Jotform, Tally and Typeform ranked for Shopify stores: the one for custom orders, wholesale applications and signed agreements, the free one for contact and waitlist forms, and the one for product-finder quizzes that convert.
Shopify sells products. It does not collect the things around a product: the measurements for a custom order, the tax ID on a wholesale application, the photo of the item a customer wants repaired, the answers that tell a first-time visitor which of your forty products fits them. Those are forms, and Shopify's built-in contact form does not do any of them. This list ranks the three form builders we have verified on those jobs, and the right one depends on which job you have. Prices are monthly billing at the time of verification (2026-09-09), except where a vendor only publishes annual pricing.
How to choose
Name the form first. A store usually needs one of three: an intake form that collects details, files and sometimes a deposit before an order is made; a capture form that collects an email for a waitlist, a restock alert or a wholesale enquiry; or a quiz that asks a few questions and recommends a product. The first needs payments, uploads and often a signature. The second needs to be free and to push the address into your email tool. The third needs a layout that people finish. Then count submissions a month, because the free tiers differ by a factor of ten and the caps decide the bill. The form builder buying criteria cover integrations and data handling; the form builder for payments guide goes deeper on the intake case.
The picks in depth
Jotform is the intake tool. Payments run through the major gateways, and file uploads, conditional logic, e-signatures, PDF generation from submissions and approval workflows are all native rather than add-ons, so a custom-order form can collect the specification, the photo, the deposit and the signed agreement in one pass, then route the order to whoever makes it. A wholesale application can collect the business details and a resale certificate, then wait for your approval before the customer hears back. The free Starter plan allows 5 forms, 100 submissions, 10 payment submissions and 10 signed documents a month. Bronze is $39 ($34 annual) for 25 forms and 1,000 submissions; Silver is $49 ($39 annual) for 2,500; Gold is $129 ($99 annual) for 10,000. The caps are hard, the interface is busy, and every tier is single-user until Enterprise. Choose Jotform for custom orders, wholesale, repairs, returns with photos and anything that needs a signature. Skip it for a plain contact or waitlist form; you would be paying $39 for a free tool's job, as Jotform vs Tally sets out.
Tally is the free capture form. Unlimited forms and submissions under an unquantified fair-use policy, with conditional logic, calculations, file uploads, payments through Stripe and integrations to the mainstream email tools, all on the free plan with Tally branding. It embeds in a Shopify page, sits behind a button, or runs as a pop-up, and each submission can create a subscriber with a tag in MailerLite or the email tool you use, which is how a waitlist or a restock alert becomes a list. Pro is $24 a month on yearly billing for branding removal, custom domains, team collaboration and partial submissions. What it lacks is the process layer: no approval workflows, no generated PDFs, no HIPAA option, and a fair-use limit you cannot plan around at high volume. Choose Tally for contact, waitlist, pre-order, wholesale-enquiry and feedback forms, and for a simple deposit. Skip it when an order needs a signed document or someone's sign-off before it proceeds.
Typeform is the product-finder quiz. The one-question-at-a-time layout, logic jumps, calculators and quiz templates turn "which of these is right for me" into a conversation that ends on a recommended product with a link to buy, and its completion rates are the reason to pay for it. The free plan is 100 responses a month with branding; Basic at $39 ($28 annual) keeps that cap and buys features; Plus at $79 ($56 annual) allows 1,000 responses, 3 users and branding removal; Business at $129 ($91 annual) allows 10,000. It is not built for dense order forms or file-heavy intake, and it does not do signatures or approvals. Choose Typeform when the form is a marketing asset on the storefront and every extra completion is a sale. Skip it for anything operational; Jotform vs Typeform prices the gap.
What to avoid
Do not take card details in a plain text field on any form; use the gateway integration, which is the only way the tool is compliant. Do not run two form tools on one store; pick the one that fits the main job and use it for the rest. Do not rely on a free tier's payment cap without reading it: Jotform stops at 10 paid submissions a month on the free plan, which a small launch can hit in a day. Do not build the product quiz before the store has a product page worth sending people to. And do not forget that a form submission is not a Shopify order; someone or something has to create the order, and the software stack for starting an online store guide covers where that step lives.
When not to buy
If the only form you need is "contact us", the theme's built-in form is enough and there is nothing to buy. Buy Tally's free plan the day you want a waitlist or a wholesale enquiry. Buy Jotform the day a customer needs to upload a file, pay a deposit or sign something. Buy Typeform the day you have enough products that visitors cannot choose, and enough traffic that a better completion rate is worth $79 a month. For the rest of a store's stack, best AI tools for Shopify stores and best email software for Shopify beginners cover the other two decisions most new stores make.