JotForm Alternative: Review and Comparison

What is JotForm? An established and versatile form builder that is packed with all sorts of forms and functions with lots of plans for various purposes and many templates to choose from. AidaForm, one of the JotForm competitors, is a form creation service with lots of pre-designed form elements and easy form management that’s great for small businesses and private entrepreneurs.

In this JotForm review, we’re going to compare both programs so you can figure out what service fits your needs best. Here’s what we’ll cover:

AidaForm vs. JotForm Review

1

Form Building Functions

Form editor is the backbone of a form creation service, so we’ll focus on it first. You should be able to easily learn how it works and customize fields for your forms. A good form creation service has a wide selection of pre-made responsive fields to build all sorts of forms: surveys, orders, job applications, registrations, and more. There are lots of other parameters to consider: how easy it is to edit form elements, how you save forms, how many templates are available, etc. Let’s see how AidaForm and JotForm compare.

JotForm Features

JotForm Form Builder has extensive form building functions. Their form elements list has all the standard blocks like name, address, email, text fields, single and multiple choice questions. There are also more exotic options you can add, for instance, a currency converter – why add it to an online form, though? We tested it in a form, but the widget just keeps showing a loading screen. JotForm also offers a variety of payment option integrations, including PayPal, Wepay, Sofort, PayU, Moneris, and many others. All of these blocks are highly customizable, however, the settings might be confusing for a beginner. Each element has two to four properties tabs and it’s not easy to understand what some of them do.

JotForm templates are available for all kinds of forms, both in classical one-screen form and designed as cards with consecutive questions. Their template gallery is extensive, but many templates are user-created so you might have trouble finding something you can use.

The interface of the form builder in the JotForm web app seems pretty straightforward at first: you can drag and drop elements to your form. However, we found out that clicking on an element also adds it to the form, so be careful not to duplicate fields. It seems inconvenient that both actions add the element to your form, one would usually expect a click to cause something else to happen, like a preview or a hint.

Customization might get confusing once you delve into all the settings of form elements, thank-you pages, and payment integration. Each form element has from two to four settings tabs, some of which contain options that we couldn’t figure out how to use. Probably you don’t even need to configure them, but who knows. Sometimes changing a parameter in one form element also changes the same parameter in adjacent blocks, but not in others, even when you set it as form default. Hints explain the options to some extent, but don’t always help you figure out what the options do. Thankfully, they have an autosave feature so you won’t lose your progress if you accidentally close the browser tab or the internet connection breaks.

What we liked

  • Lots of customizable blocks
  • Many ready-made templates
  • Extensive payment integrations
  • Autosave function

What we didn’t like

  • Complicated element settings
  • User-created templates
  • Form elements with an unclear purpose

AidaForm Features

AidaForm is a relatively new form creation service, but it already has the tools you need to create any form you like. Similar to JotForm, its form builder has all the important blocks to put together an online form: name, email, address, captcha, file upload, multiple choice questions, and more. These are divided into relevant groups like contact info, questions, and special fields so you can easily find the blocks you need for your form. At the moment, AidaForm supports PayPal for payment collection since it’s the most popular payment processing service. If you have a different platform you’d like to use, drop us a line at support@aidaform.com and we’ll try to fulfill your request. All form elements in the AidaForm builder have just one settings tab, where you can easily make adjustments even if you’re making a form for the first time.

When you start creating a form in AidaForm, you can choose a blank template and add all the blocks you need manually or save some time by starting with a basic template with most common fields like name and email already added. AidaForm doesn’t have pre-built form templates as of yet, but then again – this means you can build any form you like and customize it in a way that suits you. It’s really easy to do thanks to easy-to-understand interface and smart controls.

AidaForm saves your editing progress automatically, too, so don’t worry about your internet connection or accidental misclicks. Unlike JotForm, AidaForm only lets you add elements to your form by dragging them there and it seems more natural this way. One action – one effect.

What we liked

  • Easy-to-navigate form element categories
  • Simple form and element settings
  • Clear interface without visual clutter
  • Autosave function

What we didn’t like

  • Lack of payment options
  • Few form templates
2

Form design tools and visual customization

After you select and set up form blocks, you’ll need to add some visual punch so that your form looks sleek and modern, fits the design of your website and business. You should be able to add your logo, change fonts and colors of your form, use an image as the background of your form, and - if you want to delve into more complicated settings - apply custom CSS styles. Let’s review JotForm and compare its form design options to those of AidaForm.

