Form.io vs Jotform (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Jotform grades higher than Form.io: 3.0 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Jotform grades higher on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Form.io
JSON form and API platform for developers, hosted or self-hosted
Jotform
No-code form builder with payments, e-signatures and workflows
Which one is for you
Pick Form.io if
- Fits if your developers need forms inside your own application and its data
- Makes sense if you must host data in your own infrastructure
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a free plan, because none exists
- Pricey if you only need a few forms: the lowest hosted plan is $300 a month
- Tight if you need several environments, since each needs its own server license
- Watch out: the hosted project may not collect personal or sensitive data
- Not for you if you want a no-code builder without developers
Pick Jotform if
- Fits if you want forms, payments and signatures in one account, not three
- Works for field teams collecting answers with no signal, like on a building site
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if all you need is a quick survey, because Google Forms is free
- Tight if you want to stay on free, with 5 forms, 100 responses a month, 500 kept and Jotform's logo on each form
- Pricey if two of you build forms, since only Enterprise takes more than one user and its price isn't published
- Not for you if you need HIPAA features on a budget, as they start on Gold at $99
- Watch out: there's no trial, full storage deletes your oldest responses, and sale prices renew at full price
How we grade them
| 1.6GPAForm.ioWeak | 3.0GPAJotformVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DThe hosted project is $300 a month and self-hosting starts at $660, against a forms middle of $20 and a dearest tenth from $66. | C$34 a month on yearly billing lands between this category's $24 middle and its dearer quarter at $39, and that's 25 forms for one person. Fair if it replaces a signing tool too. Steep if you only need forms, and a second builder means Enterprise. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 30-day trial needs no card, but the project turns read-only afterward and it may not hold personal data. | CNearly every feature is in the free plan, and it never expires, but the caps are ones you'll hit: 5 forms, 100 responses a month, 500 responses kept, and Jotform's logo on every form. |
| Features | CForms, API and PDF output are covered, but reporting, accessibility, multi-tenancy and the embedded builder are paid add-ons. | AForms, payments, e-signatures, approvals, tables, reports, an app builder and AI agents, from more than 20,000 templates. Two things the rest of this category hasn't got: a phone app that collects answers with no signal, and agents that run a form over chat, phone or WhatsApp. |
| Ease of use | DIt is built for developers: JSON definitions, and Docker containers and databases for the self-hosted route. | A4.9 from about 44,600 App Store ratings, the highest score in this category. Pick a template, drag the fields around, send the link. One reviewer's car club, run by volunteers with little tech experience, got on fine. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with an API and an open-source JavaScript library, and no integrations list on record. | BWeb plus iPhone and Android, with the phone app working offline, and it hooks into PayPal, Stripe, Google Sheets, Slack and Zapier, with an API key even on free. No desktop app, which is the one thing short of top marks. |
| Best for | engineering teams embedding forms in their own apps | forms that take payments and signatures |
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: Form.io and Jotform. How we grade
Price against what you get
Form.io starts at $300 a month and scores 1.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Jotform starts at $34 a month and scores 3.7.
Jotform scores higher and starts $266 a month lower. Of the other form and survey tools on the chart, 50 score higher than Form.io for less, and none scores higher than Jotform 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
- Form.io is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Jotform also covers templates, workflow automation, AI agents and app builder.
At a glance
| Form.io | Jotform | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $300 per month, hosted SaaS project; self-hosted from $660 per month | $34 per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | Starter plan: 5 forms, 100 monthly submissions, 100 MB of upload space, 10,000 monthly form views and 500 stored submissions for one user. Forms and signed documents carry Jotform branding. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of the hosted SaaS project, no credit card; the project turns read-only afterward | None listed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Form.io | Jotform Inc. |
| Price read from | form.io | jotform.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Form.io
- There is no free plan; the hosted SaaS project is $300 a month after the 30-day trial, and the self-hosted options start higher.
- Self-hosted minimum is one project plus one API server environment, $660 a month; each extra environment needs its own server license.
- The SaaS project must not hold personal or sensitive data, per the pricing page, and lacks some security features.
- Add-ons per month: Reporting UI $660, accessibility $495, multi-tenancy $330, embedded builder $660. Five developer licenses are $2,640 a year.
Jotform
- Bronze, Silver and Gold are single-user plans; Enterprise is the only multiuser plan.
