Cognito Forms vs Formlets (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cognito Forms and Formlets share a 2.4 GPA, both have a free plan, and Cognito Forms starts cheaper, at $19 a month against $20 a month.
Checked Oct 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on all five counts.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Cognito Forms
Form builder with calculations, payments and approval workflows
Formlets
Online form builder with unlimited responses on a free plan
Which one is for you
Pick Cognito Forms if
- Fits if you need order forms that add up the total and take the payment
- Works for small teams who want an approval step after someone submits, on Team at $49 a month billed yearly
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you're staying free, with 100 entries a month, 100 MB of storage, Cognito branding and no integrations
- Not for you if you need HIPAA or single sign-on on a budget, as both are Enterprise only, at $149 a month billed yearly
- Skip it if you want a phone app, because it's web only
- Pricey if you add people, since Pro covers 1 user and each extra one is $5 a month
- Watch out: the five-plan lineup is labeled a pricing experiment, and in July 2026 Team was $39, not $49
Pick Formlets if
- Fits if you need one form with unlimited responses
- Works for people who want calculations and e-signatures
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you want more than 1 published form, as that needs a paid plan
- Watch out: payments, conditional fields and a custom domain need a paid plan
- Watch out: prices exclude VAT, with 21% added for EU customers without a VAT number
- Watch out: the pricing page lists an 'OLD Small Business' tier and plans that repeat each other
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACognito FormsFair | 2.4GPAFormletsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $19 a month paid yearly, $24 monthly, which sits between this category's lowest-priced quarter at $16.25 and its middle at $24. Workflow and approvals mean Team at $49. Extra users are $5 each, and Cognito labels the whole lineup a pricing experiment. | CSmall Business is $20 a month billed annually, in the middle of form tools, and prices exclude VAT. |
| Free plan and trial | CUnlimited forms and payments for one user, but 100 entries a month is a cap you'll reach, the forms carry Cognito's branding and no integrations work at all. Paid plans have a 14-day trial with no card. | CThe free plan publishes 1 form with unlimited responses and Formlets branding. |
| Features | BIt covers the whole forms job: conditional logic, an expression language for calculations, payments on every plan including free, e-signatures, save and resume, then workflow tasks, approvals and data lookups from Team up. | BDrag-and-drop designer, conditional display, calculations, uploads, payments, e-signatures, integrations and teams. Nothing in the listing is missing from the job. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record, and this isn't a press-and-go app: you build each form, wire up the logic and write expressions for the calculations. Nothing to install, at least. | CNo store rating on record, and it is a web app where the work is building each form, so it sits at C. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb with integrations: Airtable, Asana, Zapier, Make and Power Automate, plus an API and JSON webhooks. No phone or desktop apps, and none of the connecting works on the free plan. | BWeb only, with three listed integrations and API-style delivery options. |
| Best for | forms that do sums and take payments | a drag-and-drop form builder with unlimited responses |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Cognito Forms and Formlets. How we grade
Price against what you get
Cognito Forms starts at $19 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Formlets starts at $20 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Cognito Forms starts $1 a month lower. Of the other form and survey tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Cognito Forms for less, and 1 scores higher than Formlets for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Cognito Forms also covers surveys.
At a glance
| Cognito Forms | Formlets | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly) | $20 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | Individual plan, always free: 1 user, unlimited forms, 100 entries a month and 100 MB of storage, with payments. Forms carry Cognito Forms branding, and integrations need a paid plan. | Personal plan: 1 published form, unlimited responses, multi-page and multi-column layouts and integrations, with Formlets branding on the form. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of paid plans, no credit card required; it reverts to the free Individual plan | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cognito LLC | Oxopia |
| Price read from | cognitoforms.com | formlets.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Cognito Forms
- The free Individual plan is limited to 1 user and 100 entries a month, carries Cognito Forms branding and has no integrations.
- Pro includes a single user; additional users on paid plans cost $5 per user per month.
- HIPAA compliance and single sign-on are listed only under Enterprise.
- The five-plan lineup shown is labeled a pricing experiment; the July 2026 lineup had no Business plan, with Team at $39 and Enterprise at $129 billed annually.
Formlets
- The free plan publishes one form only and keeps Formlets branding on it.
- Conditional fields, payments and a custom domain need a paid plan; a form address on your own domain starts at Professional.
