WHAT IS JOTFORM???
JotForm is one of the leading creative online form builders known by its intuitiveness and ease of use. The company is now preparing to launch a new, fully featured form builder (4.0) users can activate on all devices (including tablets and smartphones) and which will be even sleeker and more powerful than the one we’re used to.
Traditionally, JotForm helps design creative and personalized forms for all purposes, and does so with a simple drag-and-drop mechanism. The best part of the process is that changes are synced upon completion, and can therefore be retrieved in cases of sudden internet loss and work can be finished offline. The competitive edge of the builder is robust collaboration, as forms can be built in groups by an unlimited number of collaborators.
JotForm 4.0 is expected to be even more professional, as it is the first fully-functional mobile builder of its kind. 4.0 won’t impose any device type or location limitations, and will make common fields, payments, and widgets even easier to access. With its handy offline capabilities, you will find it easy to polish, complete, and post forms regardless of where you are.
PROS
In short, everything. For starters, the ability to sign up for free and begin immediately creating forms that work within minutes is unmatched. I am impressed by the extensive amount of widgets that can be utilized for custom data entry, from QR code scanners to file uploaders to widgets that can perform custom calculations. The logic editor for controlling if and where questions, textboxes, widgets, etc. appear is very powerful and allows for virtually limitless form possibilities. I've used these to in conjunction with QR scanners to load pre-populated forms that allow technicians at my workplace to upload photos of machine issues, describe repair procedures, and even add parts used for repairs. Seperately I've also worked on forms used to report inventory / ERP data discrepancies that can be mailed to specific recipient groups based on which part of the ERP system is in question. I could ramble on about the endless customization with the design editor, the ability to do advanced back-end coding including the addition of dedicated HTML, PHP, and other code languages, the ability to integrate forms with everything from Google Drive to Airtable to PayPal, secondary integrations with Microsoft Flow, you name it. And the amazing thing to me is, the forms look stunning on desktops, tablets and mobile devices. And if you don't like how a particular widget looks, crack open the CSS on the back end and you can build pretty much anything.
CONS
The power and capabilities of the system can be a bit overwhelming to a new user. There isn't an easy tutorial to get you going right off the bat, so you're left searching at times for how best to accomplish a particular goal with your form. That said, the Q&A portion of the website is very helpful, and the ability to ask questions and get fast feedback more than offsets any initial disorientation. The only other con is the weak integration with Microsoft products and web-based services. I'm not sure what the issue there is, but it has been a hiccup during my integrations and projects. There are work-arounds for this, but those are weak as well. That said, JotForm is always developing new plug-and-play integrations, which means this is something that could be seen in the future. And they listen to their users' feedback.
In short, everything. For starters, the ability to sign up for free and begin immediately creating forms that work within minutes is unmatched. I am impressed by the extensive amount of widgets that can be utilized for custom data entry, from QR code scanners to file uploaders to widgets that can perform custom calculations. The logic editor for controlling if and where questions, textboxes, widgets, etc. appear is very powerful and allows for virtually limitless form possibilities. I've used these to in conjunction with QR scanners to load pre-populated forms that allow technicians at my workplace to upload photos of machine issues, describe repair procedures, and even add parts used for repairs. Seperately I've also worked on forms used to report inventory / ERP data discrepancies that can be mailed to specific recipient groups based on which part of the ERP system is in question. I could ramble on about the endless customization with the design editor, the ability to do advanced back-end coding including the addition of dedicated HTML, PHP, and other code languages, the ability to integrate forms with everything from Google Drive to Airtable to PayPal, secondary integrations with Microsoft Flow, you name it. And the amazing thing to me is, the forms look stunning on desktops, tablets and mobile devices. And if you don't like how a particular widget looks, crack open the CSS on the back end and you can build pretty much anything.
CONS
The power and capabilities of the system can be a bit overwhelming to a new user. There isn't an easy tutorial to get you going right off the bat, so you're left searching at times for how best to accomplish a particular goal with your form. That said, the Q&A portion of the website is very helpful, and the ability to ask questions and get fast feedback more than offsets any initial disorientation. The only other con is the weak integration with Microsoft products and web-based services. I'm not sure what the issue there is, but it has been a hiccup during my integrations and projects. There are work-arounds for this, but those are weak as well. That said, JotForm is always developing new plug-and-play integrations, which means this is something that could be seen in the future. And they listen to their users' feedback.
