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Microsoft Forms vs Google Forms: Which Is Better?
9 min. read
Updated onJuly 17, 2024
updated onJuly 17, 2024
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This ultimate Microsoft Forms vs Google Forms comparison will help you choose the appropriate form-making app for personal or business use.
At first glance, both apps appear similar, convenient to use, affordable, and with intuitive user interfaces. However, if you start using one or the other, you might face unexpected issues.
I’ve compared Google and Microsoft Forms head to head based on their features, pricing, security, and user experience reviews. Also, I’ve put both of them to rigorous use. So, let’s see which one suits you best!
What Is Microsoft Forms?
Microsoft Formsis anative quizzes, surveys, and polls-making tool for the Microsoft 365 workspace solution. It’s available for both free and premium users.
You can eitherdownloada standalone copy of the app on your Windows 10 or 11 PC from the Microsoft Store app. Or, you can access the service online.
Pros and Cons of Microsoft Forms
Get Microsoft Forms for your PC here!
What Is Google Forms?
Google Formsis the form-building app for thefree and premium Google Workspace solution. It’s a strictly web app meaning there’s no standalone installable version for PCs. It scales up and down automatically based on the browser user agent (PC or smartphone) to provide a seamless experience to form respondents from different devices.
Pros and Cons of Google Forms
Microsoft Forms Vs Google Forms
Now, let’s compare the two head-to-head!
User Interface and Experience
The UI of Microsoft Forms isintuitive but a bit elaborate.The welcome screen offers the most popular form formats, likeNew FormandNew Quiz. When editing, you can simply click on a form element to change content likeDate,Text,Rating,Choice, and more.
Moreover, it has a top menubar for menus likeQuestions,Responses,Preview,Style,Collect responses, andPresent. For additional settings, there’s a three-dot menu namedMore form settingsin the top right corner. The overall user experience is friendly but you must know the basics of online form-making.
Contrarily, Google Forms is abeginner-friendlyonline form-making tool. Its welcome screen shows the option for a blank form and a few choices from the templates gallery. You can easily add new question cards and choose from a wide range of types, like Short answer, Paragraph, Multiple choice, Checkboxes, Dropdown, and so on.
It also has a top menubar containing options likeCustomize Theme,Preview, additional settings, etc. Thegeneral user experience is better than on MS Formsbecause there are fewer customizations and there’s almost no learning curve.
Data Privacy and Security
Microsoft Forms comes with the latest data privacy and security compliance certificates. These includeGDPR, BAA, FERPA, andHIPAA. Microsoft alsoencrypts the form content in transit and at restusing standard digital data encryption protocols.
Furthermore, Google Forms protects your data via stringent encryption protection at rest or in transit. If your organization needs compliance features like HIPAA and BAA,you must get an appropriate Google Workspace subscriptionfor such businesses and sign Google’s Business Associate Addendum agreement.
So, from the compliance perspective,it’s better to use Microsoft Forms than Google Forms.You must manually get a compliant certificate for Google while for Microsoft it’s built-in.
Templates
Microsoft Forms comes with many ready-to-use online form templates. You can discover them from theExplore template categorieslink at the bottom of the tool. It has categorized them all into four sections, namely Events, User research forms, Employee satisfaction surveys, and Digital requests. I could find a total of16 templateswhen I reviewed this tool.
Google Forms also comes with pre-configured form templates. You can find the library by clicking the Template gallery link in the top right corner below the Search field. There are a total of17 templatesdistributed in sections, likePersonal,Work, andEducation.
Images and Videos
Depending on the template or question type, you canadd vector images, pictures, videos, and background musicto the Microsoft Forms interface. TheStylebutton in the toolbar lets you introduce such customizations. You can import images online from Bing search, upload from your organization’sOneDrive storage, or upload directly from local PC directories.
Compared to MS Forms, media customization options are more diverse in Google Forms. You canadd images and videos to almost any part of the form, it’s not mandatory to add these assets only to the question card. Also, you can customize the header image with your brand’s suggested visual assets especially if you’re using a prebuilt form template.
Not to mention, Google Forms also allows you tocustomize the fonts of the header, question, and text.
Data Analytics and Reporting
Microsoft Forms offersautomated data analytics and summary report generationwith smart data visualization cards. Its visualizations includeword clouds, bar charts, pie charts, column charts, and so on. The tool analyzes and presents response reports for each question considering all participants’ input. All data visualizations populate instantly with real-time updates when you access theResponsestab.
Furthermore, you can review individual response copies from theView resultsmenu. It also prepares a copy of an Excel spreadsheet when responses are detected from participants. You can download the Excel workbook or sync it to your web account for online data analysis.
However, youcan’t designate a preexisting worksheet or workbook for response inclusionlike Google Forms. It generates a new workbook for each survey.
Compared to MS Forms, Google Forms’ reporting and analytics are more primitive. It usessimple data visualization cards, with column chart as the most popular one. Therefore, if you’re anentry-level data analystor presenting reports to a less tech-savvy audience, this is the right tool.
However, if you’re planning to present your survey analytics to a group of professionals, MS Forms’ reporting feature will be more suitable.
Google Forms allows you to review form inputs in a complete sheet or question-by-question. Also, you can customize the database of the form responses to custom spreadsheet workbooks.
Sharing and Online Controls
You can access various ways to share Microsoft Forms from theCollect responsesmenu. Here are the major distribution options:
Contrarily, Google Forms offers fewer form distribution options but enough for convenient use. They’re available under theSendbutton on all interfaces. Here are its prominent features:
Overall,Microsoft Forms is more advanced than Google Formsin this area.
Pricing
Microsoft Forms is included in the Microsoft 365 package. You can use it for free if you’re not planning to attract truly large public responses for your forms.
But if you plan to use it for business, you can start withMicrosoft 365 Personalfor$6.99/ monthor getMicrosoft 365 Business Standardfor$12.50 user/month.
Google Forms is also a part of Google Workspace and is available for free for personal and commercial usage. You could get theBusiness Standardplan for$12 USD per user per monthwith a1-year commitment.
A paid Google Workspace account will allow you to request additional quota allowance via Google Forms API.
Microsoft Forms vs Google Forms – Verdict
All things considered, Google Forms is more user-friendly and affordable than Microsoft Forms. However, if you require a digital forms tool for special business cases that require stringent compliance and sophisticated designs, Microsoft Forms is the better choice.
Additionally, Google Forms is visually more customizable, while Microsoft’s service is more focused on advanced reporting and analytics.
If you keep encounteringerrors with Microsoft Formsoryour account isn’t enabledfor it, we can help out!
More about the topics:Google,Microsoft Forms
Vlad Turiceanu
Windows Editor
Passionate about technology,Windows, and everything that has a power button, he spent most of his time developing new skills and learning more about the tech world.
Coming from a solid background in PC building and software development, with a complete expertise in touch-based devices, he is constantly keeping an eye out for the latest and greatest!
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Vlad Turiceanu
Windows Editor
Coming from a solid background in PC building and software development, he’s a Windows 11 Privacy & Security expert.
