Survey Monkey vs Google Forms: both are survey-based software programs that allow a user or users to create surveys. But which one is better? The answer for that question will depend on what you are using it for. Both software have the ability to create basic question-and-answer type survey questions and both programs allow the creator to share their online surveys.
But how many questions you want to ask, how you want to share, and what other features you want to include in your survey will determine which survey program is best for you. Knowing this information is necessary because 87% of survey takers actually want to have a say in a company’s future products or services. In this article, we will break down what each program can do and their pros and cons. This will help you to help you make the best choice for your surveys!
2025 Update: Since our original comparison, both platforms have continued to evolve. Google Forms has introduced AI-powered features through Google Workspace Labs, allowing users to generate entire forms with simple prompts using Gemini. SurveyMonkey has strengthened its AI capabilities with the “Build with AI” feature, which can create complete surveys from prompts and analyze sentiment in responses.
These developments have made both platforms more accessible to users without survey expertise.
Why We Use Surveys
Marketing and advertising agencies use programs like Survey Monkey and Google Forms in order to gain analytical information from consumers. These online forms might include surveys, polls, quizzes, and forms. In the same way that brands use behavioral advertising to learn who to market to, they also use surveys programs to refine their target market and provide a better customer experience. When marketing a product, brands need to know who their target audience is, why they shop, and what they shop for. To figure this out, agencies will create a survey with questions designed to give brands an idea of how they can properly market their product.
For example, if brand A is trying to sell dish soap, they will create a list of questions revolving dish soap that should give them valuable consumer information necessary to properly sell their product. If brand A discovers that, out of 100 people who answered their survey, 80% of males said that they are the ones who do the dishes in the house, marketing to females wouldn’t serve brand A well.
Analytics taken from these surveys are key in creating proper advertising campaigns and case studies. Along with market research, surveys also are commonly used for feedback. Many websites will ask their customers to answer a survey about their experience in order to collect the information and use it to improve their service. This is frequently done through e-mail marketing, but can appear on purchase receipts with a redirect to the company’s website. These marketing uses for surveys are vital for company growth, so knowing which survey tool you will need is essential.
What is Survey Monkey?
Survey Monkey is a popular survey software website that over two million people using it every day. The website can be used by both businesses and individuals and offers a multitude of features that can be used for both creating surveys and measuring the results. However, accessing those features will differ by the pricing and plan option that the user chooses. In total, Survey Monkey offers six different plans which range from business to personal plans.
Business Use
The paid plans that Survey Monkey offers include:
- Team Advantage – $25 per user per month.
- Team Premiere – $75 per user per month.
- Enterprise – Price not provided.
Personal Use
The personal plans that Survey Monkey offers include a free plan and are:
- Basic- Free
- Standard – $99/ month (only monthly payments).
- Advantage – $32/ month
- Premiere – $99/ month.
Free Plan Limitations
While SurveyMonkey does offer a free Basic plan, it comes with significant limitations. Free users can only view 25 responses per survey and are limited to 10 questions per survey. These restrictions make the free plan suitable only for very small-scale data collection or for testing the platform before committing to a paid subscription.
Why Use Survey Monkey?
There are several pros and cons of Survey Monkey. Good questions aren’t the only thing you need in order to create a professional and successful survey. You will need to be able to analyze your results, easily share your survey, and export your results. Not to mention, you will also need to make it look presentable. These can all be done when using Survey Monkey since it has the most available features to use. Survey Monkey forms include more than 150+ expert-written free survey templates. While some of these features can be done with the free, basic plan, most can only be accessed with a premium plan.
Customizable Designs
Survey Monkey has a plethora of design options and form templates. They include changing the header color and image to altering the font of the questions themselves. For businesses, it is ideal because they can add their own logo image to the survey. Having full control over the design of your survey creates a professional look. That is a bonus to any quiz, survey, or poll. While the basic plan does have a few available templates to choose from, adding pictures and changing fonts will have to be purchased through a premiere plan.
Response Collections
In any successful survey, you want a lot of responses and having the ability to share your survey through multiple channels can help with that. Survey Monkey offers not only the basic ways to share a survey including through email and link embedding, but also through Audience, which is a professional tool Survey Monkey uses where you can pay to get your survey promoted thus getting more responses.
Analytics
It’s not just about the data collected, but also how you can see your results. Survey Monkey’s basic plan will give you the ability to display your results with eight different types of graphs and these can range from the popular pie charts, line graphs, or bar graphs, but in order to customize the design of the colors, fonts, or labels, you will need to upgrade to a premium plan. These features can be an added bonus for a professional looking survey, but aren’t necessarily necessary if you just want a basic graph that will display your results.
A/B Testing
SurveyMonkey’s premium plans offer powerful A/B testing capabilities that are unavailable in Google Forms. This feature allows users to test two versions of text, images, or questions to see which performs better or generates more engagement from respondents. A/B testing is particularly valuable for marketing research and optimizing survey response rates.
