A free Cognito Forms alternative with no monthly entry cap
Cognito Forms' free plan gives you 100 entries a month; past that it keeps collecting but locks the extra entries until you upgrade. PuckSurveys is free with unlimited responses that are always yours to see, and it captures how sure people were, not just what they picked.
Cognito Forms is a capable, feature-rich form builder, and its free plan even includes advanced tools like conditional logic, calculations, and payment collection, but it's throttled on volume: you get 100 entries a month, and once you pass that the form keeps collecting but locks the extra entries: you can't see them until you upgrade (Pro is $19 a month, billed annually), and if you don't upgrade within 30 days you lose access to them for good. For an occasional survey, a class project, a side project, or a small team that just wants to ask a few good questions and keep the answers, 100 a month runs out fast. PuckSurveys is free, with unlimited responses and the full results dashboard included. Every answer is given by sliding a puck, which captures how sure the person was, not just what they chose. If it earns its keep you can chip in for the servers, but the survey, the responses, and the insights stay free.
| PuckSurveys | Cognito Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, free | Yes, but capped |
| Free responses | Unlimited, always visible | 100 a month; extra entries are locked until you upgrade |
| Forms you can build | Unlimited, free | Unlimited |
| Confidence on each answer | Yes, the puck | No |
| Replay of how people answered | Yes | No |
| Question types | Puck questions, multiple choice, and select-multiple, mixed in one survey | Many field types |
| Sells your data / ads | Never | No (but check their terms) |
| Cost | Free; optional tip | Free plan: 100 entries/mo, then extra entries locked until upgrade; paid from $19/mo (billed annually) |
Why people switch
- No monthly entry cap. Cognito's free plan only lets you see 100 entries a month, then locks the rest until you pay; here every response is unlimited, free, and always visible, with nothing to run out.
- Your extra answers don't get locked away. Past 100 a month Cognito keeps collecting but locks the overflow until you upgrade, and drops it if you don't; here there's no monthly ceiling and every response stays yours to see.
- You see hesitation, not just choices. Sliding a puck between No and Yes records how sure someone was on every answer, a signal Cognito Forms doesn't capture.
- Nothing to unlock, nothing to run out. The full dashboard, the conviction on each answer, the answer replay, and free CSV export are all included, free, with no volume cap to hit.
When Cognito Forms is the better choice (we'll say it, and mean it):
Cognito Forms is a genuinely powerful form builder for the money, and its real strength is a feature-rich free tier. Conditional logic, calculations, repeating sections and tables, and built-in payment collection through Stripe, Square, and PayPal are genuinely their advantage, and they're available even on the free plan, so what you give up on free is volume, not tools. If you need to build a real data-collection form with logic, math, and payments, and 100 entries a month is enough for you, Cognito's free plan is a strong offer. We are for the everyday survey where you want a better answering experience, no cap, and the conviction behind each answer, free. If you need a full-featured form-and-payment builder, that is them. If you want richer answers with no limits and no bill, that's us.
Competitor details as of September 2026, taken from their public pricing pages. Check theirs for the latest.