As of 29 Oct 2026, the panel rates Tally 3/5 and Typeform 3/5 in Forms & Surveys. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 5 of the 6 judges pick Tally and 1 picks Typeform. Tally scores higher on 4 of 7 criteria (European sovereignty, Form & survey building, Pricing transparency, plus 1 more). Typeform scores higher on 3 of 7 criteria (Survey analysis & reporting, Hosting choice, teams & portability and Distribution, response collection & workflows). Provenance — Tally: EU-Made; Typeform: EU-Made. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
The bench splits, and the split is the answer. Tally leads form building (7.0 vs 6.0, six judges to zero) and sovereignty (7.0 vs 5.8, five to zero); pricing transparency (7.0 vs 6.0, four judges to zero) and consent and data protection (6.8 vs 6.3, four judges to one) also lean Tally. Typeform leads analysis and reporting (5.2 against Tally's 4.0, five judges to zero) and hosting and administration (6.0 against 5.5, three to zero, three ties); collection and workflows splits at 6.5 for Tally against 6.7 for Typeform — three judges lean Typeform, two Tally, one tie. Weighted totals put Tally ahead for the market researcher, operations manager, HR lead, academic researcher and data protection officer; the skeptic's total is 6.1 for Typeform against 6 for Tally. Sovereignty attributes: data residency reads "EU only" for Tally, "EU optional" for Typeform, and both list subprocessor exposure "US CLOUD Act reach"; jurisdictions read BE and ES.
Choose Tally if
You build logic-heavy forms on a budget: conditional logic with no condition limits, nested condition groups, calculated fields, answer piping and multi-language support are documented as free, and six judges lean Tally on form building (7.0 vs 6.0).
Your data policy requires the data residency attribute to read "EU only": Tally lists that, while Typeform lists "EU optional" with the EU data center choice documented as Enterprise-only.
You must hand procurement a data processing agreement naming a Belgian legal entity: Tally's names Tally BV under Belgian law, with hosting stated as Google Cloud in a Belgian region and a published subprocessor table; four judges lean Tally on consent and data protection, one Typeform.
You want published plan prices before committing: pricing transparency leans Tally four judges to zero (7.0 vs 6.0), while Typeform's five-to-seven spread rests on Enterprise contact-sales gates — though the captured pages give different figures for Tally's paid plans.
Your needs match the operations manager, HR lead or data protection officer: weighted totals run 6.6 vs 5.9, 6.3 vs 5.7 and 6.6 vs 6.4 in Tally's favor.
Choose Typeform if
You need working analysis out of the box: analysis and reporting leans Typeform five judges to zero (5.2 vs 4.0), with AI topic and sentiment detection credited by everyday-reporting judges; Tally's documented analysis is live NPS scoring, drop-off metrics, an analytics API and PDF export, and the verdicts found no public information on cross-tabulation, filters, segments or SPSS and R exports.
Your collection spans channels and tools: 28 question types, links, embeds, a 25,000-contact database with CSV import, file uploads, webhooks, a public API and Zapier; collection and workflows means 6.7 vs 6.5 with three judges leaning Typeform, two Tally, one tie.
Your infrastructure standard is AWS: Typeform's hosting is documented on AWS, and hosting and administration leans Typeform three judges to zero with three ties (6.0 vs 5.5).
You weigh vendor claims hard: the skeptic's weighted total is 6.1 for Typeform against 6 for Tally.
Your contracts are governed through Spain: the legal entity jurisdiction attribute reads ES for Typeform (Typeform SL of Barcelona), against BE for Tally.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Academic Researcher
Runs questionnaire studies at a European university and has to satisfy the ethics board before the first respondent sees a question. Wants complex branching, randomisation and validated scales, an informed-consent page that is part of the instrument, exports to SPSS and R with labels intact, and a licence the faculty can host or at least keep in the EU.
