Marketing · head to head
Bloomreach vs Microsoft Forms
Bloomreach
Marketing
Ecommerce search, merchandising and customer engagement sold as three separately bought products
- From
- On request
- Free plan
- No
Microsoft Forms
Surveys
Survey tool bundled into Microsoft 365 with no standalone price, where the real constraints are tenant policy, residency and admin visibility
- From
- Free
- Free plan
- Yes
The short version
- Only Microsoft Forms has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Bloomreach the three products have separate origins, separate pricing units and separate onboarding, so a single bundled quote hides which parts you are actually committing to.; Microsoft Forms the Advanced Data Residency add-on explicitly does not cover Microsoft Forms, so a tenant that has paid for regional residency still has its survey responses provisioned according to best-effort guidance rather than a contractual commitment.
- They diverge on capability: Bloomreach covers Engagement CDP, Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Bloomreach and Microsoft Forms actually diverge.
| Attribute | Bloomreach | Microsoft Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | On request | Free |
| Pricing model | quote | Included with Microsoft 365, not sold separately |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, REST API | Web, iOS, Android |
| Category | Marketing | Surveys |
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Bloomreach
- Engagement CDP
- Campaign orchestration
- Discovery search
- Recommendations
- Jinja templating
- Reports and dashboards
Only in Microsoft Forms
- Bundled licensing
- Very high response ceiling
- File upload questions
- Co-authoring
- eDiscovery coverage
- Surveys Agent in Copilot
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Bloomreach
- A retailer replacing a legacy ESP that needs event-level segmentation rather than list-based sendingnot Microsoft Forms
- Merchandising a large catalogue where site search relevance is the main conversion levernot Microsoft Forms
- Building weblayers and email content from the same customer profile without duplicating logic in two toolsnot Microsoft Forms
- Running campaign analytics over raw events instead of exporting to a separate warehouse and BI stacknot Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms
- Internal surveys and quizzes inside an organisation that already pays for Microsoft 365 and does not want a second vendor contractnot Bloomreach
- Education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in Excel without procurement approvalnot Bloomreach
- Quick polls inside Microsoft Teams where the response data should stay in the same tenant as everything elsenot Bloomreach
- Any case where the deciding factor is that no purchase order is requirednot Bloomreach
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Bloomreach
- The three products have separate origins, separate pricing units and separate onboarding, so a single bundled quote hides which parts you are actually committing to.
- Engagement is priced on tracked profiles, so a customer database that keeps every inactive account raises the bill whether or not those people are ever messaged.
- The flexibility of the data model and Jinja templating needs technical ownership, and marketing teams without a developer typically use a fraction of the product they pay for.
- Content is the least invested of the three lines and buyers evaluating it against dedicated headless CMS vendors usually find the gap widening.
- Support and implementation quality vary between the Bratislava engineering base for Engagement and the US organisation, and escalation paths differ by product.
Microsoft Forms
- The Advanced Data Residency add-on explicitly does not cover Microsoft Forms, so a tenant that has paid for regional residency still has its survey responses provisioned according to best-effort guidance rather than a contractual commitment.
- Above 50,000 responses a form degrades sharply: only CSV export continues to work, while summary charts, viewing individual responses, printing, shared summary links and manual quiz grading all stop.
- Forms belonging to an account that is hard deleted, or deleted more than thirty days earlier, are not recoverable at all, so an unmanaged leaver process destroys survey data silently.
- The administrator settings that govern external sharing, template sharing and result summary sharing are only available to education and Microsoft 365 Apps for business customers, leaving many commercial tenants without the controls the documentation describes.
- A summary sharing link that has already been created continues to work for anyone inside or outside the organisation even after the form is restricted, so tightening permissions does not close an existing leak unless the link is deleted explicitly.
Pricing, plan by plan
Bloomreach
On request- Bloomreach Engagement$undefined/year
- Priced by tracked customer profiles and event volume
- Channels and AI modules licensed separately
- Annual contract
- Bloomreach Discovery$undefined/year
- Priced by search and recommendation request volume
- Catalogue size and traffic bands
- Annual contract
Microsoft Forms
Free- Free consumer Microsoft accountFree
- 200 responses per form
- 400 forms per account, including the recycle bin
- 200 questions per form
- Paid consumer Microsoft account$undefined/year
- Included in the subscription price, not sold separately
- 1,000 responses per form
- 400 forms per account
- Microsoft 365 work or school licence$undefined/year
- Included in the subscription price, not sold separately
- 5,000,000 responses per form
- Included in Business Basic, Standard, Premium, Office 365 E1, E3, E5 and Microsoft 365 F3
- Government GCC High and DoD$undefined/year
- Included in the subscription price, not sold separately
- 50,000 responses per form
- No email notification, video insert, Bing image search or phishing protection
Which should you pick?
Choose Bloomreach if
- You need engagement cdp.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, REST API.
- You also want campaign orchestration.
Choose Microsoft Forms if
- You need bundled licensing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want very high response ceiling.
Questions people ask
- Is Bloomreach or Microsoft Forms better?
- Neither clearly leads. Bloomreach starts at On request and Microsoft Forms at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Bloomreach or Microsoft Forms?
