If you’ve been googling this, then you already know the problem. Google Forms is great for collecting responses quickly, but not so great when it comes to design and customization.
In this post, we’ll show you what is (and isn’t) possible when customizing a Google Form. We’ll also introduce you to Tally, a modern form builder that gives you a lot more control, for free.
Try out Tally, it’s free →
What You Can Customize in Google Forms
Google Forms includes a few basic design options:
- Theme color
- Background color
- A choice of four font styles
- Header image
These can help a little, but the result still looks like a standard Google Form. If you want your form to stand out or reflect your brand, these options don’t go very far.
What You Can’t Customize in Google Forms
Once you want to go beyond the basics, the limitations become clear. For example, Google Forms does not let you:
- Use custom fonts or layouts
- Change the style or position of buttons
- Remove Google branding
- Add images, icons, or custom sections throughout the form
- Apply conditional logic beyond simple branching
- Add advanced input types or calculations
- Embed custom HTML
If you’re trying to build a form that looks polished and professional, or one that matches your website or brand identity, you’ll probably hit a wall pretty quickly.
Looking for More Control? Try Tally (It’s Free)
This is where Tally comes in. Tally is a modern alternative to Google Forms that gives you more freedom in both design and functionality, with a simple and fast interface.
You can build fully customized forms with:
✅ Your own fonts, colors, and layout
✅ Multi-page or multi-step form structures
✅ Embedded images, videos, logos, or icons
✅ Smart logic to show or hide content based on answers
✅ Calculated fields, hidden fields, and conditional redirect
✅ Custom thank-you pages
Tally forms are built using a Notion-style editor. That means no coding, no complex setup, just a clean editor that helps you work fast.
How do Tally and Google Forms compare?
Features | Tally | Google Forms |
Unlimited forms | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Unlimited responses | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Unlimited questions | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Multi-page forms | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Column layout | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Form design (font, colors, background) | ✅ Free | ✅ Free to change font and background color |
Add a logo or cover image | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Text formatting | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Form templates | ✅ Free | ✅ Free for limited options |
Embed images and video | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Embed audio, maps, online files & more | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Embed forms online | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Close forms on limit or date | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Prevent duplicate submissions | ✅ Free | ✅ Free, but respondents must sign in to Google |
Receive file uploads | ✅ Free for 10MB/file | ✅ Free |
Conditional logic | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Accept payments | ✅ Free with 5% commission | ❌ |
Answer piping | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Hidden fields | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Calculations | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Custom Thank You screens | ✅ Free | ✅ Free, single message without design options |
Multiple language support | ✅ Free | ❌ |
RTL (right-to-left) support | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Redirect on completion | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Self email notifications | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Respondent email notifications | ✅ $29/mo | ✅ Free, but not customizable |
Send email notifications from a custom domain | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
reCAPTCHA | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Two-factor authentication (2FA) | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Password-protected forms | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Country detection | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Email verification | ✅ $89/mo | ✅ Free, requires Google sign-in and limits to 1 response |
Airtable integration | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Make integration | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Notion integration | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Slack integration | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Webhooks | ✅ Free | ❌ |
API access | ✅ Free | ✅ Included with Google Workspace with usage quotas |
Zapier integration | ✅ Free | ✅ Free |
Google Analytics integration | ✅ $29/mo | ✅ Free |
Meta Pixel integration | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Removal of branding | ✅ $29/mo) | ❌ |
Custom domains | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Custom link preview | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Code injection | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Unlimited file uploads | ✅ $29/mo | ✅ By purchasing additional storage |
No commission on payments | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ No built-in payments |
Team collaboration | ✅ $29/mo — unlimited | ✅ Free |
Workspaces | ✅ $29/mo | ✅ Free |
Custom CSS | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Partial submissions | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Submissions data retention | ✅ $89/mo | ✅ $21.60/mo |
Form visit analytics | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Drop-off analytics | ✅ $29/mo | ❌ |
Form version history | ✅ Free | ❌ |
Why choose Tally over Google Forms?