Collaboration
Through Survey Monkey’s team plan, team members or collaborators have the ability to do an array of actions like commenting and editing on a survey. Sending notifications to other teammates when an action has been made is also available through this plan. If you only want one person to perform these tasks, Survey Monkey does offer the option to let other people view a survey for free, but there are limited collaboration options.
Social Media
Survey Monkey also has easy access to collaborations with various social media platforms like Facebook. Through the Facebook messenger app, people can also take surveys making it a much easier way to find participants. Incorporating social media sharing is a great way for people to view new content.
Mobile Experience
Google Forms currently doesn’t have an official mobile app, despite many unofficial versions available in app stores. SurveyMonkey offers a native mobile app that makes creating and managing surveys on the go much more convenient. The app allows users to design surveys, view responses, and analyze results—all from their smartphones or tablets.
Skip Logic
Survey Monkey offers skip logic, which lets you direct respondents through different paths in a survey based on one or multiple conditions.
Purchasing Responses
Unlike Google Forms, SurveyMonkey offers the option to purchase responses from targeted audiences. Users can select from pre-crafted audience profiles or build custom audiences based on over 90 criteria including demographics, shopping behaviors, and more. This feature is invaluable for businesses looking to gather market research from specific customer segments beyond their existing contact lists. Prices vary based on audience targeting, with costs typically ranging from $1.40 to $3.40 per response with fast turnaround times.
Is Survey Monkey Reliable?
Yes. Created in 1999, it’s one of the oldest survey programs used today and has been continually updated since its inception. Survey Monkey also has a help center with guided how-to tutorials and tips on how to create professional surveys. Both businesses and individuals use Survey Monkey for its available marketing tools making it more than a survey creating website. However, some people look for alternatives to Survey Monkey.
What is Google Forms?
Google Forms is a program within the Google Workspace that allows people to create, send, analyze, and publish a survey. Within the scope of Google workspace, users can design a survey and transfer it to Google sheets in order to analyze the results. The program is free and has no premium features or subscriptions. This means there’s not a whole lot of options when it comes to customizing design features, but if you only need basic features, Google Forms is a great platform to use.
Why Use Google Forms?
If you’re looking for a program to create surveys, quizzes, and polls that is simple, basic, and easy to use, then Google Forms is right for you. The benefits of using Google Forms is in its ease of use and in its interconnected Google platform. Not every business or individual wants the excess of resources that can often come with a software program like Survey Monkey. Google Forms also offers everything that Survey Monkey’s basic plan offers. Maybe the best feature of Google Forms is that it’s free! Yes, that means a lack of colors, fonts, and images. But if you aren’t looking for those, then stick with the ease of Google Forms.
Is Basic Enough?
The cons to Google Forms does lie in its simplicity. It only has basic design templates. Compared to Survey Monkey’s 15 different question types, you can only choose from nine in Google Forms. Keep in mind, when creating a survey, poll, or quiz, that collaborating is also significantly more limited compared to Survey Monkey. However, sharing your survey can still be done through email and link embedding. It will really come down to what you want to use your survey for, as both have the basic options. But Survey Monkey can increase features and Google Forms can not.
Is Google Forms Reliable?
Yes and no. If you don’t already have a Google account, you will need to make one in order to use Google forms thus decreasing its reliability within different email platforms. Without access to the marketing features Survey Monkey has already within the website, Google Platform is limited in its extra functions to improve a professional marketing or advertising survey. All that said, yes, in terms of brand reliability, Google is a trusted and popular platform that has various sectors within Google Workspace that make it ideal if you are already a loyal and trusted Google user. Without directly being a part of the Google Workspace platform, Google Analytics also offers information vital to marketing properly that can be used as a resource.
Survey Monkey vs Google Forms: The Winner
So, Survey Monkey vs Google Forms: which is best? Because Survey Monkey offers both basic and premium plans and more advanced features, it has to be the winner. Since surveys are so important for businesses to properly market products and services, the added features that are available to businesses are also better when it comes to marketing. It will still depend on what you are using the programs for. But for the average user, Survey Monkey takes the cake for price, resources, and customization.
Feature Comparison at a Glance
Feature – Google Forms – SurveyMonkey –
—————————————-
Ease of use – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ –
Customization – ⭐⭐ – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ –
Analytics – ⭐⭐⭐ – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ –
Pricing – Free – Free with limitations; Paid plans from $32-$99/month –
Question types – 11 question types – 16 question types (some premium only) –
Templates – 17 templates – 113+ templates (many premium only) –
Response limit – Unlimited – 25 responses per survey (free plan) –
Question limit – Unlimited – 10 questions per survey (free plan) –
Logic branching – Basic – Advanced (premium only) –
Integration options – Google Workspace – 100+ integrations –
FAQ:
- How are surveys used in marketing?
- What is Survey Monkey?
- Are there free surveys?
- What are the benefits of Survey Monkey?
- What is Google Forms?
- Are there hidden costs with either platform?
- How do integrations compare between the platforms?
- Which platform has better data security?
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