Surveys · head to head
Fillout vs Microsoft Forms
Fillout
Surveys
Form builder that reads and writes records in Airtable, Notion, HubSpot and Salesforce, with unlimited seats on every plan including the free one
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
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
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Fillout the Business plan is marketed with unlimited responses but the fair use policy names thresholds of 30,000 submissions a month, 250,000 in total, 500 forms per account and 50 GB of uploads a month, above which the vendor may limit or suspend features, so unlimited means unmetered rather than uncapped.; 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: Fillout covers Unlimited seats and forms, Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Fillout and Microsoft Forms actually diverge.
| Attribute | Fillout | Microsoft Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per month by response count | Included with Microsoft 365, not sold separately |
| Platforms | Web, API | Web, iOS, Android |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Surveys).
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 Fillout
- Unlimited seats and forms
- Database read and write
- Soft response limits
- Conditional logic and calculations
- EU hosting
- REST API and webhooks
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.
Fillout
- A team already running on Airtable or Notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rowsnot Microsoft Forms
- An organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worthnot Microsoft Forms
- Replacing a survey tool, a scheduling tool and a payment link with one form that does all threenot Microsoft Forms
- Public forms that must keep collecting through an unexpected traffic spike rather than shutting off at a quotanot 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 Fillout
- Education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in Excel without procurement approvalnot Fillout
- Quick polls inside Microsoft Teams where the response data should stay in the same tenant as everything elsenot Fillout
- Any case where the deciding factor is that no purchase order is requirednot Fillout
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Fillout
- The Business plan is marketed with unlimited responses but the fair use policy names thresholds of 30,000 submissions a month, 250,000 in total, 500 forms per account and 50 GB of uploads a month, above which the vendor may limit or suspend features, so unlimited means unmetered rather than uncapped.
- EU data residency begins on the Team plan at 250 USD per month, more than three times the Business price, and is not applied automatically; you must upgrade and then raise a support request to be moved.
- The Team plan is hidden behind a secondary tab that does not render without interaction, so buyers reading the pricing page see Business at 75 USD as the top self-serve tier and only discover the 250 USD step when they ask for single sign-on or EU hosting.
- The enterprise marketing page lists hosting in the United States, EU, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, but the security documentation and subprocessor list name only the United States and the EU, so three of those five regions should be confirmed in writing before they are relied on.
- The vendor is SOC 2 Type 2 but claims neither ISO 27001 nor HIPAA anywhere in its documentation, and it is angel-funded with no disclosed institutional round while the parent company now trades as Zite and ships a separate AI application builder.
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
Fillout
Free- FreeFree
- 1,000 responses per month
- Unlimited forms and unlimited seats
- 20 MB per file upload
- Starter$15/month
- 180 USD per year billed annually, a stated 20 percent saving on monthly billing
- 2,000 responses per month
- Unlimited forms and seats
- Pro$40/month
- 480 USD per year billed annually
- 5,000 responses per month
- Branding fully removed at this tier
- Business$75/month
- 900 USD per year billed annually
- Marketed as unlimited responses, subject to a fair use threshold near 30,000 per month
- 1 GB per file upload
Microsoft Forms
Free- Free consumer Microsoft accountFree
- 200 responses per form
- 400 forms per account, including the recycle bin
- 200 questions per form
- Paid consumer Microsoft account$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 Fillout if
- You need unlimited seats and forms.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want database read and write.
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 Fillout or Microsoft Forms better?
- Neither clearly leads. Fillout starts at Free and Microsoft Forms at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Fillout or Microsoft Forms?
- Fillout starts at Free and Microsoft Forms at Free.
- Does Fillout or Microsoft Forms run on more platforms?
- Fillout runs on Web, API. Microsoft Forms runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Fillout for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Fillout best used for?
- Fillout is most often used for a team already running on airtable or notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rows, an organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worth, replacing a survey tool, a scheduling tool and a payment link with one form that does all three, public forms that must keep collecting through an unexpected traffic spike rather than shutting off at a quota. Of those, a team already running on airtable or notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rows and an organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worth are not what Microsoft Forms is typically brought in for.
- What can Fillout do that Microsoft Forms cannot?
- Fillout covers Unlimited seats and forms, Database read and write, Soft response limits, Conditional logic and calculations. Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing, Very high response ceiling, File upload questions, Co-authoring.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Fillout: Are seats really unlimited?
Yes. The vendor states there are no per-seat charges on any plan, including Free, and forms are unlimited too. Responses per month is the only meter below the Business tier.
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.
Fillout: What happens when I exceed my response quota?
Nothing breaks. Forms keep collecting, and you can upgrade, buy bulk submissions or wait for the monthly reset.
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.
Fillout: Can I host respondent data in the EU?
Only from the Team plan at 250 USD per month, and only after contacting support to switch. Note that email and payment subprocessors remain in the United States regardless.
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.
Fillout: Is the Business plan really unlimited responses?
It is unmetered, not uncapped. The fair use policy names roughly 30,000 submissions a month as the point at which the vendor may intervene, so treat that as the practical ceiling.
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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