Cognito Forms vs Formsite (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Cognito Forms grades higher than Formsite: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 9, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Cognito Forms grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
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
Formsite
Online form builder for registrations, orders and surveys
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 Formsite if
- Fits if you run event sign-ups or order forms with a few hundred results
- Works for teams who want a trial without handing over a card
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free, because 10 results per form runs out fast
- Watch out: Personal caps results at 500 per form, Professional at 1,000 and Business at 2,500
- Pricey if you add helpers, as sub-users are $10 a month each and storage $10 per GB
- Watch out: payments, the API and third-party integrations are Professional and up, at $34 a month
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACognito FormsFair | 2.2GPAFormsiteFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPersonal is $21 a month billed yearly, in the ordinary band. Professional, where payments and the API start, is $34. |
| 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. | C14-day trial of Professional with no card, then a free level of 5 forms, 10 results per form and 50 MB of files. |
| 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. | CForms, payments, workflows and PDF results cover the basics, but results are capped per form at 500, 1,000 or 2,500 on paid plans. |
| 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. It is a web app where you build each form yourself. |
| 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 Salesforce, Google Sheets, Slack, Mailchimp, Zapier, DocuSign, Stripe and PayPal. |
| Best for | forms that do sums and take payments | online registrations, orders and surveys |
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 Formsite. 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. Formsite starts at $21 a month and scores 2.3.
Cognito Forms scores higher and starts $2 a month lower. Of the other form and survey tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Cognito Forms for less, and 12 score higher than Formsite 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 no-code.
At a glance
| Cognito Forms | Formsite | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly) | $21 per month, billed annually ($24.95 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. | Free level after the trial: 5 forms, 10 results per form and 50 MB of file space. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of paid plans, no credit card required; it reverts to the free Individual plan | 14-day free trial of Professional, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Cognito LLC | Formsite |
| Price read from | cognitoforms.com | formsite.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Nov 12, 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.
Formsite
- Results are capped per form: 500 on Personal, 1,000 on Professional and 2,500 on Business.
- Sub-users cost $10 a month each and file storage $10 per GB a month; custom PDF and Word results docs are $50 a month.
- The vendor says it offers the same prices to all customers, with no nonprofit discounts or sales.
- Payments, API access and third-party integrations are listed as features for Professional and above.
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.
Formsite
- Form building and templates
- Forms cover registration, order and survey uses, and the site offers a template library and a features list for each service level.
- Payment integrations
- Forms can collect payments through PayPal, Braintree, Authorize.net and Stripe.
- Third-party integrations
- The pricing page lists Salesforce, Google Sheets, Google Drive, DocuSign, Slack, Mailchimp, Dropbox, Box, Amazon S3 and Zapier.
- Results as PDF and workflows
- Business and above receive each result as a PDF and can combine several forms and their results into workflows.
- Save and return, data upload
- Respondents can save a partial result and return later, and existing data can be imported into forms.
- API access
- An API is listed for working with forms and results programmatically.
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.
Formsite
Personal$21
per month, billed annually ($24.95 billed monthly)
5 forms, 500 results per form and 500 MB of file space. Billed $249.95 yearly.
Professional$34
per month, billed annually ($39.95 billed monthly)
10 forms, 1,000 results per form, 1 GB of space, branding removal. Billed $399.95 yearly.
Business$59
per month, billed annually ($69.95 billed monthly)
25 forms, 2,500 results per form, 2 GB, 1 sub-user, PDF results and workflows. Billed $699.95 yearly.
Business +$84
per month, billed annually ($99.95 billed monthly)
100 forms, 10,000 results per form, 4 GB and 5 sub-users. Billed $999.95 yearly.
Enterprise$209
per month, billed annually ($249.95 billed monthly)
1,000 forms, 50,000 results per form, 10 GB and 20 sub-users. Billed $2,499.95 yearly.
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.
Formsite
- Annual discount
Yearly billing saves $49 to $499
Paying yearly saves $49 on Personal, $79 on Professional, $139 on Business, $199 on Business + and $499 on Enterprise against monthly billing.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Cognito Forms or Formsite?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Cognito Forms is cheaper to start with: $19 a month, against $21 a month for Formsite. Cognito Forms starts at $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly), and Formsite starts at $21 per month, billed annually ($24.95 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Cognito Forms or Formsite?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Cognito Forms and Formsite 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.