If your Google Form already collects the right customer details and someone reliably follows up, keep it. Google supports shared editing and responses in Sheets. Consider Tally when its question layout or paid collaboration fits a specific gap. Consider Typeform when you value its interactive presentation enough to pay for the required capacity. AI drafting is optional; it is not the deciding requirement.
This comparison uses plans and documentation checked on November 12, 2026. The illustrative business is a design studio or local service firm with one owner and up to two assistants, 50–300 completed enquiries a month, and a US$0–80 monthly software budget before tax. It already has permitted Google accounts and uses Sheets. Nobody is assumed to write code. These are buying assumptions, not a customer case study.
A useful enquiry workflow ends with a named owner and a next-action date, not just a submitted form. The goal here is a private record and a human-reviewed reply—not payments, sensitive-data intake, automated quotes or a replacement customer-management system.
What should you decide before comparing plans?
Start with the job, then count the people and responses involved. Use these criteria in order:
Can the current form collect the necessary details, and can an outside customer open it?
Which questions depend on earlier answers, and is the proposed layout clear on a phone?
How many completed enquiries arrive each month, and how many people actually edit the form?
Where will responses go, who will check them, and who can access each stored copy?
Are branding controls worth paying for, and what is the full bill and commitment?
Can you keep your existing Google Form?
Often, yes. Basic branching is not a reason by itself to move: Google can send respondents to different sections based on a multiple-choice or dropdown answer. A studio could use a service dropdown to separate website enquiries from print-design requests. That is a proposed layout, not a tested conversion improvement.
The cost baseline is no additional form subscription because this example already has suitable accounts. It does not mean every business Google Workspace account is free. Keep any existing account charges in your wider budget.
What will a suitable plan actually cost?
The table uses public US-dollar list prices checked on November 12, 2026, not a country-specific quotation. Annual equivalents are not monthly instalments. Response allowances and editor access are separate requirements.
Option / best fit | Monthly payment | Annual commitment / equivalent | Responses / form editors | Setup tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Existing Google Forms + Sheets: current setup works | US$0 additional under our account assumption | No new subscription assumed | Cumulative form limits; named collaborators | Check customer access and both files’ permissions |
Tally Free: one form owner | US$0 | No paid commitment | Unlimited submissions, subject to fair use; shared workspaces require Pro | Connect Sheets; Tally branding stays |
Tally Pro: shared editing or branding | US$29 per organization | US$290/year; about US$24.17/month equivalent | Unlimited members; unlimited submissions subject to fair use | Broad rights within shared workspaces |
Typeform Basic: one editor prefers its presentation | US$39 | US$28/month equivalent; US$336 annualized* | 100 responses/month; 1 user | Base allowance cannot cover 300 enquiries/month |
Typeform Plus: preferred presentation with team editing | US$79 | US$56/month equivalent; US$672 annualized* | 1,000 responses/month; 3 users | Base allowances fit this scenario before tax |
*Typeform annual totals are calculations from the displayed yearly rates: 28 × 12 = US$336 and 56 × 12 = US$672. Confirm the actual checkout quote. Tally’s equivalent is US$290 ÷ 12 ≈ US$24.17; it is not a US$24 monthly subscription.
Typeform’s payment terms exclude applicable taxes and bill subscriptions in advance. Tally’s tax treatment remains a checkout check. Existing Google charges, domain registration, currency conversion, staff time and optional add-ons are outside these figures. A US$79 base plan therefore does not guarantee an all-in bill below US$80.
For three genuine form editors and 300 monthly enquiries, Basic fails both included requirements: 300 is three times its 100-response allowance. Plus fits the stated workload, as does Tally Pro’s documented collaboration and fair-use model. With only one editor, check a separately priced Typeform response upgrade before assuming Plus is the only route. Its upgrade price is not established here.
For the three-editor example, the month-to-month subscription difference is US$79 − US$29 = US$50. That compares listed charges, not equivalent customer experiences or measured business savings.
Typeform offers an opt-in automatic upgrade when response limits are reached, with a prorated charge. Check that setting and what your selected plan does at its limit; do not assume excess enquiries will keep arriving. Its Free plan’s precise current response cap is unverified here. A free tier is also not a time-limited trial of every paid feature.
Who needs to edit the form—and who only needs the Sheet?
Three employees do not necessarily need three form-editor seats. If the owner changes questions while two assistants handle follow-up, give the assistants the appropriate response-Sheet access instead of buying editing access they do not need. Both Tally and Typeform document native Sheets connections; a paid third-party connector is not required for these paths. Do not share a login.
For an existing Google setup, named collaborators can edit the form, subject to the organization’s sharing rules. Tally Free is worth considering when one owner wants its show-or-hide questions and page skipping. Check the particular questionnaire rather than assuming those controls will outperform Google’s sections.
Tally Pro’s organization subscription adds collaboration and branding controls; three members do not multiply the listed fee by three. However, shared-workspace members have broad rights to create, edit, view and delete. It is not a fine-grained approval system. Joining an organization also moves an account’s existing forms into a private workspace there, with no direct transfer back to a personal account. Keep personal and business use separate when choosing accounts.
Typeform Plus adds branding removal and a custom subdomain. Treat presentation as something your business may prefer, not evidence that it will generate more enquiries. A custom subdomain is not a promise of hosting on your own domain.
