Paperform Review 2024: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

One of My Favorite Form Builders, but There’s a Catch

Paperform is a full-featured form builder that’s simple – and enjoyable – to use. With it, you can create forms that look like landing pages and that will work great on mobile and desktop devices.

Big companies like AppSumo, eCoach, and Zapier use Paperform, and if you’re looking to build your business, attract new customers, or just want something different from the traditional form layouts, Paperform could be right for you, too.

It’s not perfect, however. There’s no free plan, which can be a deal-breaker if you’re on a budget. Other form builders, such as JotForm and Cognito Forms have free (although somewhat limited) plans.

You can use Paperform with a 14-day risk-free trial to see if it’s right for you, though.

Paperform supports multiple languages, bu the builder itself is only available in English.

Is Paperform the form builder you’ve been looking for? Does it have all the features you need for your business? Keep reading to find out!

650+ Responsive and Customizable Templates

Paperform has put a lot of effort into its templates – which sets it apart from other form builders. All templates are fully mobile responsive and, since each form has its own URL, they are designed to look more like landing pages than forms.

There are more than 650 form templates to choose from, and they are arranged into categories such as application, booking, assessment, lead generation, membership, payment, enrollment forms – and many more.

As well as business-focused templates, Paperform has some personal/just-for-fun templates, such as the What’s Your Dragon Name Quiz, the Personality Quiz, and wedding invitation templates.

You can search for specific form templates and preview a template by clicking on the name before you decide to use it. All form templates are really easy to customize, so you can add/remove form fields, edit the text, and change the appearance of the form in the editor.

Paperform’s Features Don’t Disappoint

On all plans, you’re able to create unlimited forms, and Paperform offers over 28 question types (or, as other form builders call them, form fields). These include:

• Scales – so you can ask your customers questions about how likely they are to recommend you to others
• Matrix – present multiple questions in a grid, perfect for feedback, performance assessments and brand comparison forms.
• Product – sell your products without needing an full ecommerce store
• Signature – to gather a signature without requiring a paper form
• Subscription – to get email addresses to send out newsletters or coupons or other offers
• File upload – so visitors can provide more information than they can put in a form

Paperform offers different ways of sharing your forms. You can use a subdomain (e.g., yourbusiness.paperform.co) to share your form via email or social media, or embed your form in your existing website using code that Paperform generates for you. Just copy and paste the code into your website.

Conditional Logic

Conditional logic allows you to dynamically customize the form experience based on your respondents’ answers – no code required. Show and hide individual questions or whole sections of content based on the defined logic improving your customers’ experience.Paperform calls the feature “question visibility logic,” and it’s found in the Configure popup for each question. By setting conditions for when certain questions will/will not be displayed, customers won’t have to answer questions that aren’t relevant to them.

Payments and Subscriptions

Many form builders have payment integrations – but Paperform takes it a step further and allows you to offer subscription packages (like hugely popular subscription boxes) in multiple currencies, via your forms. You can also accept donations via your forms. Paperform supports several payment options, including Stripe, PayPal Business, Square, and Braintree. With Paperform, your forms can be set up as smart ecommerce forms with features like custom pricing rules, the ability to add taxes, accept coupons and even automate receipts.

Integrations

All Paperform plans allow you to use direction integrations, Webhooks, Zapier, and more to streamline your business. With Zapier, you can connect to over 3,000 third-party apps to create automatic actions.

Direct integrations allow you to connect your Paperform account to third-party apps and software such as Asana, Google Sheets, and ConvertKit to perform automatic functions when a form is submitted. For example, when a particular form is submitted, you can set up a direct integration with Google Sheets to create a new row in your customer spreadsheet.

Direct Integrations have no additional fees or charges, so you’ll just pay your Paperform subscription fee as usual.

Simple Editor That Works like a Word Processor Doc

Paperform couldn’t be easier to use. It’s as user-friendly as its biggest competitor, JotForm, and if you’re a complete beginner, you’ll have no trouble building your first form. The downside is, if you’re not a beginner, you could find Paperform too simple! For example, if you’re used to having lots of settings for each form field or prefer an editor with side panels for different options, using Paperform could actually become frustrating.

Interactive Walkthrough

One thing I love about Paperform is its guided, interactive walkthrough. When you create your first form, you’ll see a popup box welcoming you to the editor and offering a walkthrough. You can, of course, skip it, but it’s a great way of getting to know the Paperform editor – especially if you’re a beginner.

Super-Simple Editor

Paperform has created an editor that works like a word processor document – kind of. Actually, it looks more like WordPress’s new Gutenberg editor, so it’s even easier than typing a document in a word processor.

Essentially, you can just click and type to create a new question – which is virtually foolproof. You can change the question type using the drop-down menu on the right of the field you’re typing in. Ultimately, Paperform is so simple to use, my 76-year-old mother could build a form with it!

Easy On/Off Toggles for Settings

Paperform calls its settings area Configure. Here you can set up things like payments and form behavior and link your form to Google Analytics. What makes the configuration screens so simple is that it’s mostly toggle switches. Just click the toggle slider to turn a setting on or off. Your changes are automatically saved so you don’t even have to click Save or Apply.

Building a Form with Paperform

Like I said in the intro, Paperform is incredibly user-friendly. In the editor, there are no toolbars or sidebars where you have to select form fields. Instead, you just type in the white space. Then, you select the type of question.

After you click in the white space on your form and start typing, you’ll see little grey icons on the left-hand side of your new paragraph – these allow you to add videos, images, a page break, and new questions. No complicated navigation menus. No searching for settings. If you want to configure the questions on your form, click the grey gear icon on the right.

When you’re in the Configure sections, you’ll find tooltips to help you understand the different features, so you don’t even have to know what you’re doing to be able to create forms with Paperform.

Paperform is based in Sydney, Australia, so its support hours can be a little complicated due to time zone differences. If you are in the US, Paperform says that you should be able to get live chat or email support between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. (though it doesn’t specify which US time zone that’s for). Live chat does have a bot feature, though, so it’s still available when Paperform’s support team isn’t.

When you use live chat outside of Paperform’s business hours, you’ll get an automated message and will have to wait for an email response. Paperform aims to respond within 24 hours.

Paperform has three pricing plans – Essentials, Pro, and Agency. As I mentioned in the overview, there’s no free plan, just a 14-day free trial (no credit card required). You can pay for your Paperform subscription monthly or annually, and all major credit cards are accepted.

If you need to upgrade to a higher plan or downgrade to a lower plan, you can do this easily, and you’re also able to cancel your account at any time via your dashboard (under billing). Paperform doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee.

All plans, except for Essentials, grant you the benefit of unlimited form views and submissions per month, while also providing the option to eliminate Paperform branding from your forms. In comparison to the other plans, the Essentials plan holds a relatively limited scope; nevertheless, it serves as an ideal starting point with the possibility of future upgrades.