Cognito Forms vs. Formstack Forms

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cognito Forms
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Cognito Forms, from the company of the same name in South Carolina, is presented by the vendor as an easy-to-use online form builder, allowing anyone to create, publish, and manage forms, with free and paid plans. With it, users can create unlimited forms including registration forms, payment forms, and surveys without coding. Forms can be embedded directly into a website, and form submissions can be viewed from any device, any time.N/A
Formstack Forms
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Formstack is an online form building solution. Its drag-and-drop web form creator gives digital marketers a tool for online data collection and engagement. Users can collect payments and pass form data to popular marketing apps through third-party integrations. With Formstack, users can capture responses, store the information and share it with their teams.
$50
per month
Pricing
Cognito FormsFormstack Forms
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cognito FormsFormstack Forms
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlans start at $50/month (billed annually), including: 20 Digital Forms 1,000 Submissions Per Form 14,400 API Calls Per Day Drag-and-Drop Form Builder Custom Themes Payment Integrations Salesforce Integration SSO User Management Form Prefill
More Pricing Information
Features
Cognito FormsFormstack Forms
Survey Format & Appearance
Comparison of Survey Format & Appearance features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
8.0
2 Ratings
1% above category average
Formstack Forms
6.0
61 Ratings
28% below category average
Survey templates8.02 Ratings9.153 Ratings
Themes7.02 Ratings4.556 Ratings
Custom logo/branding9.02 Ratings4.558 Ratings
Survey Content
Comparison of Survey Content features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
9.7
2 Ratings
13% above category average
Formstack Forms
7.7
58 Ratings
10% below category average
Changes to live survey9.01 Ratings6.353 Ratings
Question design help10.02 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Multiple question types10.02 Ratings8.858 Ratings
Survey Logic
Comparison of Survey Logic features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
10.0
2 Ratings
20% above category average
Formstack Forms
7.2
58 Ratings
13% below category average
Survey logic flexibility10.02 Ratings7.258 Ratings
Survey Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Survey Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
8.8
2 Ratings
7% above category average
Formstack Forms
9.4
59 Ratings
14% above category average
Response tracking9.01 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Data export9.02 Ratings9.159 Ratings
Standard reports8.02 Ratings9.056 Ratings
Custom reports9.02 Ratings8.648 Ratings
Analytics9.02 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Survey Administration & Security
Comparison of Survey Administration & Security features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
9.0
2 Ratings
4% above category average
Formstack Forms
8.7
57 Ratings
1% above category average
Access controls8.02 Ratings8.955 Ratings
Compliance10.02 Ratings8.650 Ratings
Survey Distribution
Comparison of Survey Distribution features of Product A and Product B
Cognito Forms
9.0
1 Ratings
9% above category average
Formstack Forms
8.0
1 Ratings
2% below category average
Vendor-offered crowdsourcing9.01 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Respondent restrictions9.01 Ratings8.01 Ratings
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User Ratings
Cognito FormsFormstack Forms
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(4 ratings)
7.2
(74 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(12 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(3 ratings)
6.8
(6 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(3 ratings)
3.3
(5 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cognito FormsFormstack Forms
Likelihood to Recommend
Cognito Forms
It's excellent for small sets of forms, from simple to highly complex It's not good at scale. With over 170 forms now, we desperately need some way to manage and maintain shared content once Cognito does not help. Their approach is that you can copy a working form (great) and modify it to create the next one. That's how we've got so many forms...
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Formstack
Formstack makes it easy to create a variety of forms. I have used it for event interest and registrations, email list sign-ups, and surveys. I have found it easy to customize, and easy to export data for import into other systems (e.g., CRM).
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Pros
Cognito Forms
  • Cost effective.
  • Easy to use.
  • Safe.
  • Automates data collection.
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Formstack
  • Allows for unique situations. As a school, we don't have the luxury of being cookie cutter. Neither do our forms.
  • Support. If we don't know how to do it, their support team has been very helpful and actually attempts to understand the issue on hand.
  • User friendliness. In our field we have a phrase: "what if you get hit by a bus?" With Formstack, you can "get hit by the bus" and someone else can jump in and still keep things running (this is used as a phrase for illness, not termination).
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Cons
Cognito Forms
  • I am happy with Cognito Forms. I have not found any issues.
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Formstack
  • Setting up our multi-step form took some getting used to. Some of the branching logic configuration wasn't as intuitive as would be ideal.
  • Since we were pushing data directly into Hubspot, I found it cumbersome to deal with data storage limits within Formstack. I would get frequent notices that new responses were not being stored in Formstack and that I needed to upgrade or delete data. I got tired of that.
  • More/easier support for custom fonts would have been a huge plus. We were able to customize the form's appearance, but had to make some concessions in that regard.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cognito Forms
No answers on this topic
Formstack
Our user base has come to rely on Formstack to get forms done. The Formstack tools make it easy to start from scratch or copy an existing form to "quick start" a new, similar form. The price is right and frees up IT staff to do more transformative work.
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Usability
Cognito Forms
Non calculated fields are easy to use. Calculations can be a nightmare to get working due to complex and unintuitive syntax, as a non-programmer
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Formstack
I give it this rating because Ali feel like just about anyone can use this. Now with 7 billion people in the work I understand that’s not the case but I feel like Formstack get it pretty simple where a majority of humans could use it and navigate through. The only reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is because I think Google Forms is a little easier to use and that it’s pretty much impossible for any product to get a 10 on usability in my opinion.
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Support Rating
Cognito Forms
quick and knowledgable
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Formstack
The agents in the original group, especially the ones in cahoots with the developers, are really solid and know what they're talking about--I'm looking at you, Collin. The 'Tier 1' support agents that typically reply to the tickets are really spotty. If you have an overly technical question, i.e. bugfix, or describe a feature from a few years back that randomly disappeared, these agents typically will give you what feels like a generic reply and not know what you're talking about.
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Implementation Rating
Cognito Forms
No answers on this topic
Formstack
We implemented on one of the earlier versions. Through continuous engineering improvements, the interface keeps getting easier and more intuitive. Therefore, later implementations keep getting easier and better.
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Alternatives Considered
Cognito Forms
I have not used any other programs like Cognito Forms. I have been with my company for almost two years. I very much like the ease of this system and its capabilities. I like knowing everyone is using the same thing. I do not foresee us making any changes to our current use of Cognito Forms.
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Formstack
Drupal is a much more customizable platform, however you must have someone build the forms first and then you can work with them if you do not have the programming knowledge. If you have any changes to make, it can sometimes be both a time consuming and difficult process. Formstack is much more efficient if you do not have an in house programmer.
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Return on Investment
Cognito Forms
  • Safe us a lot of time doing client onboarding.
  • Use it for data collection for business plan info collection.
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Formstack
  • Positive - ability to analyze submission trends - e.g. when a marketing email is sent, looking at increased form viewing and submissions in relation to the sending of the campaign.
  • Immediate response - those that submit forms receive immediate response that their form has been submitted.
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ScreenShots