JotForm Design Features

The Form Designer of the JotForm builder is hidden under a blue round button with a paint runner icon on the right side of the application screen so you won’t miss it. Clicking or tapping on the button opens form design settings. There, you can change form colors, adjust fonts, apply custom CSS or choose a design theme. There is a total of 24 free themes available in this section, and many more in the template store, some of them are user created and might look unprofessional. We haven’t found paid designs in the design editor, but there are some in the template store, they cost $3 to $10 and look slightly more stylish. You’ll have to browse through a lot of templates before you find something that suits you.

All of the design settings are highly flexible, there is even an advanced form designer that you can switch to and make some precise changes. However, if you have no web design experience you risk being overwhelmed by all these options. It’ll take a lot of time and skill to create something really stylish. Moreover, we’ve noticed that not all elements change when you apply a theme to your form: you’ll have to avoid these elements if you want to use a theme.

What we liked

  • Multiple free design themes
  • Advanced form designer
  • Ability to add custom CSS

What we didn’t like

  • Themes don’t change the looks of some form elements
  • Some classic template themes look dated

AidaForm Design Features

AidaForm’s form designer is also located on the right side of the web interface, and it’s much more streamlined and simple than that of JotForm. And if you’re looking for a JotForm alternative that doesn’t overcomplicate form design – here you have it. Where JotForm lets you fiddle with any setting with sometimes questionable results, AidaForm makes sure nothing goes wrong even if you’ve never tried designing a web form before. Each of the built-in themes adjusts itself to the fields you’ve added, the smart settings make sure your forms look good out of the box. You can, however, edit each theme if you like: change font type and size or even upload an image for the form background if you want it to mirror the design of your website. Edited themes are saved in the My Themes section of the form designer so you can reuse them on new forms you create.

The ease of use comes at a price, though: AidaForm won’t let you make in-depth changes to your form design, like fully custom colors or individual font sizes for separate elements. You won’t be able to apply custom CSS, too. But it doesn’t feel like a problem for a JotForm alternative that’s free. If you are already experienced and want advanced design options, JotForm has something more suitable for you.

What we liked

  • Easy-to-understand controls
  • Smart themes that adjust to form content
  • Nothing-will-go-wrong designs

What we didn’t like

  • Lack of an advanced form designer
  • Few built-in themes
  • No custom CSS design
3

Sharing and publishing

After you’ve built and styled your form, you need to make it available – on your website, via email, on social networks, etc. When we’re talking about publishing we want to evaluate how the service lets people access to your forms: a direct link to the form page, an embed code that you can add to your website, or something else. Can you export source code? Are there third-party platforms you can publish your forms to? Let’s see what JotForm and AidaForm offer in terms of sharing options.

JotForm Features

You’ll find all the publishing and sharing options of the JotForm Service in the Publish tab of their form builder main window. There are four publishing categories: quick share, embed, PDF and platforms. Quick share generates a direct link to your form – you can add it to a button on your website, send it in a marketing newsletter or post on social network, quick and easy, as advertised.

The Embed category has an embed code that can be pasted to your web page code to render your form there. It will still be hosted at JotForm, though. In the Embed tab, JotForm also has the option to generate the source HTML code of the form you created and download it with all the js and CSS styles associated with the form. This will let you customize the form more precisely, however, it requires extensive coding knowledge and PHP-skills to make the form work on your website. Do this only if you’re sure what you need this for.

You can also turn your form into a fillable PDF document if you need. However, it’ll be generated from just the basic fields without any styles or design. It doesn’t show which fields of the form are required but won’t submit the form unless they’re filled out. It might be quite a pain for users to fill out.

If your site is built on a third-party platform like WordPress or Joomla, JotForm can generate a suitable code to paste on your website, too. There are a lot of options there, and even a search function, so you can easily find a platform you need.

What we liked

  • Variety of sharing options
  • Ability to download the source code
  • Third-party platform sharing

What we didn’t like

  • Fillable PDFs have sub-par usability and no design themes

AidaForm Features

Just like JotForm, AidaForm has the Publish tab in the upper menu bar of the main window. There, you’ll see familiar sharing options: direct link and embed. AidaForm doesn’t let users export the source code as of yet and doesn’t offer specialized codes for third-party platforms. The easiest to use and the most popular options are there for those who don’t devote themselves to web design full time and would rather use the form right away. This is usually enough for most users and it makes sense that AidaForm made these available as their first priority. Other options may appear there in the future.

What we liked

  • Direct link and embed code available
  • Forms are easily shareable via social networks and email

What we didn’t like

  • No advanced sharing options
  • No source code export
4

Response collection and management

You’re creating forms to gather submissions: registrations, applications, survey answers, feedback, and everything else. It’s important to know how many people submitted their answers, view responses individually or represented as sheets where you can segment your audience and analyze their data. Let’s see how JotForm and AidaForm manage response collection, what is convenient and why.

