by Cory Rauch 2006-11-13 Category: Web-Forms
Recently I was in the need of creating a web form for a website. Normally I have no problem just creating a simple web form in Dreamweaver with an accompanying PHP script to email the forms contents, but I recently had seen mention of some web form services with promise to make this process easier. If these services would allow me to easily describe in some way the form layout with no extensive programming and then just hit create, then that saves me a load of time which is always a good thing. The service I am looking for has to create high quality forms that are AJAXified plus degrade gracefully, have a modern feel with visual feedback on various actions (loading, validation, etc), and in the end save me time with the creation of a slick and usable web form.
In this article I will review all the services I found in this category on ease of use, features, services quality (Speed / Stability), and the end product, the created form.
IcebrrgIcebrrg actually was the first web form service I heard of and tried so I will credit them for really getting me into reviewing this category of services. The service has 5 levels of plan starting from free to really expensive ($199/Month). They host your form right on their servers and offer you the option to cut and paste html into your website to display the form right in it. You can also simply just link to the form via email or website to direct users there. The service offers SSL secured forms even on the free account which is a step above some of the competitors. I went right for the free account to try this out.
CreateAfter signing you are greeted with an empty list of forms and a create form link. Once in the form creator section, you have a simple list to the left of field types that you can simply add by one click, and by click the already added form once it will bring up a property dialog to edit an array of options for that field. You can re-arrange fields simply dragging them in the fields list. And it already has a wonderful assortment of fields for given tasks. For example the address field will populate your form with a group of fields related to this task including: address, city, state, etc. Under the field properties you can make a field required or unique, and also have to option to add text to instruct the user how use that field. For confirmation you can edit the text displayed or redirect to a web page (for example on your website). The issues I noted where that at times the page would not render correctly (No matter if I was in IE or Firefox), the site was a little slow at times, and also forms can get pretty long fast since the form editor has some extra control for each line. So you will be doing a lot of scrolling to add fields to the form (Though the properties dialog box is always level with the row which is very helpful). Overall creating forms was simple and easy to use. Score: 4/5
Once your form is built, how do you view entries made? You can do simply by going to the forms list and exporting to a CSV file (You can open this with a Spreadsheet application) or you can view right from the website. They do not offer any sort of visitor statistics or tools for reporting on collected data though you can use your own spreadsheet application to generate reports. This part of the service has some room for improvement. Score: 2/5
Quality and SpeedUltimately the created form not the tool is what matters, so what was the quality of the output? The look and feel of the generated forms is top notch. If you embed the form in your website you can control the entire look of the page, though if you simply link to the form I noticed no option to control the page stored on their servers. I ran two validation tests on the forms, both the HTML validation and Section 508 (Accessibility) validation tests. They did find some errors but the only possible show stopper errors was the lack of a alt property on the input fields, so this form does not meet all accessibility standards. Another concern was the size of the page which clocked in at over 350k mostly do to a massive Javascript file it includes. That could be an issue for dial-up connections. I found the form generated work perfectly on both IE, Firefox, and Opera. Score: 3/5
Visit at: www.icebrrg.com
WufooWufoo is another service in the web form category that offers a wonderfully simple user interface just like the previous entry, Icebrrg. The service offers again a similar range of plans from free to expensive ($199/month). One thing that I noticed was the lack of SSL support on the free plan, which Icebrrg does offer, you would have to upgrade to there “Bona Fide” plan to get this level of service at $24/month. Though Wufoo does give you a free sub-domain (Ex. yourname.wufoo.com) for your forms. Again they host the form right on there servers where you can embed or link to the form from your website.
CreateWufoo and Icebrrg form editor work very similar. You have an assortment of field types and field specific to a task (Ex. Address field) that you simply click to add. You can then arrange by dragging and dropping the field, and by clicking you can adjust the property of the field. Overall though I found the Wufoo form editor to be more stable with no re-draw issues and a very responsive interface. Wufoo also includes a theme editor which you can apply to the form or form page (You can control color, styling, background, etc). Though Icebrrg does offers a WYSIWYG editor for the confirmation message, where Wufoo offers plain text or redirect. Overall I think its a tie in the form editor department between Wufoo and Icebrrg. Score: 4/5
After you have data entered into a form what can you do with it? Wufoo is very feature rich in this department with a nice RSS feed that you can subscribe too to see new entries. But things really get interesting with their reporting capability. This allows you to both create simple charts and reports to view right from the site or export to Excel or CSV spreadsheet files. The reporting capability lets you include/exclude fields, filter by search or condition, and then save this for use later. Wufoo also features simple visitor traffic information so you can see basically if anyone is visiting your form. With all of these options available, Wufoo really can be used in so many more ways then the competition. Score: 5/5
Quality and SpeedAgain what ultimately matters is what the quality is of the generated form. I ran 2 validation test the HTML and Section 508 (accessibility) validation. It passed the HTML one with no errors, but had a similar error on the section 508 check with no alt tag on the input field. I guess this is an issue at large with AJAXified web forms, but the form generated weighs in at over 129k or little more then half of a Icebrrg web form. Still kind of large, and I think this will be an issue with dial-up users. I found the form generated work perfectly on both IE, Firefox, and Opera. Score: 3/5
Visit at: www.wufoo.com
JotFormThe other service I found was JotForm. This service appears to be working on paid plans, but does not at this time offer a paid service. So basically its free! Which is a feature in of itself. I could not find any offer for SSL support on forms, also the site can be slow.
CreateThe editor works by displaying a selection of fields types on the right, and you basically drag and drop them on your form. You can then edit there properties by clicking on the field, and a side panel with field properties displays. Similarly you can edit order by drag and drop, or delete a field by clicking the delete button. Overall the editor was top notch and easy to use. Jotform does include some options for controlling the look, and does offer you the ability to display confirmation text or redirect to another web page. The only reason I have rated it slightly lower is the fact that it includes a very little number fields types compared to Wufoo or Icebrrg. Score: 3/5
JotForm has some basic reporting capability that allows you to export to both excel and CSV spreadsheet format, and also for display with in your browser. You can filter by date range and control which field is included. Overall there is not a whole lot of options but the basics which is done very well. Score: 3/5
Quality and SpeedThe quality of the forms produced by JotForm where very good in certain ways. It was the only site that produced a form to pass the Section 508 validation test. It also had only a small number of errors on the HTML validation, and probably the best thing about it was the small 9k page size. With all that said it also produced a very bland form with very little styling cues to where you are in the form or on failed validation. Overall I felt that I would probably need to spend time on the look of the form after creating, which kind of defeats the purpose of having a form service. Score: 1/5
Visit at: www.jotform.com
ConclusionWufoo wins by a hair. Both Icebrrg and Wufoo have the form editor down and have enough features to get the job done, but overall I think Wufoo edges Icebrrg with its reporting capabilities. JotForm seems to be a product in its infancy, and has some maturing to do before it can compete in this category of services.
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