Cognito Forms vs Paperform

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

Paperform

• Small businesses selling services, bookings or products through a form
• Teams that want unlimited users on a flat-priced plan
• Forms that have to match the look of a brand's landing pages

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.

Paperform

• The Free plan accepts 30 submissions a month, and its Paperform badge cannot be turned off.
• Webhooks, REST API access, custom PDFs, partial submissions and hidden fields all need a paid plan.
• A custom domain costs an extra $20 per month on Pro; Business includes one.
• SAML SSO, roles and multiple workspaces start at Business, at $124 per month billed annually.

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.

Paperform

Doc-style editor and templates

Edit a form like a document, adding questions with slash commands, or start from one of 30,000+ templates. A one-at-a-time mode shows a single question per screen.

Payments and subscriptions

Take payments through Stripe, Square or Braintree with no Paperform transaction fee on any plan. Subscriptions and coupon codes need a paid plan.

Appointment bookings

An appointment field takes bookings inside a form, manages availability and syncs events to Google Calendar. Booking submissions are unlimited on every plan.

Logic, scoring and calculations

Conditional logic shows or hides questions, content and emails, and scoring works on every plan. The calculation field is one of five paid-only field types.

AI form creation and insights

Describe a form in plain language and AI drafts it, which is included in the Free plan. AI help with calculations and AI report insights need a paid plan.

Papersign and Stepper workflows

Each plan includes documents signed through Papersign, 3 a month on Free and 25 on Pro, and multi-step workflow automations built in Stepper.

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.

Paperform

• Free$0

  Unlimited forms and users with 30 submissions a month, 200 workflow steps and 3 signed documents a month. Forms show a Paperform badge.

• Pro$49

  per month, billed annually ($59 month-to-month)

  Unlimited submissions under fair use, no Paperform branding, custom HTML and CSS, 25 signed documents a month and 10 GB of upload storage.

• Business$124

  per month, billed annually ($149 month-to-month)

  10 workspaces, admin and user roles, SAML SSO, 1 custom domain, 100 signed documents a month and 100 GB of upload storage.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Unlimited workspaces, custom domains and signed documents, custom roles, audit trails, local data residency, an SLA and a dedicated CSM.

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.

Paperform

• Annual discount

  About 17% off with annual billing

  Paperform says paying annually saves roughly 17%: Pro is $49 per month billed annually versus $59 month-to-month, and Business is $124 versus $149.

• Nonprofit

  Nonprofit discounts on Business and Enterprise

  Paperform offers nonprofit discounts on the Business and Enterprise plans, arranged by emailing its support team. No percentage is published.