Cognito Forms vs Formstack

Cognito Forms

• Order, registration and payment forms with calculated totals
• Small teams that need approval steps after a submission
• Solo users who want unlimited forms on a free plan

Formstack

• Organizations that want forms, generated documents and eSignatures from one vendor
• Salesforce teams that want forms managed inside their org
• Approval processes that route each submission through several reviewers

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.

Formstack

• There is no free plan; the entry price is $83 per month paid annually after a 14-day trial.
• The Forms plan includes one builder user, 25 forms and 1,000 submissions per form.
• Document generation and eSignatures come with the Suite plan, not the Forms plan.
• HIPAA compliance is listed as an add-on, and SSO and custom SLAs under Enterprise.

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.

Formstack

No-code form builder

Formstack Forms builds custom online forms without code and styles them with an organization's logos, colors and themes.

AI form creation

An AI-powered builder drafts a form, so users do not have to start from a blank page or add every field by hand.

Form prefill

Send prefilled links, or use SSO-powered prefill to populate information that is already known about the person completing the form.

Approvals and step logic

Group approvals, step logic and conditional routing move a submission through the people who need to review it.

Documents and Sign

The Suite plan generates documents from collected data, with 250 document deliveries a month, and includes unlimited eSignatures with no per-envelope fee.

Forms for Salesforce

A separate Salesforce-native product whose forms are built and managed inside a Salesforce org. It is sold with custom pricing.

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.

Formstack

• Forms$83

  per month, paid annually ($99 billed monthly)

  1 builder user, 25 forms, 1,000 submissions per form and 2 GB of storage.

• Suite$250

  per month, paid annually ($299 billed monthly)

  Forms, Documents and Sign: 3 builder users, 100 forms, 5,000 submissions per form, 10 GB, 250 document deliveries a month and unlimited eSignatures.

• Salesforce SolutionsCustom

  Salesforce-native forms with document generation and eSignature, Experience Cloud integration and Salesforce Shield compatibility.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Unlimited users and submissions, SSO and advanced security, custom SLAs, API access and a dedicated Customer Success Manager.

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.

Formstack

• Annual discount

  Save 2 months with annual plans

  Forms is $83 per month paid annually versus $99 on monthly billing, and Suite is $250 versus $299. The pricing page describes the saving as 2 months.

• Nonprofit

  25% nonprofit discount

  Formstack gives 25% off to 501(c)(3) organizations and comparable registered charities abroad. Educational and governmental institutions are not eligible.