Survey Software vs Google Forms: Which Is Better for Charity Data Collection?

Google Forms is free, familiar, and functional — so why would a charity pay for dedicated survey software? The answer depends on what you are collecting data for. For basic feedback and simple questionnaires, Google Forms is perfectly adequate. But for outcome measurement, funder reporting, and connecting survey data to programme participants, purpose-built survey software like Plinth delivers capabilities that Google Forms simply cannot match.

TL;DR: Google Forms works for simple, one-off surveys. Purpose-built survey software is necessary when you need to link responses to participant records, track outcomes over time, analyse free-text responses with AI, or generate funder reports. The "free" cost of Google Forms becomes expensive when you factor in the staff time spent on manual data matching, spreadsheet management, and report building.

Who this is for: Charity administrators and impact officers comparing Google Forms against purpose-built survey platforms.

Google Forms: What It Does Well

Google Forms has earned its place as the default survey tool for many charities. It is genuinely free, requires no technical expertise, and integrates seamlessly with Google Sheets. According to Charity Digital, over 80% of UK charities have used Google Forms at some point, making it the most widely adopted survey tool in the sector.

Strengths of Google Forms:

• Completely free with no response limits, question limits, or hidden costs
• Easy to create — anyone with a Google account can build a form in minutes
• Automatic data collection into Google Sheets for analysis
• Collaborative editing for teams using Google Workspace
• Basic branching logic with section-based skip patterns
• Embedding in websites, emails, and social media
• Accessibility through Google for Nonprofits (free Workspace access)

For simple use cases — event registration, volunteer sign-ups, quick feedback after a workshop — Google Forms is excellent. There is genuinely no need to overcomplicate these tasks with paid software.

Where Google Forms Falls Short for Charities

The limitations of Google Forms become apparent when charities need to move beyond basic data collection into structured outcome measurement and impact reporting. These are not minor inconveniences — they represent fundamental gaps that create significant manual work.

No Participant Record Linking

Google Forms treats every response as an anonymous or semi-anonymous data point. There is no native way to connect a survey response to a participant's record in your programme management system. This means:

• You cannot automatically compare a participant's pre-programme and post-programme responses
• You cannot see a participant's survey history alongside their attendance, case notes, and other programme data
• Matching responses to individuals requires manual effort — typically using email addresses as identifiers and VLOOKUP formulas in spreadsheets

Plinth links every survey response directly to the participant's record, enabling automatic pre-and-post comparison and a complete view of each person's programme journey.

No Outcome Tracking Over Time

Outcome measurement requires tracking changes in the same individuals over time. Google Forms has no concept of longitudinal data — each survey submission exists in isolation. To track a participant's wellbeing scores across baseline, midpoint, and endpoint surveys, you need to:

1. Export data from three separate Google Forms
2. Match responses across the three datasets using a common identifier
3. Calculate change scores manually in a spreadsheet
4. Aggregate results across your cohort
5. Handle missing data where participants completed some but not all surveys

Research from NPC suggests that this manual process takes an average of 8-15 hours per programme per reporting period. With purpose-built software, it takes minutes.

No AI-Powered Analysis

Google Forms provides basic summary charts — bar charts for multiple choice, pie charts for single select — but no deeper analysis. Free-text responses are presented as a raw list with no theme identification, sentiment analysis, or pattern recognition.

For a charity receiving 200+ free-text responses about their programme's impact, Google Forms offers no help in making sense of that qualitative data. Plinth's AI analysis can process all those responses in seconds, identifying themes, tracking sentiment, and surfacing insights that would take days to produce manually.

Limited Professional Appearance

Google Forms surveys are immediately recognisable as Google Forms. While functional, they lack the professional polish that reflects well on your organisation. Custom branding is limited to a header image and colour scheme — you cannot achieve the level of design customisation available in tools like Typeform or Plinth.

This matters because survey completion rates are influenced by perceived professionalism. Research shows that branded, professional-looking surveys achieve 10-15% higher completion rates than generic-looking forms.

No Funder Reporting Integration

When funders request outcome reports, they typically want structured data showing participant-level outcomes, aggregated programme results, and supporting qualitative evidence. Google Forms provides none of this — you must manually build reports from your spreadsheet data.

Plinth connects survey data directly to impact reporting features, enabling you to generate funder-ready reports from the same platform where you collected the data.

Head-to-Head Comparison

The True Cost of "Free"

Google Forms has no licensing cost, but it has significant hidden costs in staff time. Here is a realistic breakdown for a charity running three funded programmes:

Monthly time cost with Google Forms:

• Creating and distributing surveys: 2 hours
• Exporting and cleaning data: 1.5 hours
• Matching responses to participant records: 3 hours
• Building outcome analysis in spreadsheets: 4 hours
• Creating funder reports from spreadsheet data: 3 hours
• Total: approximately 13.5 hours/month

Monthly time cost with purpose-built software:

• Creating and distributing surveys: 1.5 hours
• Reviewing AI-generated analysis: 1 hour
• Generating funder reports: 1 hour
• Total: approximately 3.5 hours/month

Time saved: 10 hours/month. At an average charity sector salary of £28,000 per year (approximately £14.50/hour including on-costs), this represents savings of approximately £145/month — likely more than the cost of the software subscription.

