Formstack Forms vs. SurveyMonkey

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).

SurveyMonkey really excels in the survey design aspect of the surveying process. They have so many different question types that you can use to create your questions. The analytics and reporting are basic but ok for those wanting simple insights into their survey answers. Their free plan should suffice for any business that needs the fundamentals of surveying - i.e. survey builder, sharing, and viewing answers.

• 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).

• SurveyMonkey templates have made it very user-friendly. It is very efficient to create a survey.
• I love that they have multiple ways to answer questions. For example, short answer, paragraph, and radio buttons to name a few.
• The surveys are very easy to share. You can import a large list of email addresses or free type just a few.
• I like that you can test the survey before sending it out live. I send it to myself to verify how it will look and feel to the end-user.

• 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.

• Recognizing that there are more limitations when it comes to a mobile interface vs. a desktop interface, I would love to see more profound levels of programming functionality on the mobile side.
• It would be helpful to have better access to greater levels of third-party results analysis, particularly as it relates to open-ended questions and answers.
• As an admin, it would be very cool if SurveyMonkey were able to use AI to match the survey we're building (questions, topics, target respondents, etc.) to existing results that might negate the need to ask certain questions in our surveys.

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.

Compared to other competitors in the market (including a few I've used internally), if you're looking for a survey application, this one does the job and it's quite inexpensive too. Considering the fact that it comes with a handy mobile application too (on iOS and Android), you also get flexibility thrown in the deal too.

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.

SurveyMonkey should suffice for most simple use cases to collect responses or feedback from clients. The templates that they offer are helpful as well as the guidance on question formulation. If you just need a stand alone software to distribute and collect surveys, then SurveyMonkey will meet your needs.

still to many limitations for more complex surveys --skips, filtered questions, etc.

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.

I haven’t used the support function yet, but I have had colleagues that have and the issues they’ve faced have been resolved super quickly. They also have said the support people they have come in contact with have been extremely friendly. Those two things are what made me choose my rating

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.

Implementation not required.

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.

SurveyMonkey is easier to customize and provides much more in depth analytics. SurveyMonkey also provides better templates providing us with a better presentation to our employees. SurveyMonkey also comes with a more trustworthy platform that ensures confidentiality, which is incredibly important to our employees and means we're getting more reliable results from the surveys.

• 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.

• We use this to survey vendors after a trade show and their comments to me have helped improve other shows. I don't have hard numbers but I know our vendors, some of whom are associate members, are very happy to give this feedback because it helps their ROI too.
• I know it has saved us employee time as we aren't sifting through email responses and entering them into a spreadsheet. SurveyMonkey does that for us.
• We often need to do quick polls to our members to make decisions. This makes them feel like they are getting value for their membership dues that they pay our association.