Google Forms Alternative in WordPress: Is Ninja Forms Best?

Looking to build an online form for your WordPress website but can’t decide whether you should use Google Forms vs Ninja Forms?

In this article, you’ll learn the difference between Google Forms and the WordPress form builder Ninja Forms and decide which one is the best fit for your project. Let’s get started!

Google Forms vs Ninja Forms (Which is better?)

Before you start building your form, you need to ask yourself questions such as who will be your target audience and what will be the use case of the form. This will help you determine what solution is the right choice for you.

Anyone, who needs a free solution for online forms but doesn’t expect a high level of flexibility when it comes to customization and advanced features to collect data can use Google Forms.

Did you know Google Forms started as a feature of Google Sheets in 2008? Nowadays, it is the most popular free online tool that allows you to create forms, surveys, quizzes, and ask questions to students, employees, or clients. Additionally, a great plus of Google Forms is that you don’t need to be tech-savvy to know how to use this tool.

Who uses Google Forms?

Google Forms enjoys popularity mostly among the students who create and analyze surveys and summarize these results with charts and graphs. Teachers use Google Forms to track class attendance, create lessons plans, polls, quizzes, and subsequently grade their students. Some companies use Google Forms to streamline processes for the operations departments when collecting employees’ feedback, evaluation, or timesheets.

Google Forms and Ninja Forms Comparison

While Google Forms might be an excellent choice for basic use, someone might find it very limiting as it comes with significant drawbacks. Here are some of the disadvantages of Google Forms to keep in mind if you choose it as your form-building tool (and how Ninja Forms does it better). 😉

1. You need a Google account.
You can’t create Google Forms without an existing Google account. Therefore, your Google Forms are only as secure as your Google Account credentials. You want to make sure to create a strong password and protect it to increase the security of your account.

2. The form and submissions are stored on Google servers.
For this reason, if you want to integrate Google Forms with WordPress and other platforms, you have to embed the external code for Google Forms. This leads to additional page load time each time the form has to load from the server. Not so great for SEO.

3. Uploading files to Google Forms
File upload limitations are probably the biggest turn-off of Google Forms. This web-based app lets you upload only one file at a time. Uploaded files go to Google Drive only, so you want to make sure you have enough storage. Also, if you want to upload file types other than the ones allowed in Google Forms, it is not possible. Other limitations are that it accepts texts up to 500 Kb, images up to 2 Mb, and for spreadsheets, the limit is 256 cells or 40 sheets.

Ninja Forms:  While uploading files in Google Forms is not such a delight, using our File Uploads add-on gives you incredible flexibility. There is no wonder why is the user’s most favorite add-on! With a single file upload field, you can upload multiple files,  save files to a server or cloud storage service, or limit the number, type, or size of the files.

4. Limited conditional logic.
Basic conditional logic options work for simple tasks but not for more complex needs. Google Forms does not support dynamic calculations to calculate your total amount based on user selection on the form.

Ninja Forms:  There are plenty of use cases with Conditional Logic add-on on your WordPress forms. You can build dynamic forms that can change as a user fills out the form. You can also show or hide fields, send conditional emails based on the user’s selection on the form, create dynamic calculations, or redirect to one of many pages.

5. Google Forms can’t accept payments.
If you would like to accept payments on your form, you have to link to a third-party website to make a payment, make users pay ahead, or find an add-on to be able to accept payments.

Ninja Forms: Our official payment gateway integrations let users accept payments or donations securely without breaking a bank. You can choose from PayPal Express, Elavon, Stripe, Authorize.net, and Recurly. These last three allow subscriptions and recurring payments too.

6. Limiting responses
If you want to limit responses to one per user, you can’t do so, unless the user is signed into his Google account. You can’t restrict the number of submissions per individual form either. Not so great.

Ninja Forms: Unlike Google Forms, you can limit the number of submissions and allow only certain people to submit your form. You can also limit responses to one per user.

7. Design/styling drawbacks.
There are limited design/styling customizations in Google Forms such as typography, color, layout, and theme. Using the default look of your form might look very unprofessional, which can lead to a low completion rate.

Ninja Forms: Unlike Google Forms, Ninja Forms adds very little styling of its own by default. If you built your website with WordPress, you’ll appreciate the fact your forms created with Ninja Forms will match your page aesthetically.

It is because Ninja Forms inherits the style of your WordPress theme. You can additionally tweak the design of your form using our Layout & Styles add-on without digging into coding. We can’t say the same about Google Forms as just one peek at the HTML structure will tell you that you don’t want to go that direction.

