Best survey tools for startups

The short answer: Start with Tally if you want free forms with no response cap to worry about, or Google Forms if your team already works in Sheets. Pick Enform when most of your questions are open-ended and nobody has time to read the answers. Typeform has the most polished forms, but its free plan stops at 10 responses a month.

A startup survey tool has to stay free or cheap, get a form live fast, and not leave you alone with a spreadsheet of written answers. The first two are easy to find. The third is where these tools differ most, and it often sits on a higher plan.

The shortlist

Ordered by fit for an early startup: a free plan you can run a real survey on, a live link in minutes, then help reading open-ended answers.

Checked on against each tool's own pricing and help pages, linked under each tool. Enform is our product.

  1. TallyFree form builder with unlimited forms and submissions under a fair-use policy, a Notion-like editor, conditional logic and AI form creation on the free plan.Open-ended replies: Answers land in Tally and your integrations. Tally's MCP server lets an outside AI assistant read your responses, free on all plans, but nothing inside Tally summarizes them.Watch out for: Removing Tally branding needs Pro ($24/month billed monthly).Sources: Tally pricing, Tally fair use, Tally MCP server
  2. Google FormsIncluded with a Google account, with responses going straight to Google Sheets. Best when you just need answers somewhere you can sort them.Open-ended replies: Gemini can summarize open-text answers (between 3 and 200 responses), but only on an eligible paid Google Workspace or Google AI plan.Watch out for: Branching only works from multiple-choice and dropdown questions, and design options are thin.Sources: Google Forms, Gemini in Google Forms
  3. EnformDescribe what you want to ask and Enform writes the survey. You share one link, and it reads the replies, counts what people said and drafts slides from them.Open-ended replies: This is the main job. Enform reads the replies and counts what people said, and every count opens the replies behind it. How many replies it reads depends on your plan.Watch out for: No payments inside forms, no HIPAA option and no paid panel of respondents, so you bring your own people. Fewer integrations than Typeform or Jotform. The AI writes the first draft of your questions, so read the wording before you share the link.Sources: Enform plans
  4. FilloutFree forever plan with unlimited forms and 1,000 responses a month, conditional logic and 50+ integrations. Starter is $15/month billed monthly for 2,000 responses.Open-ended replies: An AI summary of a single submission is available through workflows. There's no summary across all responses.Watch out for: The free plan shows a Fillout badge, and the Salesforce integration starts on the Team plan.Sources: Fillout pricing
  5. TypeformPolished forms that show one question at a time by default, with AI form creation and logic on the free plan. Best when the form is customer-facing and the feel matters.Open-ended replies: Smart Insights summarizes open-text answers and groups them by topic, but only on Growth plans and above, in English, once you have at least 10 responses.Watch out for: The free plan allows 10 responses a month and Basic allows 100, so it gets expensive as replies grow.Sources: Typeform free plan, Typeform pricing, Typeform Smart Insights

FAQ

What's the best free survey tool for a startup?

Tally is the safest free pick: unlimited forms and submissions under its fair-use policy. Google Forms is included with a Google account, and Fillout's free plan allows 1,000 responses a month. Enform also has a free plan; see enform.co/pricing for what it includes today.
Usually not. At early-stage volumes, the free plans of Tally, Google Forms or Fillout are enough. People tend to upgrade to remove branding from customer-facing forms or to get more responses a month.
Typeform's Smart Insights does it on Growth plans and above. Google Forms can summarize with Gemini on paid Workspace or Google AI plans. Tally lets an outside AI assistant read responses through its MCP server. Enform reads the replies and counts what people said, and each count opens the replies behind it.

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