Typeform vs SurveyMonkey

These two are the recognisable names in their respective halves of this field, and both are priced accordingly. What separates them is whether you are running research or running marketing.

A survey, or a designed form

SurveyMonkey is the survey everyone has already filled in, and that recognition helps completion on a cold list — respondents know the shape before they start. Its reporting and analysis are built in rather than an export away, and the template library covers most standard research instruments.

The cost is that appearance is controlled through themes, so a SurveyMonkey survey reads as a SurveyMonkey survey. SurveyMonkey scores 4 for looks and 3 for customisation, and those themes are also why nothing you build in it looks broken.

Typeform scores 5 for looks and its one-question-at-a-time format is the product rather than a setting. If the form is a piece of marketing, that difference is the whole point; if it is research, the animation is between you and the data.

Two different ways of being expensive

Typeform scores 1 for value and SurveyMonkey scores 2, which are the two lowest in this wave.

They constrain you differently, and this is worth reading carefully. Typeform's entry paid plan includes a hundred responses a month, so the limit is how many people answer. SurveyMonkey's free tier limits the questions per survey rather than the replies collected, so the limit is how much you may ask — and paying monthly costs far more than the annual rate for a smaller allowance, which catches people who wanted to try it for one project.

On capability they are closer than the price suggests. Typeform scores 4 for logic and SurveyMonkey scores 4 as well. Typeform accepts payments and does calculations; SurveyMonkey does neither, and answers with analysis Typeform does not attempt. Neither collects a signature, and neither will let a respondent finish tomorrow what they started today.

Which should you choose?

Choose SurveyMonkey if the output is research — you want cross-tabs and charts without exporting, and a format your respondents recognise.

Choose Typeform if the output is leads or signups and the form is public-facing, and price the response cap against your real volume before you commit to a year.