Marketing · head to head
CleverTap vs Microsoft Forms
CleverTap
Marketing
Mobile-first engagement and retention analytics billed on monthly active users
- 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: CleverTap the platform assumes the mobile app is the main surface, so teams whose lifecycle runs mostly through the browser or through long B2B email sequences pay for capability they will not use.; 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: CleverTap covers Cross-channel journeys, Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which CleverTap and Microsoft Forms actually diverge.
| Attribute | CleverTap | 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 CleverTap
- Cross-channel journeys
- Product analytics
- TesseractDB
- Clever.AI
- Experiments
- Web and app personalisation
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.
CleverTap
- A consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profilesnot Microsoft Forms
- Reactivating lapsed users with push and WhatsApp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membershipnot Microsoft Forms
- Running holdout tests to prove that lifecycle messaging causes retention rather than correlating with itnot Microsoft Forms
- Consolidating a separate analytics tool and a separate messaging tool into a single event pipelinenot 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 CleverTap
- Education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in Excel without procurement approvalnot CleverTap
- Quick polls inside Microsoft Teams where the response data should stay in the same tenant as everything elsenot CleverTap
- Any case where the deciding factor is that no purchase order is requirednot CleverTap
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
CleverTap
- The platform assumes the mobile app is the main surface, so teams whose lifecycle runs mostly through the browser or through long B2B email sequences pay for capability they will not use.
- Billing on monthly active users is cheaper for dormant-heavy bases but more expensive for products with high activity rates, and the definition of an active user is set in the contract rather than by you.
- Event volume caps sit alongside the user caps, so a chatty instrumentation plan can trigger overage charges that are negotiated rather than published.
- Deliverability support for email is thinner than at dedicated email providers, and teams sending high email volumes often keep a separate ESP for the largest campaigns.
- Segmentation quality depends entirely on the event taxonomy, so without an owner who governs event naming the reports and segments diverge from reality within a couple of releases.
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
CleverTap
On request- Essentials$undefined/year
- Billed on monthly active users rather than stored profiles
- Push, in-app and web messaging
- Standard segmentation and analytics
- Advanced$undefined/year
- Adds email, SMS and WhatsApp channels
- Journey orchestration and experiments
- Higher event and MAU allowances
- Cutting Edge$undefined/year
- Full AI and personalisation modules
- Extended data retention
- Dedicated technical account management
Microsoft Forms
Free- Free consumer Microsoft accountFree
- 200 responses per form
- 400 forms per account, including the recycle bin
- 200 questions per form
- Paid consumer Microsoft account$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 CleverTap if
- You need cross-channel journeys.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, REST API.
- You also want product analytics.
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 CleverTap or Microsoft Forms better?
- Neither clearly leads. CleverTap 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, CleverTap or Microsoft Forms?
- Microsoft Forms has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for CleverTap and Free for Microsoft Forms.
- Does CleverTap or Microsoft Forms run on more platforms?
- CleverTap 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. CleverTap starts at On request.
- What is CleverTap best used for?
- CleverTap is most often used for a consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profiles, reactivating lapsed users with push and whatsapp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membership, running holdout tests to prove that lifecycle messaging causes retention rather than correlating with it, consolidating a separate analytics tool and a separate messaging tool into a single event pipeline. Of those, a consumer app with millions of installs but low monthly activity that does not want to pay for dormant profiles and reactivating lapsed users with push and whatsapp sequences triggered by behaviour rather than by list membership are not what Microsoft Forms is typically brought in for.
- What can CleverTap do that Microsoft Forms cannot?
- CleverTap covers Cross-channel journeys, Product analytics, TesseractDB, Clever.AI. Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing, Very high response ceiling, File upload questions, Co-authoring.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
CleverTap: Does CleverTap charge for users who stopped opening the app?
No. Billing is on monthly active users, so a dormant account stops counting without you deleting anything, which is the opposite of contact-based email pricing.
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.
CleverTap: Can it replace a product analytics tool?
For funnels, cohorts and retention it usually can. For exploratory analysis across many custom properties, teams tend to keep a warehouse copy and query it directly.
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.
CleverTap: What happened to Leanplum customers?
CleverTap acquired Leanplum in 2022 and migrated customers onto its own platform, so Leanplum contracts are not a live option.
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
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