- The free Starter plan allows 5 forms and 100 submissions a month, and its forms show Jotform branding.
- HIPAA compliance features are limited to the Gold and Enterprise plans.
- Paid plans have no trial period, only a 30-day money-back guarantee; once submission storage is full, the oldest responses are deleted.
Key features
Form.io
- JSON-driven forms
- Forms are defined in JSON, rendered by the open-source formio.js library and stored through the platform's API.
- Self-hosted containers
- The platform ships as Docker containers that run in the customer's own environments and databases.
- PDF forms
- Optional PDF servers display PDF forms and export submissions to PDF.
- Multi-tenancy and embedded builder
- Paid add-ons support tenant-separated forms and data, and an embedded form builder inside your own application.
- Security options
- API Plus adds audit logging, field-level encryption and data separation for compliance needs.
Jotform
- Drag-and-drop Form Builder
- Build forms without code, starting from more than 20,000 premade templates, with conditional logic to show or hide fields and widgets that extend what a form can do.
- Online payments
- Collect one-time payments and recurring subscriptions through gateways such as PayPal, Stripe and Square. Monthly payment submissions are capped by plan, from 10 on Starter to 1,000 on Gold.
- Jotform Sign
- Create, share and e-sign documents. Signed documents count against a monthly limit that runs from 10 on Starter to 1,000 on Gold.
- Workflows, Tables and reports
- Jotform Workflows automates approval steps, Jotform Tables organizes submissions in a workspace, and Report Builder turns responses into charts and grids.
- Mobile app with offline collection
- The free iOS and Android app collects submissions without an internet connection and has a kiosk mode for gathering many responses on one device.
- AI Agents
- Agents trained on URLs, uploaded documents or custom Q&As answer questions and guide people through a form over chat, phone, SMS, WhatsApp and email.
Plans
Form.io
SaaS Enterprise Project$300
per month, hosted on portal.form.io
One project with unlimited forms and developers, 1M submissions a month, 25 PDF-first forms and 1,000 PDF downloads. No PII; some security features missing.
Enterprise Level Project$330
per month per project; at least one required
Unlimited forms, resources, developers, form builders and submissions, with a self-hosted developer portal.
API Server$330
per month per environment
One server environment with unlimited API calls and submissions. An API Server or API Plus Server is required for each environment.
API Plus Server$660
per month per environment
Adds audit logging, submission data separation, field-level encryption and container security scanning.
PDF Server$330
per month per environment
Optional. Unlimited PDF submission downloads. The PDF Plus Server is $660 per month and adds uploads and a template designer.
Jotform
Starter$0
5 forms, 100 monthly submissions, 100 MB of space and 10 payment submissions a month, with Jotform branding.
Bronze$34
per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly)
25 forms, 1,000 monthly submissions, 1 GB of space and 100 payment submissions a month for one user.
Silver$39
per month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
50 forms, 2,500 monthly submissions, 10 GB of space and 250 payment submissions a month for one user.
Gold$99
per month, billed annually ($129 billed monthly)
100 forms, 10,000 monthly submissions, 100 GB of space and optional HIPAA compliance features, for one user.
EnterpriseCustom
The only multiuser plan: unlimited forms and submissions, SSO, user management, data residency and a custom domain.
Ways to pay less
Form.io
No public discounts listed.
Jotform
- Annual discount
Save up to 20% with yearly billing
The pricing page advertises up to 20% off for yearly payment. Bronze is $34 per month billed annually versus $39 monthly, Silver $39 versus $49 and Gold $99 versus $129.
- Nonprofit
50% off for nonprofits
Approved nonprofits get 50% off the Bronze, Silver and Gold plans and 30% off the Enterprise plan.
- Education
50% off for educators and schools
Verified teachers and academic institutions get 50% off Bronze, Silver and Gold and 30% off Enterprise. Fees for HIPAA, SSO and other add-ons are excluded.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Form.io or Jotform?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Jotform is cheaper to start with: $34 a month, against $300 a month for Form.io. Form.io starts at $300 per month, hosted SaaS project; self-hosted from $660 per month, and Jotform starts at $34 per month, billed annually ($39 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, Form.io or Jotform?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Jotform has a free plan. Form.io does not, though it has a free trial.
Which platforms do Form.io and Jotform run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Jotform lists iOS and Android apps. Both list a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
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.