Microsoft's built-in survey, quiz and poll tool — free with a Microsoft account and bundled into every Microsoft 365 business and education plan. Here's how it stacks up against FormBuilder on pricing, features, and fit — so you can pick the right tool for the forms you actually build.
100 responses / month free · No credit card · Held responses never lost
The short answer
Choose Microsoft Forms when your organisation already runs on Microsoft 365 and the forms are internal — surveys, polls, quizzes, quick feedback — where cost is zero and integration with Teams and Excel matters more than looks. Choose FormBuilder when the form faces customers or the public, needs your branding on your domain, or needs field types, logic and integrations that Forms simply does not have.
Overview
Microsoft Forms is the survey and quiz builder that ships with Microsoft 365. It started in Office 365 Education as a quiz tool for teachers and has since become the default way Microsoft shops collect feedback, run polls in Teams meetings, and grade simple quizzes. Anyone with a personal Microsoft account can use it free; work and school accounts get it as part of their Microsoft 365 licence.
The builder is deliberately simple: a handful of question types (choice, text, rating, date, ranking, Likert, Net Promoter Score, file upload), basic branching, themes, and automatic response charts. Its real advantage is the plumbing around it — responses land in Excel with one click, forms can be dropped into Teams, SharePoint, OneNote and PowerPoint, and Power Automate can trigger a flow on every submission. Copilot can now draft a form from a prompt inside Microsoft 365.
There is no standalone paid tier. Free personal accounts are capped at 200 responses per form; a paid Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription lifts that to 1,000; work and school accounts get up to 5,000,000 responses per form and 400 forms per user. What you cannot buy at any price is deep customisation: no custom domains, no true white-labelling, and a fixed, recognisably Microsoft look.
FormBuilder is an AI-first form builder with a generous free plan, held (never lost) responses, and 6,000+ integrations. You describe the form you need, the AI generator drafts it, and you refine it in a drag-and-drop editor with conditional logic, multi-page layouts, file uploads, signatures and calculations. Every response can be routed to 6,000+ apps through Zapier or webhooks. The free plan includes 100 responses a month — and if a form gets busier than that, the extra responses are held safely rather than rejected, unlocking the moment you upgrade to Pro ($39 / month for 10,000 responses).
Pricing
Side by side, in each vendor's own terms. Microsoft Forms pricing was checked on 2026-08-17 and may change; FormBuilder pricing is current.
Feature comparison
25 capabilities across building, design, data workflow and security. Notes call out plan tiers and caveats so there are no surprises after you sign up.
| Feature | FFormBuilder | MMicrosoft Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Building | ||
| AI form generation from a prompt | Yes | YesCopilot draft; requires M365 / Copilot licence for full use |
| Drag-and-drop visual builder | Yes | PartialQuestion-list builder; reorder only |
| Template library | Yes300+ | PartialSmall gallery of survey & quiz templates |
| Conditional logic / branching | Yes | PartialBasic branching; no complex rules |
| Multi-page / multi-step forms | YesPro | PartialSections act as pages |
| Calculations & scoring | YesCalculation field + auto-graded quizzes | PartialQuiz points & auto-grading only |
| File uploads | Yes100 MB free · 1 GB Pro | YesWork / school accounts only; files go to OneDrive |
| Payment collection | YesStripe — paid to your own account, no platform fee | No |
| E-signature field | Yes | No |
| Design | ||
| Custom themes & branding | YesPro | PartialThemes, header image, logo; layout fixed |
| Remove vendor badge | YesPro, $39 | NoMicrosoft footer always shown |
| Custom domain | Yes | No |
| Embed on any site | Yes | Yesiframe; native in Teams, SharePoint, Sway |
| Data & workflow | ||
| Free-plan monthly responses | Partial100 / mo, overflow held | Partial200 per form (personal); unlimited in practice on M365 work accounts |
| Over-limit responses kept (not rejected) | Yes | NoForm closes at limit |
| Email notifications & autoresponders | Yes | PartialOwner email; richer via Power Automate |
| Webhooks | YesAll plans | PartialThrough Power Automate, not native |
| Zapier / native integrations | Yes6,000+ apps | PartialPower Automate native; Zapier trigger available |
| Built-in analytics (views, drop-off) | Yes | PartialResponse summary charts; no drop-off |
| CSV / spreadsheet export | Yes | YesExcel, live-linked |
| Team workspaces & collaboration | Yes | YesGroup forms via Microsoft 365 Groups / Teams |
| Security | ||
| Password-protected forms | YesPro | PartialRestrict to org sign-in; no public password |
| HIPAA / BAA | PartialHIPAA plan coming soon | YesCovered by Microsoft 365 BAA on eligible plans |
| GDPR tooling & DPA | Yes | Yes |
| SSO / SAML | PartialEnterprise | YesEntra ID on all M365 plans |
Honest assessment
A fair read of both sides. If the strengths column describes your work, Microsoft Forms may genuinely be the better fit.
