Forms! They sound and look benign and useless! But you eventually realize their power. So, if you are one of those enlightened people who know what forms can do for your business, this article/review is for you.
Building forms can be a hassle, especially when you are trying to build one with conditional logic. JotForm takes away the complexity and hands over a brilliantly simple interface to create forms with an easy drag-and-drop interface that everyone seems to fall in love with.
The cloud-based form automation solution comes with some of the most incredible features you will find, and it comes with a remarkably interesting pricing policy, making it a brilliant solution for both individual users on a tight budget and enterprise with minimal to no budgetary restraints.
On the downside, the company is not immensely popular for its customer service, leaving a lot to desire.
JotForm – An Overview of the Service
Forms are essential in gathering data. Be it an individual blogger or an organization with multiple employees and many customers – all of them need access to data to improve their services. Data can be in any form. It can be a request to add new features or inputs to improve on existing services.
Depending on the type of data you want to collect, you need to put appropriate forms in place. Sometimes you just need a plain contact form, and sometimes, you will need conditional survey forms.
JotForm makes the process of form creation simple and fun. Not only building forms, but the platform also helps in easy management of the data gathered through the forms.
Here are some possible uses of JotForm:
Feedback and / or evaluation
At times it is important to gather feedback from real users. It is also necessary to provide a complaint filing mechanism to understand the problems that real users are facing.
Again, a business can come up with a decision and may need to put a voting mechanism in place to know what employees and customers think of that decision.
JotForm will allow you to create forms for gathering such data. You can then analyze the data and get the clarity you need.
Applications and Registrations
There are many possible scenarios here. People may want to apply for a job, a loan, or an appointment. Someone may want to register for an event organized by you. A form is a great tool to empower people in such scenarios.
Situations like these require simplicity because such communications usually involve a lot of information. Providing a complex interface will not work in your favor. JotForm allows you to create simple and yet, highly effective forms for such scenarios.
Online Product Ordering
This sounds a bit absurd because most of the online ordering process is integrated with the eCommerce platforms. However, if you still want a simplified process without venturing into a full-blown eCommerce site, JotForm can be an excellent choice because of its payment gateway integration.
Simple “Get in Touch” Feature
Sometimes, you may want to provide a channel to your readers / customers to get in touch with a simple query or a quick idea or a simple desire for a cooperation. JotForm will allow you to do that as well.
What is interesting is that in today’s world where privacy and data protection has taken a center stage, JotForm caters to such requirements, too!
Essentially, you can put JotForm in business in almost any format you desire, or you can think of.
Quick List of JotForm Features
JotForm provides an interesting list of features that will allow you to create incredible forms and even organize your data properly.
Here are a few of the many features that you get with JotForm:
Templates
JotForm has an incredible collection of 10,000+ templates for forms. No other form builder will provide you with so many templates to work with. All templates are available to both free and paid users.
Categorization
Too many choices can be overwhelming. With 10,000+ templates, you may find it incredibly difficult to find the right one. To solve this problem, JotForm has organized all the templates in categories, making them easily scannable.
Some of the many categories you can find with JotForm are:
- Business registrations
- Questionnaires
- Advertising
- Education
- Feedback
- Orders
- Payments, etc.
Themes
There are many themes that you can apply to the templates. Some of these themes are free while others are paid themes that you can purchase with a one-time fee.
Mobile-First Approach
The world has gone mobile. More and more people are using mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to accomplish online tasks like shopping, information collection, and even communicating with their favorite brands.
JotForm knows that and it has ensured that all its forms are mobile-friendly. These perfectly responsive forms look great on every device.
Mobile Forms
Google’s mobile-first guidelines have made JotForm focus on that aspect, which becomes visible in the form of a mobile app available to both Android and iOS users. This free app nicely integrates with your JotForm account offering all the features that the web version has to offer. This means that you can happily create forms that are 100% compatible with any mobile device.
Collaboration
JotForm will allow you to add collaborators. You can add coworkers and friends simply by sharing a link with them. They do not need to have separate JotForm accounts.
JotForm also allows simultaneous editing of the forms. For instance, one person may be responsible for working on themes and templates while the other may be responsible for reorganizing the questions or tweaking the words.
Conditional Logic
JotForm comes with conditional logic. You can use this feature to teach your forms how to react to user inputs. For example, depending on the answer to a specific question, the form can hide, skip, remove, add, or change fields.
A respondent’s input for any field can be used as an input for the remaining form such as recalculating values for other fields or changing the labels.
The conditional logic will allow you to create highly effective forms, and you can even create heavily personalized thank-you pages.
Other Features
JotForm is heavy on features. There are so many features that you will most likely never use all of them. Here is a quick list of features that you can enjoy:
- Form fields: There are many form fields like personal information, input table, CAPTCHA, date picker, multiple choice, star rating and more.
- Two form types: You will get access to two form types – classic and cards. The classic form is the same old form format where all fields are present on a single page. The cards format allows only one question per page with a next and a back button on each card.
- Unlimited fields: You are free to add as many fields as you want to your forms. There are no restrictions in place. This is true even when you are using their free account.
