Jotform if the form has to do any of the things Microsoft Forms cannot, or if it is going to people outside your tenancy who should not be asked to sign in to anything.