If the goal is a free survey builder that will not stop collecting halfway through, the shortlist is short. Tally and SurveyHero both list unlimited responses on their free plans, and Microsoft Forms is effectively unlimited when used with a work or school account. Every other free tier in this comparison caps something that a real survey will hit: responses per month, responses per survey, questions per survey, or the ability to take the data out. The table and notes below were checked against each vendor's own pricing or help pages on October 8, 2026.
The features list will not separate these tools. All of them build multiple choice questions, share a link and draw a chart. What separates them is what each free tier counts, what happens when the count runs out, and whether the answers can leave the tool as a spreadsheet.
Free tiers side by side
| Tool and free plan | Responses | Questions per survey | Surveys or forms | Users | Export of raw responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tally, Free | Unlimited, within fair use | Not capped on the pricing page | Unlimited | Team workspaces are a Pro feature | Google Sheets integration on free |
| SurveyHero, Basic | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited, each open up to 30 days | 1 | Excel and CSV export not on Basic |
| Microsoft Forms, free personal account | 200 per form | Up to 200 | Up to 400, recycle bin included | Per account | Not covered on the limits page |
| Microsoft Forms, work or school | Up to 5,000,000 per form | Up to 200 | Up to 400, recycle bin included | Per account | Not covered on the limits page |
| Jotform, Starter | 100 per month, 500 stored in total | 100 fields per form | 5 | 1 | Available, see storage note |
| Zoho Survey, Free | 100 per survey | 10 | Unlimited | Not stated on the summary table | Check the full comparison |
| SurveyMonkey, Basic | Limited, exact figure shown after sign in | 10 | Unlimited | 1 | Data exports listed from Standard |
Google Forms is left out of the table because Google does not publish a free tier comparison in the same form. Its help pages confirm that responses can be stored in a linked Google Sheets spreadsheet, either a new one or an existing one, and that file upload questions need extra care, covered below.
Two cells deserve a note. SurveyMonkey's pricing page does not print the Basic response figure; it says "Sign up or log in to see exact response amounts for Basic plans." And for Jotform, "available" export comes with a storage rule that changes the meaning of the word, explained in the export section.
Four ways a free tier counts responses
A response cap is not one kind of number. The same figure behaves very differently depending on what it is counted against.
Per month, across the whole account
Jotform's Starter plan allows 100 monthly submissions across all forms in the account. The counter resets each month. A survey that runs for a single busy week can use the entire allowance, and a second form running at the same time draws from the same pool.
In total, across the whole account
Jotform also caps total submission storage at 500 on Starter. This one does not reset. A form that collects 90 responses a month stays inside the monthly limit and still reaches the storage ceiling in about six months. The pricing page FAQ states what happens next: when total submission storage is exceeded, the system deletes the oldest form response to make room for new ones. Downloading old submissions and purging them is the suggested way to avoid losing data.
Per survey
Zoho Survey's free plan allows 100 responses per survey with unlimited surveys. That suits several small surveys better than one large one. Splitting a big audience across copies of the same survey is possible but leaves the data in pieces.
Per account type
Microsoft Forms is the clearest case of the same product carrying very different limits. Microsoft's limits page lists up to 5,000,000 responses per form in general, and then adds that for a personal account (Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com) the figure is up to 200 for free accounts and up to 1,000 for paid accounts. The interface looks identical in both cases. Advice about Microsoft Forms limits is only reliable if it names the account type.
Per time window
SurveyHero's Basic plan lists unlimited responses, unlimited questions and unlimited surveys, with one condition: each survey can run for up to 30 days. Paid plans remove the time limit. For a one-off event feedback survey, 30 days is plenty. For an always-on feedback form, it is not.
Getting the data out
Export is the rule worth checking before the link goes out, because it cannot be fixed after people have answered.
On SurveyMonkey, the individual plans page lists "Data exports" in the Standard plan's features, not in Basic. Basic also shows a limited number of responses per survey. Responses can be collected; viewing all of them and taking them out as a file is what the paid plans add.
On SurveyHero, the feature comparison marks "Export as Excel or CSV (compatible with SPSS)" and "Download charts and graphs" as not included on Basic. The questionnaire itself can be exported to a print-ready PDF on every plan, but that is the blank survey, not the answers.
On Tally, the free plan lists a Google Sheets integration, along with Notion, Airtable, Zapier, Make and webhooks. Responses can flow out to a spreadsheet as they arrive, which is often more useful than a one-time export.
On Google Forms, the help page "Choose where to save form responses" describes linking a form to a new or existing spreadsheet. Form collaborators get access to a newly created response sheet automatically, and the sheet is a separate file in Google Drive, so deleting the form does not delete the sheet.
On Jotform, export exists, but the 500 total storage limit and the delete-oldest rule mean that a long-running free form needs regular downloads. Treat the export as a scheduled task, not an option.
A tool that lets the raw data out on its free tier is one where the responses stay usable if the survey later moves elsewhere. A tool that keeps them in is one where switching means rerunning the survey, and the people who already answered rarely answer twice.