- Payment forms: There are payment forms for collecting payments. Even the free version will give you payment forms with 10 payments each month.
- Widgets: JotForm supports widgets. There are many widgets that you can use including image slider, PDF embedder, terms & conditions, data grid, e-signatures, button checklist, and so on!
- Emoji and other support: The forms have support for emojis, video backgrounds, animations, icons, etc.
- Plugin support: JotForm has support for various plugins like Zoho CRM, SalesForce, OneBip, Box, MailChimp, Dropbox, Google Drive, PayPal. There are well over 200 apps that can easily integrate with your forms and take them to a whole new level.
Form Publication
It all depends on you how you want to deliver the forms to your target audience. For instance, you can send links with specific messages to the target group, or you can email the forms.
You can even embed the forms on your website. If you go for the embed option, you will get platform-specific codes such as embed code for WordPress, which is separate from the embed code for Shopify.
Not just that, you can publish the form on social media, or use it as a fillable PDF document.
PDF Constructor
JotForm will allow converting the form responses into professional PDF documents. This feature is perfectly suitable for those who want to generate tickets, certificates, proposals, invoices, etc.
What is even more interesting is that just like templates for the forms, the PDF Constructor also has premade templates that you can use.
Privacy and Data Protection
There is a worldwide buzz in the departments of privacy and data protection. If you are worried about these aspects, just drop your worries.
JotForm is 100% compliant with:
- GDPR (European Data Protection Laws)
- PCI (Payment Processing)
- HIPAA (If you want to collect sensitive health-related information)
However, do keep in mind that if you want HIPAA compliance, you must upgrade.
That was all about privacy. What about data protection?
JotForm deploys 256-bit SSL certificates for protecting data. It also allows you to decide who can fill the forms and who can see the results.
If you want further protection, you will get the option of encrypting the form responses using RSA-2048 key before the forms are submitted. This creates another layer of shield (in addition to the SSL certificate) that keeps the information safe from hackers and people with malicious intents.
JotForm Ease of Use
JotForm is incredibly easy to use. The degree of user-friendliness combined with the sheer number of features available make JotForm one of the top online form making services.
It is easy to get started. You do not need to provide a credit card to register an account. JotForm will allow you to register using your Google account, Facebook account, or you can simply fill in your name, email, and password to create an account.
It takes no more than 30 seconds to get started.
Once you create the account, you will be taken straight to the dashboard where you can start with a blank form and create one from scratch.
Alternatively, if you want to use a template, you can do so. You are also free to import a form from any website, a PDF document, or from your existing JotForm collection (if you already had an account earlier).
Of course, starting with a template speeds thing up, but for many, starting with a blank canvas makes more sense.
The interface is clean and well-organized. There is a clear button called “Create Form” on the top that you can click to start. There is another button in the central white area.
Once you click on the button, you will get three options:
- Start from Scratch
- Use Template
- Import Form
Start from Scratch
When you select this option, you will get two more options:
- Classic Form
- Card Form
This is what you will see:
Use Template
If you select this option, you will get to choose from multiple premade templates. There are over 10,000 templates to work with. You will notice how they are arranged in categories.
You can scan through the templates using type or industry. There is a search function available that you can use to search for a template.
Import Form
If you use the Import Form option, you will get a couple of options:
- From a web page
- Import PDF form
This is what you will see:
Since it is not possible to show how each option works, I will give a quick introduction on how to work with a form from scratch.
Creating a Form from Scratch
Classic Format
If you select the Classic format, you will see this screen:
There are several elements on the form builder that I have marked with numbers 1 to 5. What are they? Let us find out.
#1. Add Form Elements
This is where you get everything from form fields to payment options to integrations. Clicking on it will open a new slide-out menu. It is a tabbed menu.
You can just drag and drop any element from here to the middle area. You do not even have to drag anything. Simply clicking on the element will add the element.
This is how a form with elements look like:
Clicking on any form element will pull up two small icons. One is for delete. The other icon (the cog icon) is for setting the properties of each element you add.
#2. Customization
The option marked “2” is the customization menu. Clicking on it will pull out a nice, tabbed customization menu from the right.
You can customize every aspect of your form. You can choose a color theme, change page color, page image, form color, font color, etc.
You can even play around with styles like form width, label alignment, spacing between questions, font, and font size, and more!
If you want, you can switch to the Themes tab to select from a set of predefined themes. Finally, the Layout tab will allow you to switch between the two allowed layouts – classic and card.
#3. Preview
Once you are done adding elements and customizing the form, you can click on the preview option marked “3.”
You can check the preview of phone, tablet, and desktop. For mobile devices, you can see the preview in both portrait and landscape orientations. Once you are satisfied with preview, you can toggle off the preview button to get back to the form editor.
#4. Top Menu
In the top menu marked “4,” you will notice that you are already on the “Build” tab. You can switch to the “Settings” tab to get advanced options like email submissions, form settings, conditional logic builder, thank you page, integrations, and more.
Once you have played around with the settings, you can switch to the Publish tab to find the various publication options.
Overall, the flow is fantastic and intuitive. People with absolutely no knowledge of form building and coding can create forms with minutes.
