Jotform vs Typeform: Choosing the Best Form Builder for Your Needs in 2023

Forms are the lifeblood of most businesses today. Whether you‘re collecting lead information, gathering feedback, or processing orders, forms help turn interest into action.

But I know first-hand how painful it can be creating customized online forms from scratch. Between figuring out HTML, applying custom styling, and making sure your forms are mobile-friendly, it often feels like you need a degree in computer science just to collect a few leads!

That‘s why using dedicated form building tools like Jotform and Typeform is a no-brainer in my opinion. They allow anyone to create powerful, professional online forms with just a few clicks.

But with so many options to choose from, how do you decide between market leaders like Jotform and Typeform?

Well, you‘re in luck! As a web developer and technology specialist, I‘ve used both form builders extensively and know their capabilities inside out.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll compare every aspect of Jotform vs Typeform in detail so you can make the right choice based on your specific needs and priorities.

Let‘s dive in!

A Quick Refresher on Jotform and Typeform

Before we get to the detailed comparison, let‘s recap what exactly Jotform and Typeform are and what they can do:

Jotform is an online form builder and data collection platform founded in 2006. It makes it easy for businesses to create fully customized forms, surveys and other data collection tools.

With Jotform, you can build:

Contact forms
Registration forms
Order forms
Multi-page applications
Event registrations
Surveys
Quizzes
Custom reporting tools
Payment forms
And more

Some key features include:

Drag and drop form editor
100+ form templates
Mobile optimization
Form payment integrations
Conditional logic
Data integrations
HIPAA compliance
PDF editor
Form analytics

Over 6 million users leverage Jotform for their data collection needs.

Typeform specializes in conversational, interactive online forms and surveys. Founded in 2012, its intuitive interfaces and engaging question formats help users get more—and better—responses.

You can create:

Surveys
Quizzes
Interactive stories
Lead capture forms
Customer feedback forms
Event registrations
HR forms

Notable features include:

Conversational interfaces
Interactive question types
Survey templates
Logic branching
AI writing assistant
Analytics
Custom themes
GIFs and videos
Integrations

Over 300,000 businesses use Typeform including giants like Airbnb, Uber, and Nike.

Now that you have a quick refresher on what each platform does, let‘s compare them across some of the most important criteria you should consider when choosing form software.

Key Feature Comparison: Jotform vs Typeform

The features and capabilities of a form builder will determine what you can achieve with it. That‘s why closely evaluating the feature set is so important.

Here‘s how core features of Jotform and Typeform stack up against each other:

Form Building Features

Let‘s start with the form builders themselves—the canvas where you‘ll create your forms.

Easy drag and drop form builders

Both Jotform and Typeform offer intuitive drag and drop form builders that are beginner friendly. You can easily drag and drop different form fields like text boxes, dropdowns, images onto a form and customize them visually.

Jotform provides more field types overall—including signatures, file uploads, payments etc.—while Typeform focuses primarily on different survey question formats.

Mobile responsiveness

Every form you create with either platform will be mobile responsive out of the box, reformatting seamlessly for smaller screens.

This table-based comparison I‘m writing would be painfully tiny and unreadable on a phone without mobile responsiveness!

Form templates

Jotform offers 100+ professionally designed form templates covering a wide variety of use cases like contact forms, quizzes, order forms, applications etc.

Typeform templates are focused exclusively on different survey layouts and styles. They offer fewer choices but the designs are highly polished and engaging.

Both allow you to fully customize the templates to match your brand.

Multi-page forms

Need to create long, multi-page forms? Both Jotform and Typeform support pagination with page breaks.

Jotform allows for unlimited pages while Typeform caps you at 10 pages maximum on their Pro plan.

Collaboration

If you need multiple people to be able to access and edit forms, Jotform has much more advanced collaboration capabilities.

You can add users as editors, reviewers etc. with customizable permissions. Typeform only recently added team collaboration features but they are basic compared to Jotform.

Accessibility

Typeform offers an automated accessibility checker to flag any issues that could impact users with disabilities. Jotform says their forms comply with WCAG standards but they don‘t have a scanning tool.

Overall, Typeform appears to have superior accessibility when it comes to identifying potential issues. But both allow manually adding ARIA tags to improve form accessibility.

Spam Filtering and Validation

The last thing you want is spammy, low-quality submissions flooding your form data.

Jotform and Typeform provide basic validation and anti-spam capabilities like required fields, email validation, captcha etc.