8. Email limit for notifications
Your email responses are limited to 20 form responses per day with the free edition. When you reach your daily email limit, the email notifications will be suspended until Google resets your limit within 24 hours. You can increase your email sending limit by upgrading to the Premium version. The price varies depending on the type of Google Account.

Ninja Forms: Multiple form autoresponders is a free feature. You can create as many email notifications as you like. There is no daily limit to sending these notifications. Check our Sending an Email guide to learn more about how to send an email notification.

9. Missing option to redirect to specific URL
Google Forms doesn’t offer a feature to instantly redirect your visitors after they submit the form. If you want to redirect visitors to a custom URL via Google Forms, you have to add a link to the page on the confirmation section.

Ninja Forms: You can redirect your visitors to a specific URL in a matter of seconds. This option is a free feature and is super simple and easy to set up. This is a great way to connect with that site visitor and encourage them to take even more action. Here is a quick tutorial on how to set up a thank you page redirect when using Ninja Forms.

Ninja Forms: Best Google Forms alternative for WordPress

If you are looking for a more powerful form builder solution that does not come with the drawbacks above, the Ninja Forms core plugin can fill your needs.

Ninja Forms is a 100% beginner-friendly WordPress drag and drop form builder that is easy to use thanks to its intuitive form building interface. The Ninja Forms core is completely free, but you can also connect with plenty of premium integrations with third-party apps you love!

Additional free Ninja Forms features

Ninja Forms is packed with plenty of free awesome features that beat not just Google Forms but also any other WordPress form builders. Here are some additional free features of Ninja Forms that we have not mentioned above:

Unlimited forms + unlimited entries.
You can create an unlimited number of forms and receive an unlimited number of entries. You have access to view submissions directly from your WordPress dashboard. There are absolutely no limitations in viewing submissions in the free version of Ninja Forms.

Dynamic calculations.
The Calculations feature lets you perform calculations based on values you assign to individual fields on your forms. For example, you can create a multiple-choice quiz or calculate the total amount on your payment form. Learn more about calculations.

Spam management for extra security
Ninja Forms already comes with a honeypot. It is an invisible blank form field included in every form you build with Ninja Forms. Spambots unaware of this unique, blank form field will complete this field thinking it is a valid field. Submission of values in this field will cause the form submission to fail.

Ninja Forms also supports Google’s reCAPTCHA v2. and reCAPTCHA v3. Learn the difference between both of them, and find out, which version of reCAPTCHA should you use.

Check our comparison of Top WordPress plugins to find out why Ninja Forms excels among other WordPress form builders, especially when it comes to free features!

Upload files, tweak the style of your form, or create a payment form

Ninja Forms is a stellar freemium WordPress plugin, but the premium options make it way more powerful.  It is even the only plugin that lets you purchase individual add-ons. You also have the option to choose from three different membership plans.

Altogether, there are 42 available add-ons offering tools for marketing, CRM, payments, and much more! One of the most popular add-ons is the File Uploads add-on. It allows you to upload multiple files at the same time and send files over to Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3. You can also restrict the number of uploaded files or specific file types, and even set the maximum size of the file. Want to learn more about the functionality of this add-on? Check our Complete guide to adding the file upload field to your form.

Another add-on you’ll appreciate is Layout & Styles that lets you tweak the appearance of your form. Styling your form is critical as it impacts the overall user experience. If you want to improve your styling and increase your form completion ratio, check our guide on how to style your forms.

Having a payment form is essential if you are selling products or services on your website. With Ninja Forms, you can securely accept payments and donations using one of the following add-ons: PayPal Express, Elavon, Stripe, Recurly, or Authorize.net.

Google Forms vs Ninja Forms: A final verdict

In conclusion, Google Forms are a great free option to create simple online forms. They are easy to use, and it only takes a few minutes to create a survey or questionnaire. So, if you are looking to quickly collect the data such as name and email, ask a question, or create a simple quiz, Google Forms will meet your needs. But, with its limited functionalities, few integrations with third parties, and styling, you’ll be much better off using the Ninja Forms plugin.

With Ninja Forms, you can create all kinds of advanced forms ranging from signup forms, contact forms, surveys, payment forms, and more. The best part? The core is free and packed with plenty of features! And if you decide you want to take your form to the next level, we offer integrations with your favorite apps that are fully compatible with Ninja Forms!

That’s it! We hope you enjoyed reading our article on Google Forms vs. Ninja Forms, and you now feel more confident to select your next form builder for your project. Any thoughts? Leave us a comment below!