#5. Collaboration
The option marked “5” is the collaboration option you will get. Clicking on it will open a tooltip sort of thing where you can find the collaboration link.
You can copy and send the link to people you want to collaborate with in real time. Collaborators can work on the form simultaneously.
Card Format
In this method of form building, everything remains the same as described in the Classic Format except that each element of the form goes in a new card. Essentially, you will be creating a multi-page form.
This is how the preview looks like?
Everything else apart from the form format remains the same. You can add or remove elements, style the forms, create conditional logics, set up a thank you page, and so on.
JotForm Pricing – Jotform Features and Pricing
Now that you know what you will be getting into while using JotForm, it is time you learn about their pricing policy.
They have four jotform pricing plans available. They are:
Jotform Pricing – Starter Plan
It is a free plan. You do not have to pay a dime to use this plan, and guess what? It includes all the features that JotForm has to offer. However, there are severe limitations.
- You can create only 5 forms.
- Only 100 submissions are allowed each month.
- You get only 100 MB of storage space.
- You will be entitled to 1,000 form views per month.
- It will allow storage for only 500 submissions.
- You will get unlimited reports and fields per form.
- You will be entitled to get only 10 payment submission per month.
- There will be no HIPAA compliance.
- Your forms will have JotForm branding.
Jotform Pricing – Bronze Plan
This plan will cost you $29 a month for a monthly billing cycle. For a yearly billing cycle, you will be charged at $24 a month (billed yearly). This is the list of features you get with the Bronze Plan:
- You can create only 25 forms.
- Only 1,000 submissions are allowed each month.
- You get only 10 GB of storage space.
- You will be entitled to 10,000 form views per month.
- It will allow storage for unlimited submissions.
- You will get unlimited reports and fields per form.
- You will be entitled to get 100 payment submission per month.
- There will be no HIPAA compliance.
- Your forms will not have JotForm branding.
Jotform Pricing – Silver Plan
This plan will cost you $39 a month for a monthly billing cycle. For a yearly billing cycle, you will be charged at $29 a month (billed yearly). This is the list of features you get with the Silver Plan:
- You can create only 100 forms.
- Only 10,000 submissions are allowed each month.
- You get only 100 GB of storage space.
- You will be entitled to unlimited form views per month.
- It will allow storage for unlimited submissions.
- You will get unlimited reports and fields per form.
- You will be entitled to get 1,000 payment submission per month.
- HIPAA compliance will be available.
- Your forms will not have JotForm branding.
Jotform Pricing – Gold Plan
This plan will cost you $99 a month for a monthly billing cycle. For a yearly billing cycle, you will be charged at $79 a month (billed yearly). This is the list of features you get with the Gold Plan:
- You can create unlimited forms.
- Only 100,000 submissions are allowed each month.
- You get only 1 TB of storage space.
- You will be entitled to unlimited form views per month.
- It will allow storage for unlimited submissions.
- You will get unlimited reports and fields per form.
- You will be entitled to get unlimited payment submission per month.
- HIPAA compliance will be available.
- Your forms will not have JotForm branding.
They also have an enterprise solution available with bespoke pricing and additional features like local data hosting, API access for custom apps, 400+ apps integration, Single Sign On, user management, service level agreement, custom domain support, and more.
Jotform Pricing – Jotform Enterprise Pricing
With Jotform Enterprise, you pay according to your business needs. For 5-49 users, you are charged $79 per user each month. For 50-199 users, you are charged $69 per user each month. For 200+ users, you pay $59 per user each month. Are you an enterprise user and needs better discount? Get a Better Deal
Jotform Pricing – Nonprofit Discount
Jotform has Pricing plans for Non Profit organization. Running a non profit organization that is making a difference in your community, county, states, country or the world? Jotform is offering you 50% discount. Here is the special discount pricing for non profit organization.
Jotform Pricing – Educational Discount
Jotform offers discounted pricing for Educators. Get started with Jotform tool today and get 50% educational discount for any paid plan.
Pros and Cons of JotForm
Just like any service, JotForm has its fair share of pros and cons. Let us learn about them.
The Pros
- Extremely simple and intuitive form builder.
- Thousands of templates.
- Drag-and-drop designer.
- Many service integrations.
- Widgets allow extending form functions.
- Massive gallery of templates and themes.
- Conditional logical available.
- Decent pricing.
- Allows customizing forms using custom CSS codes.
The Cons
- Some plans have extremely limited form views. This can be stifling if your website gets a large amount of traffic.
- Response-based customization not available.
- Too many templates can be cause confusion.
- Template search is not remarkably efficient.
- Support center is confusing, and their support is not so great even though they have 24/7 support. Many people have complained about their horrible support.
Conclusion
Even though their support is not the “industry best support,” the features they offer and the simplicity of the form building process make them one of the industry leaders. Hopefully, they will overcome their support issues soon.
If you are looking for an online form builder, JotForm is an excellent choice. I will recommend JotForm anytime you ask me. Yes, customer support is a bit off, and yes, they may be slightly pricey, but the number of features the provide justify the pricing.
You will particularly love their conditional logic feature that is great for creating surveys and gathering opinions. In fact, their conditional logic feature is way more advanced than major providers in the world.
