Google Forms & SurveyMonkey Comparison and Analysis

Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are both very popular and convenient online survey tools. Each of them has different features, integration capabilities, and customization options. In this article, we are going to look into the pros and cons of each. Here, we will demonstrate the comparison and analysis of both tools.

Is Google Forms better than SurveyMonkey?

Google Forms and SurveyMonkey are both very good online survey tools with millions of users. They do differ by features and options available. It is hard to decide which one of them is better. The answer to this question depends on your requirements about what kind of form you are trying to make.
Before we decide which one of the 2 tools is better, let’s have a look at the creation of a Google Form and a Survey through SurveyMonkey.  

How to Create a Google Form

You can create a Google Form by going to Google Form’s website.

Now as you can see, there are buttons that say “Go to forms”. There are two of them, click on either one of them to create the Google Form.

Now, on this screen, you can see your forms that you’ve made already. Or you can select from one of the templates provided by Google. There are some very nice templates. You can select one of the provided templates and edit it to your liking.

However, we will be starting a completely new form and will make it from the blank.
Click on “Blank” as:

Here is the blank body of our new form.

Now let’s finalize the form by adding a title, description, and some questions, etc.

With these simple steps, our form is ready using Google Forms.

How to Create a SurveyMonkey Form

In order to create a MonkeySurvey, we need to create an account on MonkeySurvey first just as we did with the Google Forms.
Go to the “MonkeySurvey” website.
Once you’re on the website, click “get started” as displayed below:

You will be prompted to the sign up page.
Now here you’ve two options.
1. Login to an existing account.
2. Sign up. 

You can sign up using one of the accounts on Microsoft, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, or Apple if you already have. Or you can create an account on MonkeySurvey.
Let’s create an account on MonkeySurvey.
Enter the email address, check terms of use, and click on “Next” as:

Now is the time for providing the password of the account. Type in password in both fields and click on “Create Account”. SurveyMonkey has some instructions for the password like, using a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.
 

Time to get started. So here we have two options.
1. Start from scratch
That means creating a blank form (as we used earlier in Google Forms)
2. Use Starter Survey
Use MonkeySurvey’s starter survey. It will have a few questions which we can edit and start adding out content.

Additionally, there are some free templates that you can use from the website. We also checked out the sample templates in Google Forms. Here is how the samples of SurveyMonkey looks like:

Alright, let’s start with a blank survey.

Now you will get a pop-up screen. It asks for Survey name, Category, and Advanced settings to copy questions from a document. You may also notice the sentence, “Does your survey need to be HIPAA compliant?”.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal law that requires the creation of national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.

 
Now let’s fill in the required information and click on “Create Survey”. Let’s keep it the same as our Google Form so we can actually see the difference.

We could also choose to copy questions and answers from a document which we did not have, in our case. Here is the blank form.

Now let’s start by adding some questions to the survey.
Enter the question title in the designated field.

Now as you may have noticed, “Answer Genius” is toggled on. That means specifying the type of answers without manually. Let’s look at the type by clicking on the drop-down button.
 

There are so many options to choose from. That helps with saving time but unfortunately our question doesn’t fit in any of these categories. So we won’t select anything from here.

Now, add all the required options and click on “Save” as:

If you require options like “Other” and “None of the Above” in your questions, you can also add them automatically by checking the respective box as you see in the screenshot above.
Now add more questions by clicking on “next question”. If you’re done with the form, click “Done” as:

I am finishing it here. So click “Done”. 

Preview the MonkeySurvey

Now the next part is “Preview & Score”. Click on “Next” at the top right of the screen to go to the next section.

 

Here is the preview. You can change the view by device by clicking on the tab or mobile option at the bottom left of the screen. 

Once you’re done with the above, click “next” to go next section which is “Collecting responses”

Send Monkey Survey

As we would send our Google Form using many of the options available. Here, we have two options.
1. Send  the survey.
That means sharing the survey by email, link on the different social medias, or embed on the website.
2. Target your ideal respondents.
That means buying responses from the right demographics on SurveyMonkey’s global survey panel.
I will go for the free option and send the survey to my desired respondents.

Now here are a number of ways you can share your survey.
1. Share survey link
2. Post on social media
3. Send by text
4. Buy responses
5. Send by Email
6. Embed on a site
7. Embed on a mobile app
8. Add data manually
9. Use kiosk mode
Kiosk mode means to run a survey in a loop and turn your tablet or mobile device in a survey station on the SurveyMonkey Anywhere app.
Option 4 to 9 are all paid options.
I will go with “Share Survey link” as:

Now click on the copy button and share it as you like.

Analyze Results in Monkey Survey

Let’s check out the next section “Analyze Results”.

The Analyze results section has 3 sub-sections.
Summary shows the responses summarized. It shows it in the form of a bar. Google Forms response summary is in the form of a pie chart which is much more convenient for viewing results, in my opinion.

Insights and Data Trends in Survey Monkey

Let’s have a look at “Insights and data trends” now.
It shows insights like how much time respondents are typically taking in filling the form. And Trends show when form is being filled. We don’t have much data here as our form is quite new.

Now let’s look into “individual results”. This shows the individual responses. You can see each response by clicking the arrow button. 

Now that we are done with our form, let’s discuss some key differences that will help us answer which one of these tools is the better one. 

Key Differences between Survey Monkey and Google Forms

1. Pricing
   Google Forms are completely free to use for everyone. Be it an individual or businesses, as long as you’ve a Google account, Google Forms are free to use. SurveyMonkey offers both free and paid plans. 
2. User Interface
   SurveyMonkey provides a more advanced and attractive user interface however Google Form’s interface is quite simple and clean and provides a better usability for new users.
3. Design and branding
   SurveyMonkey allows a lot of customization options like adding a logo, changing colors to match your brand. Google Forms also has customization options but they are limited compared to SurveyMonkey. 
4. Question Types and Customization
   SurveyMonkey offers a big range of question types, including multiple choice, open-ended, rating scales, and more. It also provides advanced customization options, such as skip logic. Google Forms also has some basic question types and customization options but compared to SurveyMonkey, they are quite limited.
5. Integrations
   Google Form has a big advantage in terms of integration with other Google products in the Google ecosystem. This makes it easier for data collection, storage, and analysis. SurveyMonkey offers integration with several third-party platforms but compared to Google ecosystem that’s quite limited. 
6. Data Analysis and reporting
   SurveyMonkey provides detailed data analysis and reporting features such as summary reports, advanced filtering options, and cross-tabulation. Google Forms offer basic analysis options but for advanced analysis you may have to move data to other products like Google sheets. 

Overall, both the tools are one of the best tools in the field of survey and form making. It is all about individual choices and requirements to decide which one is a better choice for the user.

Things To Remember

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the pros and cons about Google Forms and SurveyMonkey. We discussed that it is all upon user requirements to decide which of the 2 tools is better for a specific survey. Google Forms is a simple, easy-to-use, Google Ecosystem providing tool. While SurveyMonkey has an attractive interface, having more customization in terms of Question Types and designing, etc. 

In this article, we compared the Google Forms and Survey Monkey by the means of following:

• Create a Google Form
• Create a SurveyMonkey Form
• Preview the MonkeySurvey
  Send Monkey Survey
• Analyze Results in Monkey Survey
• Insights and Data Trends in Survey Monkey
• Key Differences

Thanks for reading!