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Forms & Surveys

Microsoft Forms

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Panel rating · 6 judges · How to read the stars

Category median

Sovereignty: not determined

0–5 in half steps. 5 means the rubric's top anchor is met on the evidence.

by Microsoft Corporation · learn.microsoft.com

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Microsoft Forms: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai Microsoft Forms: AI-assisted analysis on whats-best.ai (dark)

Add ?theme=dark to the image address for dark backgrounds. The badge shows the category and the month of the latest evaluation, and EU-Made where that is the product’s provenance. It never shows a score.

Microsoft Forms at a glance

Vendor
Microsoft Corporation
Headquarters
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Data hosting
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Free plan
Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026
Panel verdict
The AI panel rates Microsoft Forms 2/5, the mean of 6 judges. Microsoft Forms is a survey, quiz, poll and questionnaire builder bundled with a list of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans and available with a Microsoft account. how scores are made
As of
Vendor pages captured 28 Oct 2026 to 1 Nov 2026; evaluated by the panel 29 Oct 2026. all sources

Microsoft Forms alternatives, European ones first →

Read this page as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.

The Skeptic

Weighted verdict

Has seen a "free form builder" put its logo on every customer survey and charge per response the month the campaign worked. Reads "GDPR compliant" with no data processing agreement behind it, "anonymous" surveys that still log IP addresses, "EU hosting" on the enterprise plan only, and AI analysis features with no word on where the answers go — and asks whether the responses can leave with the customer.

Same scores as the panel view — this lens weights them the way this judge cares.

Scored by The Skeptic

Panel median The Skeptic This judge’s scores over the panel median. Each label opens its reasoning below.
Scores per criterion, in stars out of 5
Criterion Panel median The Skeptic
Form & survey building 2 of 5 2 of 5
Distribution, response collection & workflows 2 of 5 2.5 of 5
Survey analysis & reporting 2 of 5 2 of 5
Consent, GDPR & respondent data 2 of 5 2 of 5
Hosting choice, teams & portability 2 of 5 2 of 5
European sovereignty 2 of 5 2 of 5

Form & survey building

How this is scored

What can be built without code: question and field types, conditional logic and branching, piping and hidden fields, calculations, multi-page forms and progress, templates, design and branding, multiple languages, and accessible output for respondents.

0 — Not a form or survey builder; questions cannot be authored in the product.

3 — A builder with the common question types and a few templates; logic, branding or languages are basic or not described.

5 — A drag-and-drop builder with a wide range of question types, conditional logic that shows, hides or skips questions, multi-page forms, a template library, and the customer's logo, colours and fonts.

8 — Advanced logic with piping, hidden fields, calculations and scoring, randomisation, surveys translated into several languages from one master, reusable question libraries, custom CSS or themes, and accessible forms with a named standard (WCAG 2.1 AA or BITV) stated.

10 — Best-in-class authoring: complex research designs (loops, quotas in logic, conjoint or MaxDiff), versioned forms with change history, a published accessibility conformance report, and every element of a form available through the API.

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The Skeptic

Branching logic, multilingual forms, template sharing, duplicate forms and auto-graded quizzes are confirmed across plans, but the captured pages state that branding customization is limited to changing an image, and we found no public information on piping, hidden fields, calculations, multi-page layout, custom themes or an accessibility standard. A competent mid-level builder, evidenced at feature-name depth only. 1 2

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Distribution, response collection & workflows

How this is scored

How forms reach people and what happens to an answer: share links, embedding, QR codes, email invitations with reminders, contact lists and panels, offline or kiosk collection, file uploads, payments and signatures inside the form, notifications, approval or assignment of submissions, and automations that pass a response on to other tools.

0 — No way to collect responses from other people; the product only analyses data collected elsewhere.

3 — A share link and an embed code, with responses visible in the product; invitations, notifications and onward workflows are basic or not described.

5 — Links, embedding and QR codes, email notifications on submission, file uploads, a few native integrations (spreadsheets, CRM, chat) plus a connector service such as Zapier or Make, and either email invitations with reminders or payments inside the form.

8 — Invitations to managed contact lists with reminders and unique links, response quotas and closing rules, offline or kiosk collection, submissions routed for approval or assignment, conditional notifications, documented webhooks and a REST API to read and write responses.

10 — Collection at research and process scale: panel or sample sourcing, multi-channel distribution (email, SMS, web, app intercept) with deduplication, workflows with branching and audit trail, and every response event exposed to the customer's systems in real time with a stated delivery guarantee.

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The Skeptic

Distribution is genuinely multi-channel — anonymous links, external sharing, embedding in SharePoint, Teams and PowerPoint, plus Teams and Outlook polls — with email notifications and automated workflows through Power Automate confirmed. We found no public information on email invitations with reminders to managed contact lists, file uploads, payments, response quotas, kiosk collection or a documented API for responses. 1 3

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Survey analysis & reporting

How this is scored

What the product does with the answers: live results and charts, filters and segments, cross-tabulation, NPS, CSAT and other standard scores, open-text and sentiment analysis, shareable dashboards and reports, and exports to the formats analysts use (CSV, Excel, SPSS, R).

0 — No view of results inside the product; submissions can only be forwarded or downloaded one at a time.

3 — A table of responses with simple charts per question and a CSV export; filters, comparisons and report sharing are basic or not described.

5 — Charts per question, filters and segments, at least one comparison or cross-tab view, standard scores such as NPS, shareable or exportable reports (PDF, presentation), and exports to CSV and Excel.

