Surveys · head to head
Microsoft Forms vs Octoboard
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
Octoboard
Marketing
Low-cost white-label client reporting and dashboards priced per connected client
- From
- €25/month
- Free plan
- No
The short version
- Only Microsoft Forms has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: 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.; Octoboard the interface and documentation are visibly less polished than AgencyAnalytics or Whatagraph, and agencies often spend longer than expected getting a first report to look presentable.
- They diverge on capability: Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing, Octoboard covers White-label client portal.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Microsoft Forms and Octoboard actually diverge.
| Attribute | Microsoft Forms | Octoboard |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free | €25/month |
| Pricing model | Included with Microsoft 365, not sold separately | Per month by connected client count |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web |
| Category | Surveys | Marketing |
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 Microsoft Forms
- Bundled licensing
- Very high response ceiling
- File upload questions
- Co-authoring
- eDiscovery coverage
- Surveys Agent in Copilot
Only in Octoboard
- White-label client portal
- Client-based pricing
- Automated SEO audits
- Business analytics
- Scheduled report delivery
- Data streaming and export
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Microsoft Forms
- Internal surveys and quizzes inside an organisation that already pays for Microsoft 365 and does not want a second vendor contractnot Octoboard
- Education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in Excel without procurement approvalnot Octoboard
- Quick polls inside Microsoft Teams where the response data should stay in the same tenant as everything elsenot Octoboard
- Any case where the deciding factor is that no purchase order is requirednot Octoboard
Octoboard
- A freelancer or two-person agency that needs client-branded reports without a two hundred dollar monthly platform billnot Microsoft Forms
- An agency that wants white labelling in the entry tier rather than paying to unlock itnot Microsoft Forms
- A small SEO shop that wants automated site audits and channel reporting from one subscriptionnot Microsoft Forms
- An agency with a large but shallow client roster where per-client pricing beats per-data-source pricingnot Microsoft Forms
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal 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.
- 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.
Octoboard
- The interface and documentation are visibly less polished than AgencyAnalytics or Whatagraph, and agencies often spend longer than expected getting a first report to look presentable.
- Connector reliability is the recurring complaint in this price bracket, and a silently stale connection means a client receives a report with wrong numbers before anyone notices.
- Support is email based with no dedicated onboarding on the entry tiers, so a broken integration during a month-end reporting crunch can sit unresolved for days.
- Because pricing is per connected client, an agency serving few clients with many channels each pays for capacity it does not use compared with per-source pricing.
- Data retention and export options are thinner on lower tiers, so leaving Octoboard means losing report history rather than migrating it.
Pricing, plan by plan
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
Octoboard
€25/month- Agencies$25/month
- Five connected clients
- Unlimited users, dashboards and reports
- White labelling and custom email domain included
Which should you pick?
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.
Choose Octoboard if
- You need white-label client portal.
- You also want client-based pricing.
Questions people ask
- Is Microsoft Forms or Octoboard better?
- Neither clearly leads. Microsoft Forms starts at Free and Octoboard at €25/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Microsoft Forms or Octoboard?
- Microsoft Forms has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Microsoft Forms and €25/month for Octoboard.
- Does Microsoft Forms or Octoboard run on more platforms?
- Microsoft Forms runs on Web, iOS, Android. Octoboard runs on Web.
- Can I use Microsoft Forms for free?
- Yes. Microsoft Forms has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Octoboard starts at €25/month.
- What is Microsoft Forms best used for?
- Microsoft Forms is most often used for internal surveys and quizzes inside an organisation that already pays for microsoft 365 and does not want a second vendor contract, education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in excel without procurement approval, quick polls inside microsoft teams where the response data should stay in the same tenant as everything else, any case where the deciding factor is that no purchase order is required. Of those, internal surveys and quizzes inside an organisation that already pays for microsoft 365 and does not want a second vendor contract and education settings where quizzes need automatic grading and results in excel without procurement approval are not what Octoboard is typically brought in for.
- What can Microsoft Forms do that Octoboard cannot?
- Microsoft Forms covers Bundled licensing, Very high response ceiling, File upload questions, Co-authoring. Octoboard covers White-label client portal, Client-based pricing, Automated SEO audits, Business analytics.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
Octoboard: Is white labelling an upgrade?
No, it is included from the entry tier along with a custom email sending domain.
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.
Octoboard: How is it priced?
Per connected client per month, roughly five dollars or euros each, with the entry bundle covering five clients.
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.
Octoboard: Are users charged?
No, users, dashboards and reports are unlimited on all tiers.
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.
Octoboard: Does it do SEO audits?
Yes, automated site crawls are built in and can be scheduled into client reports.
Related pages
More on Microsoft Forms
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