Tally
Tally offers unlimited forms and responses for free. However, Tally includes most of its advanced features at no cost, allowing you to create and share professional forms with greater capabilities than Google Forms.
For additional business features like team workspaces or advanced customization, Tally Pro is available for $29/month. If you need email verification or submissions data retention control, Tally Business covers it for $89/month.
Google Forms
Google Forms is free for unlimited forms and responses, similar to Tally. However, it’s part of the Google Suite and requires a Google account.
Upgrading to a paid Google Workspace plan increases file upload storage and gives access to online support. But, unlike Tally’s Pro plan, the upgrades don’t unlock any additional form features.
Tally
Tally's editor is simple and intuitive. To insert content blocks, you can type or select from our quick block insert menu.
You can then drag and drop any content blocks, easily creating multi-column layouts and reordering elements. If you're familiar with Notion, you'll feel right at home with the Tally editor.
Google Forms
Google Forms has a straightforward but slightly dated interface. You can click to insert new question blocks or rearrange their order.
However, the layout options are limited for anything beyond basic forms. You can't create multi-column designs or significantly change the form's structure besides adding section breaks.
Tally
We've built Tally to be both accessible and powerful, even on the free plan. Easily create sophisticated forms with advanced logic, calculated fields, and custom ending screens.
Our free plan includes everything for professional forms, including duplicate submission prevention. If you need more, our Pro plan adds features like custom CSS, custom domains, and team workspaces.
Google Forms
Google Forms offers a solid foundation for basic surveys but falls short if you need more advanced functionality.
Features like accepting payments, answer piping, or embedding online content are unavailable. Google Forms does offer duplicate submission prevention, but respondents need to sign in to Google, which may deter some users.
Do more with Tally
You'll find that even upgrading to a paid Google Workspace account doesn't give you more form features, just more storage and direct customer support. Tally, on the other hand, offers more advanced features—and for free. If you need that little bit extra, you can upgrade to unlock even more. Here are just some of the features Tally offers:
Single and multi-page forms
Create single-page, multi-page, or mixed forms—the choice is yours!
Accept payments
Sell products and services directly through your Tally forms.
Embed online content
Embed YouTube, Calendly, Maps, and more for interactive forms.
Templates designed for you
Start from scratch or explore templates specifically created for your use case.
FAQs
Are Google Forms free?
Google Forms is completely free to use and comes bundled with every Google account. There are no limits on the number of forms you can create or responses you can collect. However, you need to upgrade to a paid Google Workspace plan for additional storage (useful for file uploads) or access to direct customer support.
Can anyone use Google Forms?
Anyone with a Google account can use Google Forms. The form builder is user-friendly and accessible for individuals, students, educators, and professionals. However, if you’re looking for more advanced features or customization, you might find Google Forms limiting compared to dedicated form builders like Tally.
Can I use Google Forms for large-scale projects?
While Google Forms allows unlimited responses, it may not be the best choice for very large-scale projects. It offers basic data collection and analysis tools but, at the same time, lacks advanced features to manage and process large data volumes. For extensive projects, you might need to export data to other tools.
Can I embed content on Google Forms?
You can embed images and YouTube videos in your Google Forms. However, you can't embed audio files, PDFs, maps, Calendly widgets, or other types of rich media content that would make your forms more interactive.
Does Google Forms provide customer support?
Google Forms offers self-help resources and community forums for free users. Direct customer support is only available for paid Google Workspace customers. If you're using the free version, you'll need to rely on Google's help documentation and user communities for assistance.
Can I use Google Forms to schedule appointments?
Google Forms doesn't have built-in appointment scheduling functionality. While you can create a form to collect availability preferences, it doesn't automatically sync with calendars or manage time slots. You also can’t embed schedule widgets like Calendly.
Do Google Forms grade quizzes?
Yes, Google Forms has a built-in quiz feature that can automatically grade multiple-choice and checkbox questions. It can provide immediate feedback to respondents and collect scores. However, it's limited when it comes to more complex grading or a custom ending screen.
