Google Forms - very affordable, great for small-scale data capture, and for folks who know how to design surveys
April 07, 2021

Google Forms - very affordable, great for small-scale data capture, and for folks who know how to design surveys

Emma McCarthy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Google Forms

We use Google Forms as a critical tool in our recruitment and hiring process. Rather than require candidates to submit a cover letter with their application, we ask just for a resume. For folks who have a resume that aligns with our needs, we then send a Google Form survey in order to capture the information that is normally included in a cover letter. We use the responses to our survey to determine whether or not a candidate has the skills needed to succeed, an understanding of our business model and an interest in what we do, and could be a good cultural fit. It's a critical tool in helping us smooth the hiring process (making it easy for candidates to apply) but also allowing us to quickly weed out candidates who aren't the best fit for the role or the company.
  • Very easy to use, both for the person setting up the form and for the person filling it out.
  • Allows the end user to set up a variety of survey question types
  • VERY affordable - it's free!
  • Not always straightforward how to get the link to the survey itself, versus the link to the administrative page where the survey is set up.
  • If your work email is not a Google email, then you must set a form up under a personal Google account
  • Not as robust with regards to analytical capabilities as other survey platforms (but it is free!)
  • The price is right - Google Forms is free. However, you get what you pay for.
  • It works for us, as we use it as a step in recruitment and hiring, but it is probably not the best option for those doing large-scale market research
Either through our direct work or work that our client does, we are familiar with a variety of different survey options (SurveyMonkey, Paperform, JotForm, etc.) Google Forms is definitely the quickest and easiest to spin up. However, it has a lower level of security than other platforms. (For example, JotForm is HIPAA compliant, Google Forms is not.) What you decide to use should be dependent on your end goals and the type of data that you are expecting respondents to share. We use Google Forms in our recruitment and hiring practice, as a chance to get to know candidates better. We ask for free-form essays, and we don't ask for any personally identifiable information. We also aren't doing large-scale data visualization, and we aren't overly concerned with survey appearance or branding. For those reasons, Google Forms work very well for us! However, I don't see it working as well should you use it for secure data or large-scale data capture where you need robust visualization capabilities, beyond what you'd be able to do yourself by plugging data into a visualization platform.

Do you think Google Forms delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Google Forms's feature set?

Yes

Did Google Forms live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Google Forms go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Forms again?

Yes

It's great for what I use it for, but I'm not doing large scale surveys or market research.
I can't speak to this, as I've never required support for my use of Google Forms. Again, I'm using it for small scale data capture, and not for market research or data analysis, so it works well for my needs.
[Google Forms is] suitable for simple data capture, but not gathering large amounts of consumer data. We use it for hiring questionnaires, and it's GREAT! Also, there's no guidance on survey design, which I know some of the paid survey platforms offer. If you know exactly what you want to understand from your survey base, and how to design a survey to capture that info, then Google offers a very cost effective option. However, there's no analytical output, either, so if you're looking for your survey platform to help deliver visualized insights, Google is not your best option.

Google Forms Feature Ratings

Themes
5
Custom logo/branding
5
Changes to live survey
9
Multiple question types
10
Survey logic flexibility
5
Response tracking
5
Data export
9