8 — Cross-tabulation with significance testing, weighting, open-text coding or sentiment analysis, trend reports across survey waves, dashboards for different audiences with permissions, and SPSS or R exports with labels.

10 — A research-grade analysis environment: statistical models beyond cross-tabs (driver analysis, regression), benchmarks, text analytics with themes the customer can edit, and every analysis reproducible from documented exports or an analytics API.

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The Skeptic

Real-time results, a response summary, built-in analytics, word clouds and Excel export are confirmed, along with the ability to share a results summary outside the organization. We found no public information on filters and segments, cross-tabulation, standard scores such as NPS, sentiment or text coding, or export formats beyond Excel. 1 2 3

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Hosting choice, teams & portability

How this is scored

What the customer may choose about where and how the product runs and who uses it: a selectable data region or EU-only hosting, self-hosting or an on-premise edition, team workspaces with roles and permissions, single sign-on, an audit log, custom domains and white-labelling, and a complete export of forms and responses that another tool can import.

0 — A single-user tool with no export of forms or responses.

3 — Shared access for a team and a response export; data location, roles and single sign-on are not described.

5 — Hosting location stated with an EU option, team workspaces with at least two roles, single sign-on on a higher plan, a custom domain or removed vendor branding, and an export of all responses.

8 — EU-only hosting selectable per account or a self-hosted edition, granular roles per form or folder, SSO with SAML and user provisioning, an audit log, white-labelling, and forms and responses exportable in a documented format with an API.

10 — Full control over operation: an open-source or on-premise edition with feature parity, customer-chosen region per workspace, administrative APIs, a documented migration path in and out, and an uptime commitment with a published status history.

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The Skeptic

The EU Data Boundary commits to storing and processing customer data in named EU and EFTA countries with listed datacenters, and collaboration on forms, Excel export, eDiscovery and organization-wide admin controls are confirmed. We found no public information on team roles for forms, single sign-on, an audit log, white-labelling or a documented full export format — the pages state branding is limited to an image — and the boundary itself carries acknowledged exceptions for transfers outside it. 1 3 4

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European sovereignty

How this is scored

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where forms and responses are hosted, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, email delivery, payment providers, analytics, AI features). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; responses often carry personal and sometimes special-category data, so the whole chain counts, not only the database.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (email, analytics, AI features, support) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

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The Skeptic

For a US-headquartered vendor, the EU Data Boundary is a real commitment: hosting on named Microsoft datacenters in EU and EFTA countries for customers with an EU sign-up location, a published data processing addendum, and GDPR compliance stated since 2018. The chain is not transparent end to end: we found no public information naming subprocessors or an EU contracting entity or representative, and the pages acknowledge limited circumstances where data continues to be transferred outside the boundary, with Multi-Geo tenants excluded from it entirely. 1 4 5

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Pricing transparency not rated — the vendor publishes no price

How this is scored

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per plan and per user, response or submission limits and what happens above them, which features (logic, branding removal, SSO, EU hosting, analysis modules) need a higher plan, add-ons, minimum term and the free tier's limits.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with users, responses or features is unclear.

5 — Plans are public with prices and their main limits (users, responses, forms), but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, EU hosting, extra responses, branding removal) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every plan priced publicly with its limits, overage or extra-response prices, feature differences per plan in a comparison table, billing period, VAT treatment and cancellation terms stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of users, responses and features, with every add-on, enterprise option, support level and data-return term published.

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The Skeptic

A feature-by-plan matrix names every Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plan that includes Forms and shows which features differ, and a free path exists through a personal Microsoft account — but no price is quoted on the captured pages, and the vendor warns the table may change without notice. We found no public information on per-user prices, response limits, overage terms or what a year of Forms actually costs a given team. 1 2

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European sovereignty — proven facts

0 of 6 dimensions proven

Built only from facts shown on the vendor's own pages. A dimension we could not prove is left open, not scored as zero.

Hosting location Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Hosting options Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Open source Not determined — uncited Report an error
Data processing agreement Not determined ⚠ unverified — uncited Report an error
Transfer impact assessment Not determined — uncited Report an error

Questions about Microsoft Forms

Is Microsoft Forms European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Microsoft Forms as Rest of world.

Where does Microsoft Forms store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

Does Microsoft Forms have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 1 Nov 2026.

What are the best alternatives to Microsoft Forms?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates Formbricks (4/5), easyfeedback (3.5/5) and Netigate (3.5/5) highest among the other 19 Forms & Surveys products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is Formbricks (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made. The full list, with European products first: Microsoft Forms alternatives.

Where this could be wrong

What we left out

A claim that does not survive our checks costs us the claim, not the page. This is what was taken off this one.

Do you know more about Microsoft Forms? Tell us Report an error on this page

Sources (7)

The pages every claim on this page was read from — each one checked, dated, and kept verifiable.

  1. 1 Service description (features and plan availability) learn.microsoft.com Checked 28 Oct 2026 Details →
  2. 2 Product documentation (admin overview) learn.microsoft.com Checked 28 Oct 2026 Details →
  3. 3 Administrator settings documentation learn.microsoft.com Checked 28 Oct 2026 Details →
  4. 4 EU Data Boundary documentation learn.microsoft.com Checked 28 Oct 2026 Details →
  5. 5 Data protection addendum www.microsoft.com Checked 28 Oct 2026 Details →
  6. 6 Privacy policy www.microsoft.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →
  7. 7 Security / trust page — found from the homepage learn.microsoft.com Checked 1 Nov 2026 Details →