Formstack and Google Forms sit at opposite ends of the form-building spectrum. Google Forms is free, unlimited, and instantly familiar to anyone with a Google account — but it was built as a lightweight survey tool. Formstack is an enterprise workflow platform with branding, approvals, document generation, and Salesforce integration — with no free plan and a $99/month entry point. Here's a neutral comparison of how the two stack up.
Google Forms is free with any Google account, with unlimited forms and submissions; Google Workspace plans ($6–$12 per user/month) add storage and admin features but don't change the Forms product much. Formstack has no free plan — only a 14-day trial — and its Forms product starts at $99/month ($83 billed annually), with the workflow-oriented Suite (Documents + Sign) around $250/month annually and Enterprise priced custom.
Google Forms is about as simple as form building gets: pick question types, share a link, and responses flow into Google Sheets. Formstack is far more capable but also heavier — it's an admin- and ops-oriented platform where forms are one part of a broader workflow, document, and signature suite, so there's real setup and a learning curve.
Google Forms offers only a theme color and header image — every form is unmistakably Google, hosted on Google's domain, with no way to remove that branding. Formstack supports full custom branding suited to client-facing use. On file uploads, Google Forms routes files to the owner's Google Drive and generally requires respondents to sign in with a Google account, whereas Formstack handles uploads within its own platform (with storage caps, or bring-your-own S3 to scale).
Google Forms has no submission cap and stores everything in Google Sheets, but offers only summary email digests, basic section-jump logic, and no HIPAA coverage for the Forms product. Formstack adds per-submission notifications, advanced conditional logic, approval routing, and HIPAA compliance on Enterprise — but caps submissions per form (1,000/month on the Forms plan) and emails overflow rather than storing it.
If Formstack's $99/month floor is more platform than you need, but Google Forms is too limited on branding, file storage, and notifications, Formiqa sits in between. It has no per-response fees, a genuinely free tier with 1 GB of dedicated file storage, native per-submission email notifications, and a purpose-built submission dashboard — with Pro at $26.90/month. Formiqa isn't HIPAA-compliant and doesn't do Salesforce-native workflows or in-form payments, so for those Formstack is still the fit.