- Prices are shown excluding VAT, and 21% VAT applies to EU customers without a VAT number and to Belgian customers.
- The page also lists an 'OLD Small Business' tier at $15 and a 'Full service' tier at $118.33 a month, and Plus and Business repeat the features of the tier below.
Key features
Cognito Forms
- Form builder with calculations
- Build forms with conditional logic that controls how the form behaves, and use an expression language for calculations. Every plan allows unlimited forms.
- Online payments
- Take unlimited payments on every plan, with Stripe available from the free plan. PayPal and Square payments are listed among the Team plan's features.
- Workflow and approvals
- From the Team plan, workflow tasks and links move an entry from submission through review to sign-off. Data lookups arrive at the same tier.
- Electronic signatures and save and resume
- The Pro plan adds electronic signatures and lets respondents save a form and resume it later. It also removes Cognito Forms branding.
- Guest access
- Business includes 5 monthly guests and Enterprise 20, for working with people outside the organization. Larger guest tiers start at $25 a month for up to 50.
- Integrations, API and webhooks
- Paid plans connect to apps such as Airtable, Asana, Box and Calendly, to Zapier, Make and Power Automate, and to the Cognito Forms API and JSON webhooks.
Formlets
- Drag-and-drop designer
- Build forms by dragging fields into place, with multi-page and multi-column layouts, themes, a header image and right-to-left text.
- Conditional display and calculations
- Show or hide fields based on earlier answers and compute values from other fields. Conditional display is a paid-plan feature.
- File uploads
- Accept multiple files per form with size and image-dimension limits. Paid plans include 3 GB to 100 GB of storage.
- Payments and e-signatures
- Collect Stripe and PayPal payments on paid plans, and add a signature field to a form.
- Delivery and integrations
- Submissions go to email, an endpoint or Zapier, and the vendor says it connects to over 2000 platforms. Forms embed by iframe or modal.
- Teams and custom builds
- Higher plans add team accounts, and the Agency plan includes custom functionality built by the vendor.
Plans
Cognito Forms
Individual$0
1 user, unlimited forms, 100 entries a month and 100 MB of storage, with payments and Cognito Forms branding.
Pro$19
per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)
1 user and 2,000 entries a month, with electronic signatures, save and resume, integrations and removable branding.
Team$49
per month, billed annually ($62 billed monthly)
5 users and 10,000 entries a month, with workflow and approvals and data lookups.
Business$99
per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly)
10 users, 5 guests and 25,000 entries a month, with folder permissions, 1 year of audit log history and 50,000 API requests a month.
Enterprise$149
per month, billed annually ($199 billed monthly)
20 users, 20 guests and unlimited entries, with HIPAA compliance, single sign-on and custom document templates.
Formlets
Personal$0
1 published form with unlimited responses and Formlets branding shown on the form.
Small Business$20
per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly)
10 published forms, no Formlets branding, Stripe and PayPal payments, conditional fields, 3 GB of file storage and a form address on your own subdomain.
Plus$26.67
per month, billed annually ($32 billed monthly)
Lists the same features as Small Business, including 10 published forms and 3 GB of file storage.
Professional$40
per month, billed annually ($48 billed monthly)
50 published forms, priority support, 20 GB of storage with uploads up to 2 GB, your own domain and 10 team accounts.
Business$56.67
per month, billed annually ($68 billed monthly)
Lists the same features as Professional, including 50 published forms and 10 team accounts.
Agency$216.67
per month, billed annually ($260 billed monthly)
100 published forms, 100 GB of storage, 100 team and reseller accounts, and custom functionality built for you.
Ways to pay less
Cognito Forms
- Annual discount
Lower rates on annual plans
Billed annually, Pro is $19 per month instead of $24, Team $49 instead of $62, Business $99 instead of $129 and Enterprise $149 instead of $199.
- Nonprofit
Discounted rates for 501(c)(3) non-profits
Cognito Forms offers discounted rates on any plan to non-educational, non-governmental organizations that are tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3), on request to its support team.
Formlets
- Other savings
30-day refund on a new plan
The pricing page says a full refund is available if you cancel within the first 30 days of a new plan.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Cognito Forms or Formlets?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Cognito Forms is cheaper to start with: $19 a month, against $20 a month for Formlets. Cognito Forms starts at $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly), and Formlets starts at $20 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Cognito Forms or Formlets?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Cognito Forms and Formlets have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.