Updated March 2026
Depends on your volume, your need for an API, and whether you care how the form looks.
Google Forms is free. Always will be. Unlimited responses. But there's no real API for form creation, no embed control, no webhooks, no custom styling. For internal surveys where appearance doesn't matter, it's hard to beat. But if you need to embed in your product or create forms programmatically, it falls short.
Sutrena's Free plan costs nothing and never expires. Sign up with GitHub or Google. 10 projects (forms, pages, and dashboards combined), 500 submissions per form, 1 webhook. Everything except CSV export and upsert.
Sutrena Builder is $9/month. 50 projects, 5,000 submissions per form, 5 webhooks, 1 custom domain, CSV export. No per-response fees. This is the cheapest paid option with a real API, CSV export, and upsert.
Sutrena Pro is $29/month. 200 projects, unlimited submissions, 10 webhooks. For high-volume or multi-form setups.
Typeform Basic is $25/month for 100 responses. At 1,000 submissions, you're at their $50/month Plus plan. Tally Pro is $29/month. JotForm Bronze is $34/month for 100 monthly submissions.
So for any serious use, Sutrena Builder at $9/month with 5,000 submissions per form is significantly cheaper than any of these. Pro at $29/month with unlimited submissions is even better value for high volume.
The cheapest production setup? Sutrena Free ($0) plus Cloudflare Pages (free). Unlimited bandwidth, automatic SSL, global CDN. Total: $0/month for forms, a dashboard, and a webhook. No server, no database, no Docker. Scale to Builder ($9/month) or Pro ($29/month) when you need more.
Scale at $79/month removes all limits. Still cheaper than most competitors' mid-tier plans.
The bottom line: if you need an API, webhooks, and CSV export, Sutrena Builder at $9/month. If you need unlimited submissions and more projects, Pro at $29/month. If you just need a free survey tool and don't care about APIs or embedding, Google Forms costs nothing.
# Free trial flow: $0 to start collecting data
# Step 1: Get a trial API key (no signup, no email, no credit card)
curl -X POST https://sutrena.com/api/trial
# Response: { "apiKey": "st_live_abc123...", "plan": "free", "claimUrl": "https://sutrena.com/claim/abc123", ... }
# Step 2: Create a form
curl -X POST https://sutrena.com/api/forms \
-H "Authorization: Bearer st_live_abc123..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"name": "Waitlist",
"fields": [
{ "name": "email", "label": "Email", "type": "email", "required": true },
{ "name": "referral", "label": "How did you hear about us?", "type": "select", "options": ["Twitter", "Friend", "Search", "Other"] }
]
}'
# Response: { "id": "form_xyz", "url": "https://sutrena.com/f/form_xyz", ... }
# Step 3: Submit data (public endpoint, no auth needed)
curl -X POST https://sutrena.com/api/forms/form_xyz/submit \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "email": "[email protected]", "referral": "Twitter" }'
# Step 4: Read submissions
curl https://sutrena.com/api/forms/form_xyz/submissions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer st_live_abc123..."