Can customers submit without unnecessary hurdles?
Start with a name, a reply address or other necessary contact method, the requested service and a short description. Add timing or a budget range only if it changes how you handle the request. Explain how you will use the details to reply; keep any separate marketing sign-up distinct. Internal owner, status and follow-up notes belong in your private tracker, not customer questions.
Check the published responder link while signed out. Google’s one-response restriction requires Google sign-in, as do file-upload questions. Avoid requiring attachments at the first enquiry unless you need them. Account and administrator settings may also affect who can respond.
Keep Google’s response-summary sharing off for customer enquiries: enabling it makes response text or charts visible to people who can respond. A public form link should not become a public customer list.
Capacity is a different issue. Google’s current documentation sets cumulative limits of 500,000 responses and 1 GB per form, excluding uploaded files; Sheets syncing may stop above 100,000 responses. These are not monthly allowances and are not, by themselves, a reason for this small-volume business to switch.
Tally’s unlimited allowance remains subject to fair use. Its extensive-use examples include 50,000 submissions a month; sustained heavy use can lead to an additional custom-plan charge. That is a policy example, not a guaranteed free hard cap or a delivery guarantee.
Does AI help with this particular job?
It can provide a first draft of questions. It cannot establish that an enquiry reached the right person or that someone replied. Start with a generic description of your business and required fields, without real customer records, then review every generated question and promise.
Typeform’s AI features are optional and plan-dependent. Its AI terms, checked on November 12, say content you ask it to process may be exposed to AI providers. Where the purchased plan does not expressly set limits, those terms cap use at 1,000 interactions per calendar year, at most 500 involving external-tool MCP connectors. An interaction is a request to the AI—not a customer’s form submission. Those limits are not a blanket entitlement to every AI feature.
Typeform also calls for reviewing output for accuracy and suitability. For an enquiry form, check that AI has not made an optional question compulsory, asked for unnecessary personal information or promised a service or response time you cannot provide.
Google likewise offers Gemini-assisted form drafting for eligible Workspace or Google AI plans. It is not included in every basic account. Its documented whole-form generator cannot create multiple sections and replaces rather than edits an existing form, so start in a new draft. Neither product’s drafting feature is necessary to collect enquiries.
How do you set up and check the complete workflow?
Before starting, identify the business-owned form account, the authorized Google destination, whoever can update your website or share the responder link, and an intake owner plus backup. Switching tools means rebuilding questions, reconnecting Sheets and replacing links. There is no need to assume a CRM or automation subscription for this example.
Build the minimum form. Use a service choice and only the relevant follow-up questions. Write a confirmation message that acknowledges receipt without promising an unapproved quote or deadline.
Connect the private destination. Use the intended Google account and review requested access. Choose a new or existing Sheet deliberately, and decide whether old responses should be copied. Tally documents an existing-submission export option; Typeform’s integration guide documents transferring up to 1,000 existing results. That transfer figure is not a monthly plan allowance.
Arrange an alert and a checking routine. Google documents new-response email notifications. Tally’s free default alert goes to the form creator; customizing recipients requires Pro. For your chosen account, confirm who actually receives the alert and who checks records when that person is away.
Add private follow-up fields. Record an assigned owner, status and next-action date. Keep them separate from customer-submitted fields. Preserve the response identifier where available, and check that sorting or adding rows does not detach follow-up notes from the correct enquiry.
Try dummy submissions before sharing widely. Open the responder link signed out and on a phone, complete each branch with invented details, and check required fields and confirmation wording. Verify the same enquiry in form results and the intended Sheet, plus the responsible person’s notification route.
Check failure and exit paths. Tally provides delivery logs and resend checks; its Sheets connection handles completed submissions, not partial ones. Try an export, open it elsewhere, and verify access removal. Only then choose a paid or annual commitment, checking the final total, renewal terms and response allowance.
The acceptance check is practical: an outside customer can submit, the right private record and alert arrive, and a named person can record the next action. Keep human review before sending replies or quotes. Run these checks on your own setup before relying on it.
What happens to customer details if you change tools?
A linked Sheet is another stored copy, not a complete migration plan. Google says form and Sheet permissions must be maintained separately after initial sharing; unlinking preserves existing Sheet data. Review access to both files when a colleague leaves, and decide how long to keep records and notification emails.
Tally states that its form data is stored in Europe and encrypted. That statement does not establish where your separate Google copy resides or prove that your configured workflow meets every privacy obligation. Keep the collection narrow and assign responsibility for each copy.
Google documents CSV downloads, and Tally documents CSV response exports alongside transfer limitations. For Typeform, keep the linked spreadsheet usable and confirm the account’s built-in export options separately. Do not assume an export recreates questions, permissions, links and integrations in another service.
Which choice fits your next step?
Keep Google Forms if it passes the access and follow-up checks. Try Tally Free if one person owns the form and its conditional layout solves a real problem; move to Pro when shared editing or branding justifies the cost. Choose Typeform when you specifically prefer its presentation, then buy for actual response volume and editor needs—not the lowest advertised entry price.
If you will promote the enquiry link through social posts, the separate Buffer and Metricool guide covers scheduling and approvals. A scheduler is not required to operate the form. Get the private record, named owner and follow-up routine working before adding another subscription.