But Jotform also offers more advanced options you won‘t find in Typeform like:

Limiting form submissions based on IP, user account etc.
Blocking known spammer IPs
Filtering submissions containing spammy text patterns

If spam protection is a priority, Jotform is the safer bet.

Analytics and Reports

Understanding how people interact with your forms is super important for identifying issues and optimizing your forms over time.

Both Jotform and Typeform offer extensive form analytics, but they differ in scope:

Jotform analytics provide very granular data like:

Detailed submission reports
Conversion rates
Abandonment points
Average time to complete
Geolocation of users
Device data
Custom graphs and charts

Typeform analytics focus more on high-level engagement metrics like:

Overall form results
Average completion times
Drop off rates
Engagement score
Simple reporting

If you need to slice and dice all aspects of your form data, Jotform provides more in-depth analytics.

Integrations

The ability to connect your forms with other apps is table-stakes these days.

You want lead data automatically sent to your CRM, new orders populated in your accounting software, and email notifications when someone applies for a job.

Here are some of the top apps supported by each platform:

Jotform integrates with:

CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho
Email marketing: Mailchimp, Constant Contact
Payments: Stripe, PayPal, Square
Cloud storage: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox
Project management: Asana, Basecamp, Trello

Popular Typeform integrations:

CRM: Salesforce
Email marketing: Mailchimp
Cloud storage: Google Drive, Airtable
Analytics: Google Analytics, Mixpanel
Slack

While both integrate with popular tools, Jotform supports connections with a wider range of apps.

Security

Collecting user information comes with the responsibility of protecting it. So how do Jotform and Typeform stack up on security?

Jotform‘s security measures include:

256-bit SSL encryption
GDPR and HIPAA compliance
ISO 27001 certified
SOC 2 Type II audited
Role based access control
Single sign-on (SSO)

Typeform security features:

SSL/TLS encryption
GDPR compliant
SOC 2 Type 1 compliant
Role based access control
Two-factor authentication
Single sign-on (SSO)

Both follow standard security protocols like encryption but Jotform has undergone more third-party audits and advanced certifications.

Additional Capabilities Beyond Building Forms

So far we‘ve compared the core features you‘d expect in any decent form builder. But some provide a much wider range of capabilities beyond just form creation.

Here are some of the extra features Jotform offers that you won‘t find in Typeform:

Accept online payments

Jotform lets you easily accept one-time and recurring payments directly through your forms using Stripe, PayPal, Square and other payment gateways.

Typeform has very limited payment options.

Build HIPAA compliant forms

Jotform offers dedicated HIPAA compliant plans allowing healthcare providers to use its form builder.

Typeform cannot be used for protected health data subject to HIPAA regulations.

PDF Editor

Jotform provides a built-in PDF Editor to customize form submissions, invoices, certificates etc.

No PDF editing features are available in Typeform.

Appointment Scheduler

The Jotform appointment scheduler integration allows booking appointments, classes, consultations and more.

Typeform does not currently provide scheduling capabilities.

eSignature fields

Add legally binding electronic signatures to your forms with Jotform.

Typeform has no native esignature support.

Automate tasks

Jotform allows you to automate custom follow-up tasks like sending data to APIs, creating calendar events, generating PDFs etc. based on form submissions.

This workflow automation is not possible in Typeform.

As you can see, Jotform provides a much broader set of tools beyond just form building—making it more of an all-in-one data collection and automation platform.

Ease of Use Comparison

Even if a form builder has every feature under the sun, it‘s useless if the platform is difficult and confusing to navigate.

So how intuitive are Jotform and Typeform for new users? Let‘s find out…

Onboarding experience

Both Jotform and Typeform provide in-app tips and interactive tutorials to guide new users.

Typeform‘s conversational walkthroughs are exceptionally well done. Jotform‘s onboarding is more formal and focused on features rather than hand-holding.

For an absolute beginner, Typeform‘s onboarding flows are very handy. But Jotform covers more ground.

Learning curve

The core drag and drop form builders in both tools are beginner friendly—you can build a basic form or survey in minutes.

More advanced functionality inevitably has a steeper learning curve. Jotform gives you so many options that it can be overwhelming initially.

Typeform‘s simplified interface is faster to pick up if you‘re a total beginner.

Support resources

Jotform and Typeform offer chat support, email support, detailed help centers, product tours etc.