- Microsoft Forms has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Bloomreach and Free for Microsoft Forms.
- Does Bloomreach or Microsoft Forms run on more platforms?
- Bloomreach runs on Web, iOS, Android, REST API. Microsoft Forms runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Microsoft Forms for free?
- Yes. Microsoft Forms has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Bloomreach starts at On request.
- What is Bloomreach best used for?
- Bloomreach is most often used for a retailer replacing a legacy esp that needs event-level segmentation rather than list-based sending, merchandising a large catalogue where site search relevance is the main conversion lever, building weblayers and email content from the same customer profile without duplicating logic in two tools, running campaign analytics over raw events instead of exporting to a separate warehouse and bi stack. Of those, a retailer replacing a legacy esp that needs event-level segmentation rather than list-based sending and merchandising a large catalogue where site search relevance is the main conversion lever are not what Microsoft Forms is typically brought in for.
- What can Bloomreach do that Microsoft Forms cannot?
- Bloomreach covers Engagement CDP, Campaign orchestration, Discovery search, Recommendations. Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing, Very high response ceiling, File upload questions, Co-authoring.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Bloomreach: Is Engagement just Exponea renamed?
It is the Exponea product line, continued and extended after the 2021 acquisition, with its engineering still centred in Slovakia. Buying it standalone is common.
Microsoft Forms: Can I buy Microsoft Forms on its own?
No. It exists only as a service plan inside Microsoft 365, Office 365 and education or government SKUs, or free with a consumer Microsoft account. There is no standalone product to purchase.
Bloomreach: Do we have to take Discovery to get Engagement?
No. They are sold and priced separately, and plenty of customers run Engagement alongside a different search vendor.
Microsoft Forms: Where are responses stored?
In the United States for most tenants, in the EU and EFTA region for EU tenants, and in Australia only for Forms provisioned after October 2022. Microsoft states this is guidance, not a residency commitment.
Bloomreach: How is it priced?
Engagement by tracked profiles and event volume, Discovery by request volume. Neither is published, and both are annual commitments.
Microsoft Forms: Can an administrator read someone else responses?
Not while that user account is active; ownership transfer is refused. Yes once the account is disabled or deleted, and yes through premium eDiscovery, which is still labelled preview.
Microsoft Forms: How do I turn Forms off for the organisation?
Disable both the Microsoft Forms and the Office Hive enterprise applications in Entra ID, or clear the Forms checkbox per user. Both applications must be disabled for it to take effect.
Related pages
More on Microsoft Forms
Other head to heads
- Bloomreach vs Customer.io
- Bloomreach vs Insider
- Bloomreach vs Netcore Cloud
- Bloomreach vs Mautic
- Bloomreach vs WebEngage
- Bloomreach vs Freshpaint
- Bloomreach vs Zoho Marketing Automation
- Bloomreach vs CleverTap
- Bloomreach vs Optimove
- Bloomreach vs Buffer
- Bloomreach vs Hootsuite
- Bloomreach vs Iterable
- Bloomreach vs Funnel.io
- Bloomreach vs Google Optimize
- Bloomreach vs Improvado
- Bloomreach vs Instapage
- Bloomreach vs Jotform
- Bloomreach vs Cognito Forms
- Bloomreach vs Google Forms
- Bloomreach vs Tally
- Bloomreach vs Alchemer
- Bloomreach vs Formstack
- Bloomreach vs Zonka Feedback
- Bloomreach vs SurveyLegend
- Bloomreach vs Zoho Survey
- Bloomreach vs Fillout
- Bloomreach vs Retool
- Bloomreach vs GetFeedback
- Bloomreach vs Device Magic
- Bloomreach vs Sogolytics
- Bloomreach vs SurveyCTO
- Microsoft Forms vs Customer.io
- Microsoft Forms vs Insider
- Microsoft Forms vs Netcore Cloud
- Microsoft Forms vs Mautic
- Microsoft Forms vs WebEngage
- Microsoft Forms vs Freshpaint
- Microsoft Forms vs Zoho Marketing Automation
- Microsoft Forms vs CleverTap
- Microsoft Forms vs Optimove
- Microsoft Forms vs Buffer
- Microsoft Forms vs Hootsuite
- Microsoft Forms vs Iterable
- Microsoft Forms vs Funnel.io
- Microsoft Forms vs Google Optimize
- Microsoft Forms vs Improvado
- Microsoft Forms vs Instapage
- Microsoft Forms vs Jotform
- Microsoft Forms vs Cognito Forms
- Microsoft Forms vs Google Forms
- Microsoft Forms vs Tally
- Microsoft Forms vs Alchemer
- Microsoft Forms vs Formstack
- Microsoft Forms vs Zonka Feedback
- Microsoft Forms vs SurveyLegend
- Microsoft Forms vs Zoho Survey
- Microsoft Forms vs Fillout
- Microsoft Forms vs Retool
- Microsoft Forms vs GetFeedback
- Microsoft Forms vs Device Magic
- Microsoft Forms vs Sogolytics
- Microsoft Forms vs SurveyCTO