No extra licence, no per-response bill, and response limits on work accounts (up to 5 million per form) that you will never hit. For internal use it is hard to argue with.
Responses sync live to Excel, forms embed directly in Teams meetings, SharePoint pages and OneNote, and Power Automate can trigger approvals, emails or Planner tasks on each submission.
Points per question, correct-answer feedback, automatic grading and per-student review make it a genuinely good tool for classrooms and training teams.
Entra ID sign-in, conditional access, data residency and Microsoft's compliance certifications apply automatically — no separate vendor review needed.
You can change colours and add a header image, but the layout, footer and Microsoft branding are fixed. There is no custom domain and no way to make a form look like it belongs to your business.
No payment collection, no e-signature, no calculated fields beyond quiz points, and branching that only handles simple go-to-section rules. Order forms, intake forms and applications quickly hit the ceiling.
Without a Microsoft 365 business or school licence the free tier stops accepting responses at 200 (1,000 on M365 Personal). Anything beyond that requires paying for M365 seats, not just a form upgrade.
Webhooks and third-party connections mostly mean building a Power Automate flow, which requires a licence and some patience. Direct webhook or Zapier setups are simpler on dedicated form tools.
Switching
Most teams migrate a handful of forms in an afternoon. Here's the practical path.
Open each form → Responses → Open in Excel (or Download). Save the workbook as your archive; the export includes timestamps and respondent email if you collected it.
Paste your question list into FormBuilder's AI generator. Sections become pages, choice questions become dropdowns or radios, and rating questions map to the rating field. Add branching in the editor.
Replace flows with FormBuilder's native email notifications, webhooks, or a Zapier zap (Excel, Teams, SharePoint and Outlook are all available). Google Sheets works too if you want to move off Excel.
Replace the forms.office.com link or iframe in Teams, SharePoint or your website with the FormBuilder link or embed snippet, and close the old form so it stops collecting.
Questions
Yes. Anyone with a personal Microsoft account can create forms free, limited to 200 responses per form and 400 forms. A Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription raises the cap to 1,000 responses per form, and work or school accounts on Microsoft 365 get up to 5,000,000 responses per form as part of their licence.
Microsoft Forms is not sold separately; it comes with Microsoft 365 business plans, which run $7 (Business Basic), $14 (Business Standard) and $22 (Business Premium) per user per month on annual billing. If you only need forms, FormBuilder is free for 100 responses a month and $39 a month for 10,000 responses with branding removed.
Personal (free) accounts get 200 responses per form, paid Microsoft 365 Personal accounts get 1,000, and work or school accounts get up to 5,000,000 per form. When a form hits its limit it stops accepting responses. FormBuilder holds over-limit responses instead of rejecting them, so nothing is lost when you outgrow a plan.
For customer-facing forms, yes. FormBuilder adds custom branding on your own domain, an AI form generator, e-signatures, calculations, file uploads, webhooks and 6,000+ Zapier apps, with a free plan of 100 responses a month. Microsoft Forms remains the better choice for internal surveys and quizzes when your team already lives in Microsoft 365.
No. You can add a logo, header image and theme colours, but the layout and Microsoft footer stay, and there is no custom domain option. FormBuilder Pro ($39 a month) removes the badge and supports custom themes and domains.
It supports simple branching (jump to a question or section based on an answer) and quiz scoring with points per question. It does not have calculated fields, price totals or complex multi-condition rules. FormBuilder includes a calculation field and rule-based conditional logic.
Yes — open the form, go to Responses and choose Open in Excel or Download to get a spreadsheet of all responses. The form design itself cannot be exported, but you can paste the question list into FormBuilder's AI generator to rebuild it in seconds.
Microsoft Forms is covered by Microsoft's Business Associate Agreement on eligible Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, so it can be used for PHI when the tenant is configured appropriately; personal accounts are not covered. FormBuilder's HIPAA plan with BAA support is $99 a month and is currently rolling out.
Last reviewed August 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it.
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Start building freeFree plan · 100 responses / month · Upgrade to Pro for $39 when you're ready