Jotform‘s knowledge base stands out for its sheer depth—it offers hundreds of tutorials and guides on both basics and advanced topics. Typeform‘s docs are relatively light.

As a nerd who loves learning the ins and outs of new tools, I appreciate Jotform‘s vast library of resources. But Typeform‘s in-app tips are great for casual users.

Interface design

Typeform uses a full-screen, conversational interface design avoiding traditional complex navigation patterns.

Jotform sticks to standard UI norms like a left sidebar menu. The interface gives you more direct control compared to Typeform‘s guided approach.

If you like exploring all available options, Jotform‘s unrestricted interface may suit you better. Typeform is more linear.

Pricing: Jotform vs Typeform

Pricing often plays a major role in product selection. Here‘s an overview of what both Jotform and Typeform cost:

Jotform Pricing
Plan	Bronze	Silver
Monthly price	$34	$39
Billed annually	$408	$468
Forms	25	50
Submissions/month	1,000	2,500
Storage	1GB	10GB
Form views/month	10,000	100,000

Jotform‘s free plan allows unlimited forms, 100 submissions/month, 50MB storage.

Typeform Pricing
Plan	Basic	Plus
Monthly price	$35	$70
Billed annually	$420	$840
Responses/month	100	1,000
Forms	Unlimited	Unlimited
Users	1	3

Typeform‘s free plan only allows 100 responses per month.

As you can see, both tools offer usage-based pricing tiers. But here are the key differences:

Jotform starter plans are cheaper for low volumes.
Jotform charges per number of forms, submissions, storage etc. Typeform charges per responses.
Typeform‘s free plan is very limited compared to Jotform.
For high volume surveys, Typeform is more cost effective.

So Jotform provides much more value for money if your needs are modest. But Typeform becomes the better value at scale if you‘re sending 10,000+ survey responses monthly.

Enterprise pricing is available from both vendors for large businesses.

Use Case and Scenario Recommendations

With so many similarities and differences between the two platforms, when should you actually use each one?

Here are my recommendations based on your specific needs and form requirements:

Recommended scenarios for Jotform

Jotform is my top choice when you need:

A platform to create any type of online form. It‘s the Swiss Army knife of form builders.
Payment integrations to collect fees or sell products through your forms.
Advanced conditional logic to customize the form experience.
In-depth analytics and reports for form optimization.
Collaboration capabilities for teams.
HIPAA compliant data collection.
PDF generation from submissions.

I‘d recommend Jotform over Typeform for:

Businesses that need advanced data collection capabilities (e.g. multi-page order forms with payment collection).
Non-profits and fundraisers collecting donations or registrations.
Government agencies creating forms and applications.
Healthcare providers that need HIPAA compliance.
Research studies gathering complex submission data.

Recommended uses for Typeform

Typeform really shines when your focus is:

Creating interactive, conversational surveys and quizzes optimized for completion rates.
Collecting structured feedback and opinions from customers or the public.
Running polls and other simple voting scenarios.
Lead capture forms that engage visitors.
Fun "Buzzfeed-style" quizzes and questionnaires.
Marketing campaign data collection like giveaways and contests.

I‘d recommend Typeform over Jotform when your needs are:

Simple data collection focused on surveys and feedback.
Engaging users by making the data collection experience more fun and interactive.
Quickly setting up polls, quizzes and other interactive content for social media channels.

Typeform is purpose-built as an engaging survey builder rather than a general form platform like Jotform.

My Final Take: Who Wins Jotform vs Typeform?

So there you have it—all the key facts and data points comparing Jotform and Typeform head-to-head!

If I had to declare one overall winner, Jotform gets my vote thanks to its unparalleled versatility, advanced features, great analytics and affordable pricing.

Typeform beats Jotform when it comes to creating slick, conversational surveys optimized for engagement. But Jotform is a true end-to-end solution suitable for any data collection scenario.

Of course, the right choice still depends a lot on your specific needs. But in most cases, I‘d recommend Jotform over Typeform due to its flexibility and more extensive capabilities overall.

The only exception is if you solely need a tool for interactive surveys, lead capture forms etc. Without complex requirements, Typeform‘s simplicity may be a better fit.

But for maximum functionality, Jotform is hard to beat in my experience.

I hope this detailed, side-by-side comparison has given you clarity on choosing the best form builder for your needs. Let me know if you have any other questions—I‘m always happy to help!