Microsoft Forms vs SurveyMonkey

Microsoft Forms

• Organizations that already pay for Microsoft 365
• Classroom quizzes and quick polls in Teams or PowerPoint
• Internal surveys restricted to people inside one organization

SurveyMonkey

• Customer, employee and market research surveys that need statistical analysis
• Teams that share templates, themes and roles across several survey creators
• One-off projects, using the month-to-month Standard plan

Microsoft Forms

• Forms is not sold on its own; the paid versions come inside Microsoft 365 plans.
• Personal Microsoft accounts are limited to 200 responses per form or quiz when free and 1,000 when paid.
• Each user can create up to 400 forms, with up to 200 questions per form.
• Copilot features need a Copilot license, and Microsoft points to Dynamics 365 Customer Voice for more advanced branding and analysis.

SurveyMonkey

• The free Basic plan allows 10 questions per survey and shows only a limited number of responses per survey.
• Standard Monthly is the only plan billed month to month; the Advantage, Premier and Team plans are billed annually.
• Team plans need at least 3 users. SSO and the Salesforce, Marketo, Power BI and Tableau integrations are Enterprise-only, and Enterprise needs 5 or more users and a demo.
• Paid plans cap responses (1,000 a month on Standard, 15,000 a year on Advantage) and charge $0.15 per extra response.

Microsoft Forms

Surveys, quizzes and polls

Build surveys, quizzes and polls in a browser. Branching questions collect more detailed information by sending respondents to different follow-ups.

Real-time charts and Excel export

Responses appear in real-time charts and automatically generated reports, and can be exported to Excel for custom analysis.

Copilot in Forms

With a Microsoft 365 account and a Copilot license, Copilot drafts a form from a prompt, suggests refinements and summarizes results into key findings.

Quizzes for teaching

Quizzes assess student progress, can carry videos in their questions and export answers to Excel. Forms is available to Office 365 Education customers.

Polls inside Microsoft 365 apps

Polls can be created in Teams, Outlook and PowerPoint, with an allowance of 400 polls on top of the 400-form limit.

Sharing options and themes

Distribute a form by short URL, QR code, Outlook, Teams or an embedded link, limit it to specific people in an organization, and restyle it with editable themes.

SurveyMonkey

Build with AI

Type a prompt that describes the goals of a survey and SurveyMonkey generates a draft to edit and customize. It is listed on the free Basic plan.

Logic and survey controls

Skip logic starts on Standard Monthly. Advanced logic, block randomization and multilingual surveys are reserved for the Premier tiers.

Analyze with AI and Thematic Analysis

Ask a question to get AI-generated charts and insight summaries, and have open-ended answers grouped into themes. Both start on the Advantage tier.

Statistical analysis

Statistical significance and multi-survey analysis come with the Advantage tier, and crosstabs with Premier.

Team seats and shared assets

Team plans share brand assets and set user roles and permissions. Full Access seats create and send surveys; Analyst seats view, comment on and analyze shared ones.

Mobile apps

Free iOS and Android apps create, send and analyze surveys, with push notifications. The separate SurveyMonkey Anywhere app adds kiosk mode, plus an Offline Mode on Enterprise plans.

Microsoft Forms

• Microsoft account$0

  Forms with a free personal Microsoft account: up to 400 forms, 200 questions per form and 200 responses per form or quiz.

• Business Basic (no Teams)$5.40

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Microsoft 365 with web and mobile Office apps, business email and 1 TB of storage per user. Forms is included, Microsoft Teams is not.

• Business Basic$7.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  The same plan with Microsoft Teams, for up to 300 users. Work accounts can collect up to 5,000,000 responses per form.

• Business Standard with Copilot$23.50

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Adds desktop versions of the Office apps and Microsoft Copilot in apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.

• Business Premium with Copilot$32.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Adds device security and management, threat protection and sensitive-data protection on top of Standard.

SurveyMonkey

• Basic$0

  1 user, unlimited surveys, 10 questions per survey and a limited number of responses per survey, with Build with AI.

• Standard Monthly$99

  per month, billed monthly

  Unlimited questions and 1,000 responses per month, with skip logic, custom design, email invitations and data exports.

• Advantage Annual$46

  per month, billed annually ($552)

  15,000 responses per year, plus payments, statistical significance, multi-survey analysis, Analyze with AI and Thematic Analysis.

• Premier Annual$139

  per month, billed annually ($1,668)

  40,000 responses per year, plus white label branding, advanced logic, multilingual surveys, crosstabs and phone support.

• Team Advantage$30

  per user / month, billed annually, 3-user minimum

  50,000 responses per year, shared brand assets, user roles and account permissions, and the Advantage analysis tools.

• Team Premier$92

  per user / month, billed annually, 3-user minimum

  100,000 responses per year, plus white label branding, advanced logic, multilingual surveys, crosstabs and phone support.

Microsoft Forms

• Nonprofit

  Business Basic free for eligible nonprofits

  Microsoft's nonprofit page lists Microsoft 365 Business Basic, which includes Forms, as a grant that is free for up to 300 users, with staff pricing of $3.50 for Business Standard and $5.50 for Business Premium.

• Education

  Office 365 A1 free for eligible schools

  Educators and students with an eligible education email address can get Office 365 A1 for free. Microsoft says Forms is available to Office 365 Education customers.

SurveyMonkey

• Education

  Reduced pricing for students and educators

  Students and educators on a free plan in the US and UK can upgrade at reduced prices from a link on the pricing page. Discounts are granted at SurveyMonkey's discretion for one-year periods.

• Nonprofit

  Discounts for eligible nonprofits

  Nonprofits on a free plan can submit a discount application. Discounts are discretionary, run for one year and cannot be added to an existing paid account.