Limits that sit outside the response count
Several rules change what a free survey can ask or who can answer, and none of them shows up in the response figure.
Question caps narrow the survey quietly. SurveyMonkey Basic and Zoho Survey Free both allow 10 questions per survey. That fits a satisfaction check: one rating, one reason, a few segment questions. It does not fit anything diagnostic. Unlike a response cap, a question cap leaves no trace in the results, so readers of the report never see what was cut.
File uploads come with their own rules. Google's help page for file upload questions states that responders need to sign in to a Google Account to answer that question, and that uploaded files are stored in a new folder on the form owner's Google Drive. A survey aimed at the general public loses respondents who do not want to sign in. Tally's free plan includes file uploads with a 10 MB per file limit, which the Pro plan removes. SurveyHero lists respondent file uploads from the Professional plan, not Basic.
Deleted forms may still count. Microsoft notes that the 400 form limit includes forms in the recycle bin. Someone who has built and deleted many forms can hit the ceiling while the portal looks half empty.
One user means one owner. Jotform Starter, SurveyHero Basic and SurveyMonkey Basic are single user plans, and Tally places shared team workspaces on Pro. On a free tier the survey belongs to whoever set it up. When that person is away, the responses are effectively locked with them, and sharing one login to work around it is a poor fit for anything containing personal data.
Branding stays on. Jotform says forms on Starter include Jotform branding. Tally removes its branding on Pro. SurveyHero removes "Powered by SurveyHero" from the Business plan. For an internal survey that is irrelevant. For a survey sent to customers or applicants, another company's name on the page changes how the request reads.
A 15 minute test before sending the link
Running a short test on a candidate tool catches most of these problems before they cost responses.
- Build the real survey, at full length, on the free plan. If the builder refuses a question, the question cap has decided the shortlist.
- Write down the expected number of responses for the busiest week, then check which of the counting methods above applies: per month, total, per survey, per account type or per time window.
- Submit three test responses from a private browser window without signing in to anything. If any question requires a sign in, the public audience will meet the same wall.
- Try to get those three responses out as a spreadsheet. If the export option is greyed out or sits behind an upgrade prompt, assume it will stay there.
- Delete the test responses and note whether the count resets. On a plan with a total storage limit, this tells you whether cleanup frees space.
If the tool passes all five, it is fit for the job. If it fails one, it is cheaper to change tools now than after half the audience has answered.
When a survey tool is the wrong tool
Every limit above concerns collection. None of them concerns what happens after a response arrives, and for many forms that is where the real work is.
A satisfaction survey produces an average. An application form, an enquiry form or an event registration produces a list of individual people, each of whom needs an owner, a status and a reply. Survey tools are built to summarise answers, and teams that use them for intake usually end up exporting to a spreadsheet, adding columns for owner and status by hand, and losing track of which copy is current.
If the responses need replies rather than charts, the questions to ask of a free tool change. Are forms and responses unlimited regardless of volume? Can each response carry an owner, a stage and internal notes? Can the reply be sent from the same screen? Tools built around response management answer those questions directly, and a look at the situations they are built for and what the response screen includes shows quickly whether the work is a survey or a queue.
What to change first
Pick the two tools from the table whose counting method fits your survey, run the 15 minute test on both, and choose the one whose export works on the free plan. If the answers will need replying to rather than counting, look at a form tool that keeps forms and responses unlimited and prices only by the number of people using it, such as Halict.
Q1. Which free survey builder has no response limit?
Tally's free plan lists unlimited forms and submissions within its fair usage guidelines, and SurveyHero's Basic plan lists unlimited responses with each survey open for up to 30 days. Microsoft Forms allows up to 5,000,000 responses per form on work or school accounts, but only 200 on a free personal account.
Q2. Why does Microsoft Forms stop at 200 responses?
The limit depends on the account type. Microsoft's limits page states that personal accounts (Hotmail, Live or Outlook.com) can receive up to 200 responses per form on free accounts and up to 1,000 on paid accounts. Work and school accounts are listed at up to 5,000,000 per form.
Q3. Can survey responses be exported on a free plan?
It depends on the tool. Tally's free plan includes a Google Sheets integration, and Google Forms can save responses to a linked spreadsheet. SurveyHero lists Excel and CSV export from its Professional plan, and SurveyMonkey lists data exports from its Standard plan. Check this before sending the link, because collected responses are hard to move later.
Q4. What happens when a Jotform free account runs out of storage?
Jotform's Starter plan stores up to 500 submissions in total. According to its pricing page FAQ, once total submission storage is exceeded, the oldest form response is deleted to make room for new submissions. Downloading and purging old submissions regularly prevents the loss.
Q5. Is 10 questions enough for a free survey?
For a short satisfaction check with one rating, one open comment and a few segment questions, usually yes. For a survey that needs to explain why a score is what it is, ten questions forces cuts that are invisible in the results. SurveyMonkey Basic and Zoho Survey Free both cap surveys at 10 questions.