A 2023 Charity Finance Group survey found that 42% of charities spend more than 10 hours per month on data management and reporting tasks that could be automated with appropriate tools.

When Google Forms Is the Right Choice

Google Forms remains the right tool in several scenarios:

One-off feedback surveys where you do not need to track responses over time or link them to individuals. Event feedback, training evaluations, and general stakeholder surveys are well served by Google Forms.

Very small organisations with fewer than 50 programme participants where manual data matching is manageable and the volume of data does not justify a paid tool.

Internal surveys for staff or volunteers where you do not need outcome tracking or funder reporting — satisfaction surveys, needs assessments, or polls.

Budget-constrained organisations that genuinely cannot afford any paid tools, though it is worth exploring whether the time savings from purpose-built software would offset the subscription cost.

When to Upgrade to Purpose-Built Software

Consider moving beyond Google Forms when:

You run funded programmes that require outcome reporting to grant-makers. The manual effort of matching Google Forms data to participant records and building outcome reports becomes unsustainable beyond a handful of participants.

You need pre-and-post measurement. If your programme requires baseline and endpoint surveys to demonstrate distance travelled, the manual matching process in spreadsheets is error-prone and time-consuming.

You collect significant qualitative data. If your surveys include open-ended questions that generate hundreds of free-text responses, you need AI analysis to make sense of the data efficiently.

You manage multiple programmes. The complexity of maintaining separate Google Forms, spreadsheets, and reporting templates for each programme grows exponentially. A platform like Plinth provides a single system for all programmes.

Data security is a priority. Google Forms stores data on US servers. If your organisation handles sensitive beneficiary data and prefers UK-hosted solutions for GDPR compliance, purpose-built platforms offer that assurance.

Making the Transition

If you decide to move from Google Forms to purpose-built survey software, the transition does not need to be disruptive:

Start with one programme. Choose the programme with the most pressing funder reporting requirements and pilot the new tool there. Once your team is comfortable, roll out to other programmes.

Migrate existing data gradually. You do not need to import all historical Google Forms data. Start collecting new data in the new system and maintain your Google Sheets as an archive for historical reporting.

Keep Google Forms for simple tasks. There is no reason you cannot use both. Use Google Forms for quick internal polls and event feedback, and Plinth for structured outcome measurement and funder reporting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I import Google Forms data into Plinth?

You can export Google Forms responses as CSV files from Google Sheets and work with them alongside your Plinth data. For ongoing data collection, we recommend building new surveys directly in Plinth rather than importing historical data, as this ensures proper participant linking from the start.

Is Google Forms GDPR compliant for UK charities?

Google Forms is GDPR compliant in the sense that Google provides adequate data processing agreements. However, data is stored on US servers, which introduces additional complexity under UK GDPR's international transfer rules. Google's participation in data protection frameworks provides some reassurance, but charities handling sensitive personal data may prefer UK-hosted alternatives for simplicity.

Can I use Google Forms for Outcomes Star measurement?

The Outcomes Star requires specific formatting, scoring, and visualisation that Google Forms cannot provide natively. While you could theoretically recreate the questions in Google Forms, you would lose the star visualisation, automatic scoring, and the collaborative completion process that makes the Outcomes Star effective. Purpose-built tools or the Outcomes Star's own online platform are better suited.

What about Microsoft Forms as an alternative to Google Forms?

Microsoft Forms offers similar capabilities to Google Forms and integrates with the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. For charities using Microsoft 365 (available free through Microsoft for Nonprofits), it provides the same basic survey functionality with similar limitations for outcome measurement. The choice between Google Forms and Microsoft Forms is largely about which ecosystem your organisation uses, as neither solves the fundamental limitations for charity outcome tracking.

How long does it take to set up Plinth for survey collection?

Most charities can create their first survey in Plinth within 30 minutes. If you are migrating from Google Forms, you can typically recreate your existing surveys in an hour or two. The initial setup of participant records and programme structure may take longer, but this is a one-time investment that pays dividends across all your data collection, not just surveys.

Conclusion

Google Forms is an excellent tool for what it was designed to do — simple, free data collection. But charities running funded programmes with outcome measurement requirements will quickly outgrow its capabilities. The staff time spent on manual data matching, spreadsheet analysis, and report building often costs more than a purpose-built platform subscription.

Plinth offers the integrated approach charities need: survey creation, participant linking, AI-powered analysis, and funder reporting in a single platform designed specifically for the charity sector.

Ready to see the difference? Book a demo of Plinth to see how purpose-built survey tools compare to Google Forms for your specific needs.

Recommended Next Pages

• Best Survey Tools for Charities – Compare all the leading survey platforms including Plinth, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, and more.

• The Complete Guide to Outcome Measurement – Understand the frameworks that require more than Google Forms can offer.

• How AI Survey Analysis Helps Charities – See how AI analysis transforms the survey data that Google Forms leaves as raw responses.

• How to Design Effective Outcome Surveys – Create better surveys regardless of which platform you use.

• How to Avoid Survey Fatigue – Collect better data with fewer questions for higher response rates.

• The Complete Guide to Case Management – Learn how survey data integrates with case management for holistic programme delivery.

Last updated: February 2026

For more information about Plinth's survey features and how they compare to Google Forms, contact our team or schedule a demo.