Jotform vs Google Forms
When it comes to creating online forms and choosing the best form builder for you, you have a lot of choices.
However, two of the most popular form builders are Google Forms and JotForm.
So in today's video, I'm gonna help you decide which of these form builders are best for you.
I'm gonna give you three good reasons as to why you should either choose Google Forms or JotForm.
Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
So let's get started with Google Forms.
Why you should choose Google Forms
Now Google Forms, of course, is integrated directly within your Drive account.
Whether you use a Google Workspace account for your business, or if it's just for your personal use, if you're already using Docs and Sheets and Slides, it's gonna be very easy for you to find Forms here within Google Drive.
Now, my first reason for why you should choose Google Forms is if your form needs are relatively basic.
And what I mean by that is if you just need a simple contact form for your webpage, if you just need to send out a very simple survey or a very simple questionnaire like what we see here, Google Forms might be ideal for your needs.
It's quick and easy for you to get started and to add those questions and rearrange those questions as well.
If I wanna move things around here, everything in there is essentially just drag and drop.
So if you want to quickly and easily create that form and add those basic needs, well, Google Forms might be the best solution for you.
The second reason why you might want to choose Google Forms is if you need to create a large number of forms that are temporary in purpose.
And what I mean by that is if you're quickly sending out little quizzes, or sending out a few things in a form that may only last a week in duration, for example, well, then this might be the ideal form builder for you.
Here, I've just thrown together a very quick and easy Beatles Trivia form.
This is just something fun that I wanna send out to my followers, but I'm not needing to update this in the future.
I'm not gonna be needing to come back and analyze this data.
It's sort of quick and easy, and I can almost forget about this form in a few weeks' time.
So if you're needing to send out a number of forms in short order, but you really don't need all of that data in the future, Google Forms also might be the best solution for you.
Now, the third reason why you may want to select Google Forms is if you're okay with your forms looking like Google Forms.
What do I mean by that?
Well, yes, we can customize a number of things here.
I could come up here into my theme options.
I could change this header.
I can change my colors, including the background color as well, but at the end of the day, all Google Forms essentially look like a Google Form.
It's gonna look very similar to this.
If I jump over here into preview mode, you can see it's sort of this column look in the middle.
I've got this submit button down here, and it's always going to say Google Forms at the bottom of the page.
Now, if you're okay with that, that's absolutely fine.
However, if you want to stand out from the crowd, if you want to perhaps look a little more professional, well, then maybe there's a better solution for you.
Why you should choose Jotform
Now, JotForm is not only one of the most popular form builders, but it's also one of the highest-rated form builders, currently with a score of 4.7 on the G2 website.
But numbers aside, let's dive into the software itself.
Now, the first reason why JotForm may be a better solution for you is customization.
JotForm lets you customize every single aspect of your form.
Here we are within the form builder area, and on the right-hand side, you can see under Form Designer, I can swap out any single color or image.
I can adjust the styles and formatting to my heart's content.
But that customization doesn't just end with the colors and look, it also has to do with the types of elements in which we'd like to add to our form.
So, yes, you're gonna find all these standard things such as a dropdown and multiple choice, but maybe you need to add a signature to your form.
When someone completes it, you want to collect or add a digital signature.
You can do that.
How about an appointment?
Well, it's just drag and drop.
If I want someone to book an appointment after they've answered all of my questions, well, I can add that to my forms as well.
So there's just so many different things and different ways in which you can customize your JotForm.
But the customization doesn't just stop at the things that you can put inside your form, it also continues with how you want your form to be displayed.
So in this case, I'm gonna view this form that I created earlier.
And check out this one.
"Join our newsletter and receive a FREE guide."
Yeah, this looks very enticing the way that this form is laid out.
I'm gonna input my name and hit Next.
I'm gonna input my email address here and hit Submit, and now I've got a beautiful thank you page here as well.
Didn't that look a lot more flashier, a lot more enticing for your participants or your clients?
A lot of customization here that you can use to wow your audience.
The second reason why JotForm might be ideal for your needs is when it comes to integrations.
When you're collecting information, when you're sending out all of these surveys or request forms, or however you're using your forms, chances are you want that data to go somewhere else, such as a project management tool, maybe a CRM system, or a variety of other pieces of software.
Well, here under Integrations, we can see that JotForm integrates with more than 100 other applications, many of the tools that you're already using.
So if you want your information to directly store within Dropbox, you can do so as well.
In fact, look at here on the left-hand side, just under our Categories.
Let's take a look at CRM Integrations.
So whether you use HubSpot, or Zoho CRM, or Salesforce, or Pipedrive, you can have those forms directly be sent and input into your CRM system.
How about Project Management?
We've got most of the popular tools here, including Trello, Asana, ClickUp, monday.com, Wrike and Basecamp.
So when someone fills out that form, you can convert that information directly into a new task or into a new project.
So you can look at all of the various different integrations and make sure that your collected data doesn't just end up on a spreadsheet somewhere.
Now, the third reason why JotForm may be the better solution for you is if you need to collect payments.
Over here on the left-hand side of the form elements, you can see we have a Payments tab.
And look at the number of different ways in which we can collect payments.
Now Square, PayPal, and Stripe are perhaps among the most popular, but there's a variety of other payment processors in which you can add as well.
So, for example, if I wanna add my PayPal Business account, all I need to do is drag it onto my form.
And in a matter of seconds, I've got my payment method right down here.
So people can choose if they want to pay by debit or credit card, or if they want to pay directly with their PayPal account.
So not only can I collect information about my prospective clients right here within my form, I can turn them into actual customers by providing them with a payment method and providing them with payment processors that they know and trust.
So when they submit that form, not only do I get the information, but I get paid as well.
So in summary, if your form-building needs are relatively basic or you need to create a number of short-term forms and you don't mind it looking like everyone else's forms, Google Forms might be just right for you.
However, if you're needing customization, if you want your forms to integrate directly with other apps that you're already using, or if you need to collect payments, JotForm may be the better choice for you.
Now, if you have any other form builders that you'd like to recommend, or share your feedback on JotForm or Google Forms, be sure to let me know in the comments down below.
Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
