Forms and surveys decision
Fillout
A capable developer can reproduce a useful, self-hosted form builder (collection, logic, embeds, PDF) in ~30 hours, but matching Fillout's enterprise compliance, ecosystem of integrations, and polish is costly — keep paying for those unless you only need a basic intake workflow.
Visit website↗Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need — the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship.
What a replacement has to do
- Collect form responses, apply conditional logic/workflows, store results, and embed/share forms.
What it still won’t have
- SOC II Type II compliance and associated audit artifacts
- 50+ native integrations and prebuilt connectors
- Enterprise features (SSO, audit logs, dedicated support, SLA)
- Advanced analytics, conversion kit and high-volume scaling
- Polished UI/UX and marketplace trust
What remains hard
- Compliance and regulation
SOC II Type 2 Compliant 256-bit AES Data encryption 24/5 Support. Here if you need us
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 1 seat.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a self-hosted form builder using React for the frontend, Node.js + Express for the API, and Postgres for storage. Implement: (1) a form schema editor and renderer supporting 50+ field types, validation, multi-page forms and conditional visibility; (2) an API to create/update/query form schemas and submissions; (3) a rule engine to evaluate conditional logic and route respondents; (4) an embeddable script to render forms on other sites and support a custom domain; (5) server-side PDF generation of submissions and a webhook outgoing integration. Out of scope: enterprise SSO, SOC II attestation, and 50+ native third-party adapters. Include error handling, input validation, auth for an admin UI, and automated tests for API endpoints and rule evaluation.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score64
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time — so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productFillout — product page
- official pricingFillout — pricing
- official docsFillout Help Center
- open sourceLimeSurvey/LimeSurvey
- open sourceheyform/heyform
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