Tally
This judge's pick
Typeform
Criterion by criterion
Form & survey building
Tally
The logic engine is what a questionnaire study needs: nested condition groups with their own all/any settings, six actions including jump-to-page and conditional required answers, unlimited conditions at no charge, plus calculated fields with a formula language, answer piping, hidden fields and randomized answer options. A hundred templates, custom CSS, colours, fonts and 45+ languages with right-to-left support round out the builder. We found no public information on a named accessibility standard, reusable question libraries, translating survey content from one master, or research designs such as loops and quotas.
Typeform
The no-code drag-and-drop builder offers 28 question types, Logic Jump branching and a Workflow panel, piping via Recall Information, forms in multiple languages, video and signature questions, and a 3,000-plus template library with Brand Kit themes — enough for a competent questionnaire. For an ethics-board-grade instrument I also need item randomisation, hidden fields, calculations and scoring, and a named accessibility standard such as WCAG, and we found no public information on any of those, so it stays in the middle band.
Distribution, response collection & workflows
Tally
Links, three embed types with guides for platforms from Notion to Next.js, file uploads, Stripe payments, signatures, scheduled closing with response limits and duplicate prevention are documented, alongside Slack notifications, native integrations, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, documented webhooks with event retry, and a REST API covering forms and submissions; email notifications whose body and recipients follow calculated fields are the closest thing to conditional notification. We found no public information on managed invitation lists with reminders and unique links, QR codes, offline or kiosk collection, or routing submissions for approval — exactly the machinery a multi-wave study relies on.
Typeform
Forms go out as links, email or website embeds, with file uploads, payments, partial responses, a 25,000-contact database with CSV import, automations triggered by contact changes or a scheduled date, follow-up emails and SMS, documented webhooks, a public API, and even built-in panel access for recruiting and screening study participants. We found no public information on reminder invitations with unique per-respondent links, response quotas with closing rules, or offline and kiosk collection, which is what would take it to the top band for panel studies.
Survey analysis & reporting
Tally
Documented analysis covers automatic NPS scoring with a live Promoter/Passive/Detractor split, completion and drop-off metrics, an analytics API returning aggregate figures, PDF export, a Google Sheets integration, and response analysis in plain language through Claude or ChatGPT connectors. We found no public information on cross-tabulation, significance testing, filters or segments, shareable dashboards, or exports to SPSS and R with labels — for my faculty that means the raw data must leave the tool immediately after collection.
Typeform
Live reporting covers completion rates, question drop-off analysis, performance over time, auto-calculated NPS, shareable auto-generated reports, and AI detection of topics and sentiment in open answers, with a plain response download. The export format is never named, and we found no public information on cross-tabulation with significance testing, weighting, or SPSS or R exports with value labels — the very thing my statistical colleagues ask for — so it sits below the research-grade band.
Consent, GDPR & respondent data
Tally
The strongest area for an ethics submission: opt-in consent checkboxes that must start empty, a separate checkbox per purpose, a free GDPR-compliant form template, deletion or export of every individual response for access and erasure requests, per-form automatic retention from minutes to years, and a published data processing agreement with standard contractual clauses, subprocessor change notice, and certified return or deletion at contract end, with encryption in transit and at rest and EU storage stated. Two limits decide the score: retention automation requires the Business plan, and we found no public information on an anonymous mode that drops IP addresses (the respondent's country is derived from the IP), on cookie controls, or on a named data protection officer.
Typeform
Unusually well documented for an ethics submission: a published DPA with Typeform as processor, a named Data Protection Officer, the Spanish Data Protection Authority as supervisory body, AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit, technical and organisational measures in the DPA annex, breach notification within GDPR deadlines, and surveys that are anonymous by default and collect no IP addresses so long as no identifying fields or URL tracking parameters are used. Cookie consent needs an Axeptio widget that requires a PRO+ account plus a separate Axeptio account, and we found no public information on field-level masking of sensitive answers, configurable per-survey retention with automatic deletion, or consent records stored with each response.