JotForm Features

There are several ways you get notified when someone fills out your form: you get an email with the contents of the form submission and a response notification appears on your dashboard – you won’t miss it, which is great.

When it comes to JotForm security, you have nothing to worry about, all the form data is stored safely, they even offer encrypted forms for added data protection. You can choose to encrypt your form in the Settings of your JotForm account.

When you select a form from your form list, you can click the Submissions button to view and evaluate form responses. From there, you can print individual responses, export them as PDFs, forward to an email address or reply right away from the JotForm interface. You can also download all responses as an Excel or CSV sheet to analyze and segment the data offline. While all these options are valuable and convenient, the interface looks, well, nostalgic. We’ve seen similar icons, gradients, and shadows in MS Office products back in the early 2000s. It makes an especially stark contrast with the other areas of the website that look flat, colorful, and modern.

We’ve received email notifications from JotForm without any troubles, they even get sorted into the updates category by google mail. However, a quick look into the JotForm help and support topics indicates, that many users struggle with the JotForm bounce list: if your email ends up there, JotForm will not be sending emails to you, including submission notifications. You’ll have to monitor if all notifications come through all right.

The free plan in JotForm limits the number of responses you can collect to 100 per month, so make sure you export and wipe responses regularly. You can also switch to a paid plan: JotForm pricing is available on their website with plans starting at ca. $15 a month.

What we liked

  • Submission notifications
  • Export options
  • Email response from the dashboard

What we didn’t like

  • Only 100 responses per month for the free plan
  • Bounce list problems
  • Dated response management interface

AidaForm Features

Just like JotForm, AidaForm lets you know about individual form submissions through email notifications to the email address you specify when you register. You can also view form responses in your AidaForm account, export them as Excel Sheets to build segments for targeting, analyze data and more.

The interface of the response management dashboard looks modern and easy to understand.

What we liked

  • Submission notifications
  • Intuitive and well-designed dashboard

What we didn’t like

  • Few export options
5

Third-party integrations and workflow

Once you’ve created the forms you wanted and made them available to your visitors, make them part of your business workflow. Third-party integrations let form building services like AidaForm and JotForm process your payments, export response data, and create MailChimp mailing lists for your marketing campaigns. Let’s review both services in terms of third-party services they connect with.

JotForm Integrations

You’ll find the list of all possible integrations JotForm offers in the Settings section. There are so many of them that a search option they include might come in handy. Here, you can set up online payments through PayPal, 2Checkout, and other processing systems, export form data to Google Sheets, Google Drive, DropBox, Box, GetResponse, and many other services. JotForm also supports mailing list generation for MailChimp, Mad Mimi, Constant Contact, and others, as well as CRM integrations like Zoho, SalesForce, and more. Any other app that’s not on the list can be connected through Zapier.

Although we haven’t tested in detail, how well the integrations work, the sheer number of integration options is impressive.

AidaForm Integrations

Since AidaForm is a relatively new service, it cannot boast such a collection of third-party apps to integrate with, however, the essentials are there: you can connect a PayPal account to accept payments, export form submissions to Google Sheets for evaluation and analysis, and generate mailing lists for your MailChimp account. For other apps, there is a Zapier integration to work with.

Side-by-Side Comparison

AidaFormJotForm
FORM EDITING
Form elements for most standard forms
Widgets
Payment processing
Captcha
Mobile-ready
Form templates
File upload
FORM DESIGN
Built-in themes
Logo upload
Custom themes
Design automation
Advanced form designer
PUBLISHING
Direct link
Embed code
Source code
THIRD-PARTY INTEGRATIONS
MailChimp
Google Sheets
Zapier
CRM systemsZoho, other CRMs can be integrated through Zapier
FREE PLAN

Summary: JotForm Form Builder

As you’ve seen from this review, JotForm is a fully functional and complex form building and management service with lots of options, integrations, and templates. You can make almost any kind of form in it if you take your time to learn their tools and options. With both classic templates and one question per page forms, you can use it for quizzes, order forms, event registrations, and anything else you can imagine. However, if you need to build a simple form that will look good with minimal touch-ups and you need it quickly, JotForm might be a little too flexible with all its precise settings and options. You can try all JotForm features for free and see if it suits you.

Pros

  • Wide selection of responsive blocks to choose from
  • Lots of pre-made form templates and design themes
  • Autosave function
  • Flexible sharing
  • Extensive JotForm support and help topics

Cons

  • Many templates are user-created
  • Customization is difficult and time-consuming
  • Might be confusing for beginners
  • Jotform bounce list problems
  • Only 100 responses in the free plan
Looking to try something other than Jot Form, try creating forms in AidaForm and see if it’s an alternative to JotForm that can work for you.
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