Cognito Forms vs Gravity Forms
We give Cognito Forms a 2.4 GPA and Gravity Forms a 2.0, out of 4.0. Cognito Forms grades higher on the free plan and features. Gravity Forms grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on 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
Gravity Forms
WordPress form builder plugin sold as a yearly license
How we grade them
| 2.4GPACognito FormsFair | 2.0GPAGravity FormsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPro is $19 a month paid yearly, $24 monthly, which sits between this category's cheap 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. | BGraded against its alternatives. Basic is $59 a year for one site with unlimited forms and entries, a fraction of what hosted builders like Jotform or Typeform charge. Stripe and PayPal need Pro at $159 a year, and you need a WordPress site and hosting to run it on. |
| Free plan and trial | CUnlimited forms and payments for one user is generous, 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. | FNothing free and no trial, just an online demo. There are refunds within 30 days, but asking for one switches the licence off at once, and a refund isn't a trial anyway. |
| 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. | CPlenty for forms: 30+ field types, conditional logic, multi-page forms, calculations, payments and, on Elite, surveys, quizzes, polls and signatures. The gap is the listing's own: it only runs as a WordPress plugin, so without a WordPress site it does nothing. |
| 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 rating on record. Dragging fields around inside WordPress is friendly, but first you need a self-hosted WordPress site or a WordPress.com Business plan, then the plugin and its add-ons installed, then each form built. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb with proper 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. | BIt runs in the browser inside WordPress and connects to Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier and Slack, with a REST API and 500+ hooks for developers. No desktop or phone app of its own. |
| Best for | forms that do sums and take payments | forms on your own WordPress site |
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 Gravity Forms. 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. Gravity Forms starts at $4.92 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.3.
Cognito Forms scores higher, and starts $14.08 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other form and survey tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than Cognito Forms for less, and none scores higher than Gravity Forms 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 starts at $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly). Gravity Forms starts at $59 per year.
- Cognito Forms has a free plan. Gravity Forms does not.
- Cognito Forms also covers workflow automation and no-code.
At a glance
| Cognito Forms | Gravity Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Paid |
| Starts at | $19 per month, billed annually ($24 billed monthly) | $59 per year |
| 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. | None |
| 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 | Rocketgenius Inc. |
| Price read from | cognitoforms.com | gravityforms.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Who each one suits
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
Gravity Forms
- WordPress site owners who want forms and entries kept on their own site
- Agencies that build forms across many client sites
- Payment, registration and order forms with calculated totals
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.
Gravity Forms
- It runs only as a WordPress plugin, so you need a self-hosted WordPress site, or a WordPress.com Business plan with a custom domain.
- There is no free version and no trial; the vendor offers an online demo instead.
- Stripe, PayPal and Zapier need Pro, and surveys, quizzes, signatures, user registration and webhooks need the $259 Elite license.
- Refunds are given within 30 days of a payment, and requesting one deactivates the license immediately.
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.
Gravity Forms
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Build forms inside WordPress from 30+ field types, a template library and layouts of up to four columns per row, then embed them on any page.
- Conditional logic and multi-page forms
- Show or hide fields, sections and pages based on answers, split long forms into pages, and route notification emails by what was submitted.
- Calculations and payments
- Fields can be calculated from a formula. The Stripe, PayPal Checkout and Square add-ons, which handle subscriptions, need Pro; discount codes need Elite.
- Surveys, quizzes and polls
- Elite adds add-ons for surveys, graded quizzes, polls, signatures, partial entries from abandoned forms and conversational one-question-at-a-time forms.
- Entries stored on your own site
- Entries and uploaded files are saved to your WordPress database and server, with unlimited forms and entries, CSV export and tools for handling personal data and consent.
- REST API and hooks
- A REST API, 500+ actions and filters and an add-on framework let developers build their own integrations; the Webhooks add-on needs Elite.
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.
Gravity Forms
Basic$59
per year
1 site, standard support, and the Basic add-ons for email marketing tools such as Mailchimp, HubSpot and ActiveCampaign, plus reCAPTCHA and Akismet.
Pro$159
per year
3 sites and standard support. Adds the Pro add-ons, including Stripe, PayPal Checkout, Square, Zapier, Slack, Dropbox and Trello.
Elite$259
per year
Unlimited sites, WordPress Multisite, priority support and every add-on, including surveys, quizzes, polls, signatures, user registration and webhooks.
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.
Gravity Forms
- Nonprofit
Nonprofit License at $129 a year
Registered nonprofits can apply for a $129-a-year license covering 3 sites with add-ons such as Stripe, PayPal, Survey and User Registration. It renews at the same price.
