JotForm Alternative: Review and Comparison

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

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

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.