Don’t want to get caught up in the long-winded bureaucracy of the corporate purchase decision making process? You might opt to stay on the free plan just to avoid the hassle. The most frustrating experience is when the free plan offers little to no value and is hardly usable unless you pass the paywall.
We’ve done a comparison of the free plans available on all form builders so you can skip the research and start building your survey with Smore today.
TL; DR
What every good form builder should have
The product should be usable in practice, even if the user is on the free plan. These four elements are what we believe a good form builder should have.
Unlimited Responses
Many survey tools monetize response counts. On free plans, the limit on responses is as low as 10 per month. However, regardless of the purpose of the survey, it is important to collect as many responses as possible. Quality data accumulation is essential for meaningful analytics, leading to insights or feedback.
In other words, if there are constraints on the core of customer communication, surveys that listen to the voice of customers will have difficulty functioning properly.
Intuitive UI/UX
Surveys require a lot of effort in question design and response analysis. That's why efficiency in online survey creation becomes crucial. Therefore, survey tools need to be intuitively designed so that technical expertise is not required, and users don't have to constantly look up guides. This way, surveys can be created quickly and easily.
Lots of ready-made, customizable templates
Templates are what can maximize the efficiency of survey creation. They shorten the production time, minimize concerns related to design, and make it even easier to create and distribute surveys. Especially when you need to collect responses urgently, you can simply modify the details using the appropriate template and share it immediately.
Engaging user experience
The biggest factor that reduces survey response rates is negative customer experience. Surveys that have minimal design and give off a stiff and impersonal feeling tend to hinder respondent immersion, sometimes leading them to drop out due to boredom during the survey.
Furthermore, surveys serve as a space for two-way communication between brands and customers. Especially, it's crucial to actively communicate the brand's customer philosophy rather than solely collecting customer data. Therefore, interfaces and interactive survey UIs that embody the brand's identity are essential elements for providing a positive customer experience. To achieve this, customization features such as font formatting, theme color customization, transition effect changes, embed functionality, etc., should be supported.
Smore VS Jotform
✔️Comparison Point 1: Response Limit
Smore: Unlimited responses
With Smore, you can collect an unlimited number of responses even on the free plan. That’s because we believe in the importance of talking to your customers.
Furthermore, to ensure that the collected results can be meaningfully utilized, you can easily manage the data through internal analytics without having to extract them into separate Excel or spreadsheet files.
Receiving more responses means having the opportunity to communicate with more customers. And data analysis based on sufficient responses helps companies gain insights from various perspectives. Smore aims to continue providing unlimited opportunities like this in the future.
Jotform: Only 100 responses per month
If you're using Jotform's free plan, you might hit a roadblock when it comes to gathering responses. Jotform restricts free users to just 100 responses per month. It doesn't matter how many surveys you create—combined, they can't exceed this limit. If you need to collect more responses, then you have to upgrade to their Gold Plan, which runs at $150 per month.
These limitations can significantly hinder your ability to collect valuable customer feedback and insights. With capped responses, it’s harder to gather the comprehensive data needed to achieve your survey goals and truly understand your audience.
If the purpose of the survey was lead generation, without a sufficient number of quality responses, it becomes difficult to secure abundant leads, let alone find hot leads. Even if the survey was conducted to directly listen to the Voice of the Customer (VOC) for CX management, insufficient response volume makes it challenging to obtain clear insights. When the results of the questions themselves are not sufficient, there are certainly clear limitations to obtaining meaningful analytics.
✔️Comparison Point 2: Number of forms
Smore: Unlimited forms
With Smore, you can create unlimited surveys, even on the free plan.
Surveys are an excellent way to gather valuable feedback from customers. By listening closely to their responses, you can strengthen your relationship with them. Smore understands the importance of communication and relationship-building, which is why we place no limits on survey creation.
Jotform: Only 5 forms
With Jotform's free plan, you can only create five surveys. If you want to create more forms, you have to upgrade to the Bronze Plan, which costs $40 per month.
One of the great benefits of surveys is the ability to quickly and easily reach out to customers and hear their stories. Surveys are a crucial tool for regularly capturing customer feedback. So when there are restrictions on survey creation, it limits your opportunities to engage with customers on a variety of topics and gather their insights.
Brands and companies have all sorts of questions they need to ask their customers. Whether it's for user research, satisfaction assessments, lead generation, or feedback collection, surveys are essential for gathering diverse customer insights.
✔️Comparison Point 3: Detailed Ending Page Customizability
Smore: Customizable ending page design
With Smore, you can freely design the ending page that respondents see when completing a survey. We offer this based on a deep understanding of customer experience. A simple "Submission Completed" message doesn't fully express the gratitude owed to those who took the time to respond.
On Smore’s free plan, you have the freedom to choose from multiple layouts. You can also embed images and videos to build this ending page up like a landing page, communicating additional information about your product and service, converting respondents to customers.
With these diverse design options, you can create a more heartfelt thank-you message and naturally encourage additional actions after the survey. From the respondent's perspective, this approach feels like receiving genuine care all the way through to the end of the survey.
Jotform: Fixed ending page design
Jotform's ending page offers limited design options. Besides changing the default "Thank you" message, you can't customize much else. Even on paid plans, you're restricted to just modifying this basic text. There are no options to incorporate brand identity or enhance the survey experience.
You can't add images or videos to convey a heartfelt thank-you message to respondents, nor can you include CTA buttons to encourage further actions post-survey. This lack of customization prevents you from fully engaging with your customers and expressing genuine appreciation for their time and responses.
A great survey experience significantly shapes a positive image of the company. By paying attention to details that other companies might overlook, you can create a distinctive experience. This means closely considering the user journey of survey respondents until the very end.
If the survey ends with a simple "Submission Complete" or "Thank You" message, it can seem like a lackluster finish for those who took the time to respond. Respondents who invest their time and effort to complete a survey are likely to have a strong affinity for the brand or may become loyal customers in the future.
By designing the ending page more thoughtfully and leveraging it to encourage additional actions after survey completion, you can convey the company's genuine intent and sincerity, rather than merely collecting data. This approach helps to build a more meaningful connection with respondents.
Smore offers an excellent free plan that unlocks unlimited possibilities for customer conversations. If you're looking for a survey tool for your customer surveys, why not start with Smore right now?😀