Hosting choice, teams & portability
Tally
Forms and responses sit on EU servers as a fixed location, and the help pages state plainly that folder access follows workspace membership with no separate permissions per folder, while workspaces, unlimited nested folders and unlimited team members are Pro features. Custom domains are thoroughly documented — CNAME target, automatic SSL, favicon, metadata, email sending domain — and branding removal is priced, giving a white-labelled look, with response export, a form importer and the API providing a path in and out. We found no public information on single sign-on, granular roles, an audit log, or a self-hosted edition.
Typeform
The privacy policy states information is processed from the European Economic Area, and an EU or US data centre can be chosen — but only on Enterprise, the same tier that gates SSO and a custom domain; shared workspaces with roles, real-time collaboration, branding removal on paid plans, custom subdomains and response download with a public API complete a solid mid-level picture. For faculty self-administration I would want a self-hosted edition, granular per-form permissions, SAML and provisioning detail, and a documented importable export format, and we found no public information on those.
European sovereignty
Tally
The contracting entity is named in the data processing agreement — Tally BV, a Besloten Vennootschap under Belgian law in Ghent with an enterprise number — and hosting runs on named infrastructure, Google Cloud in a Belgian region, with data stated to be stored on high-security servers within the European Union. The subprocessor table is published with each provider's location and a flag for who may process form submissions, showing the US providers SendGrid and Stripe only through opt-in notifications and payment features while several US services are marked as not touching submissions. No ISO or SOC certification is asserted for Tally itself — those references concern third parties — and we found no public information on the company's ownership.
Typeform
The contracting entity is Typeform SL of Barcelona with a Spanish tax ID, the DPA is governed by Spanish law with the Spanish Data Protection Agency as authority, and SOC 2 Type II plus ISO/IEC 27001 and further certifications are published. However, the pricing pages locate customer data in AWS — a US-headquartered host — the EU data centre choice exists only on Enterprise, the full subprocessor list sits behind a help-centre link while named processors include a San Francisco affiliate, so an EU-resident chain end to end is not evidenced.
Pricing transparency
Tally
A free tier of unlimited forms and submissions 'within fair usage guidelines' and two paid plans are public, though the captured pages give different figures for the paid plans — '$29/month or $290/year' for Pro and '$89/month or $890/year' for Business on the features page, '€20 per month' for Pro and '€65 per month' for Business on the pricing page — with monthly or yearly billing ('2 months off') and 'Cancel anytime'. Plan gating is documented across the help pages: conditional logic and calculated fields free; branding removal, custom domains, CSS and team features on Pro; retention control and email verification on Business; and no Tally fee on top of Stripe's. We found no public information on VAT treatment or on where the fair usage boundaries lie, so the free tier's true cost ceiling cannot be computed.
Typeform
Four plans carry public prices — 25 EUR / mo Basic, 49 EUR / mo Plus, 84 EUR / mo Business, and 242EUR/mo after 14 days for Growth Flow with a credit card required — alongside a comparison table of included and maximum responses, users, file-upload and video limits, yearly billing labelled Save 30%, priced automation add-ons, non-refundable fees and a documented hard stop when response limits are reached. Enterprise, which gates SSO, HIPAA and the EU data centre choice, is contact sales only, and we found no public information on VAT treatment or the price of additional responses, so a university buyer cannot compute the full annual cost from public pages alone.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
Tally
Typeform
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting location
Not determined
Not determined
Hosting options
Not determined
Not determined
Open source
Not determined
Not determined
Data processing agreement
Not determined
Not determined
Transfer impact assessment
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
As of 29 Oct 2026, the panel rates both 3/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 5 of the 6 judges pick Tally and 1 picks Typeform. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is Tally or Typeform European?
Tally is European (EU-Made). Typeform is European (EU-Made). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.
Where do Tally and Typeform store customer data?
Per the vendors’ own pages as captured — Tally: Default not stated; pages mention the EU. Typeform: its pages as captured do not say.
Do Tally and Typeform have a free plan?
As of 29 Oct 2026, both vendors’ own pages state a free plan. Each product page links the pricing page it was read from.