Formbricks
Open-source survey and experience-management platform for link and in-app surveys, self-hosted or run on its GDPR-compliant cloud. Based in Germany.
Reviewed by Gabriel Bachmann
Replace today:
Google Forms Typeform
The Best Privacy-Friendly Form Builders in 2026
Private alternatives to Google Forms, Typeform, vetted against our public criteria.
Showing 3 of 3
Grouped by threat level
Covered Easy start and good defaults for everyone
OpnForm
Open-source no-code form builder with conditional logic and unlimited submissions, self-hosted with Docker or run on a hosted plan. Based in France.
Hardened Some setup and real gains for the willing
Formgrid
Open-source form backend that turns any HTML form into a secure endpoint, with spam protection and email alerts, self-hosted with Docker. MIT licensed.
No matches for those filters.
How they compare
| Tool | Best for | Based in | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| | Surveys & feedback | Germany | Free |
| | No-code forms | France | Free |
| | Form backend | · | Free |
Every form you publish asks your visitors to trust you with their answers, and a Big Tech form builder quietly breaks that trust by routing each submission into an advertising company tied to your account and theirs. A privacy-friendly form builder collects the same responses without the surveillance. Some run as a no-code builder you self-host, others as a backend that turns plain HTML into a secure endpoint, but all of them keep the data on infrastructure you control rather than someone else’s.
Why you can’t just turn off tracking in Google Forms
There is no setting for “keep my respondents’ data out of Google” inside a product Google runs to learn about people. Every answer your visitors submit is stored against your Google account, and the form itself loads from Google’s domain, so the act of opening it is visible to the company. You can tighten who may respond, but you cannot change where the responses live or who ultimately holds them. The only real fix is a form that never sends the data to an advertising company in the first place, which is what every pick on this page is built to do.
How we pick
Every builder here is measured against our public listing criteria: an open-source core you can inspect, the ability to keep submissions on infrastructure you control, no requirement that your respondents hold an account to answer, and a business model that does not depend on profiling the people filling out your forms. Jurisdiction is one factor we weigh rather than a pass-or-fail test, because where a hosted option is based shapes the legal demands it can be served. We only list a tool we would happily collect our own responses with.
What to look for in a form builder
Look past the drag-and-drop polish to where the data goes. First, can you self-host, so the answers land in a database you own rather than a vendor’s. Second, is the code open, so the handling of submissions is auditable instead of a promise. Third, does it bring the practical features a public form needs, from conditional logic to file uploads and spam protection, so you are not trading privacy for a worse tool. Fourth, what happens to a respondent who simply fills out the form: a privacy-friendly builder asks nothing of them and profiles them not at all.
Is a no-code builder or a form backend the right shape?
Two designs sit on this page, and the difference decides your pick. A no-code builder like OpnForm gives you a visual editor plus a dashboard of responses, served as a hosted page or an embed, which is the closest replacement for the Google Forms experience. A survey platform like Formbricks goes further for feedback and in-app surveys at scale. A form backend takes the opposite route: you keep your own HTML and it just captures the submissions behind it, which is ideal for a static site that needs nothing more than a working contact form. Choose the builder if you want to design forms without code, and the backend if you already have the markup and only need somewhere private for the answers to go.
How to switch
Rebuild your form’s questions once in the tool you choose, then replace the old embed or link on your site with the new one, and export your existing Google responses as a spreadsheet so none of the history is lost. If you are leaving Google Forms specifically, our Google Forms alternatives page walks through the move. Forms are rarely the only thing worth moving off the surveillance economy: a privacy-respecting analytics tool stops you profiling the visitors who reach the form, and a self-hosted comment system does the same for the conversation after. To cut Google out more broadly, the de-Google playbook covers the rest of the ecosystem.
Frequently asked
- Why not just use Google Forms if it is free?
- Because the price is the data. Every response your visitors submit flows into Google's ecosystem, tied to your account and theirs, and you cannot turn that off from a settings page. The builders here are free or self-hosted too, but the answers stay on infrastructure you control instead of feeding an advertising company.
- Do I have to run my own server to use these?
- Not always. Self-hosting gives you the strongest control, since the responses never leave your own database, and every tool here supports it. Two of them also offer a hosted option run under European privacy law, so you can collect responses without operating a server and still keep your visitors out of the ad economy.
- Is an open-source form builder secure enough for real submissions?
- Yes, when you keep it updated. Open code means anyone can inspect how submissions are handled, which is a security advantage over a closed box. The responsibility that comes with self-hosting is ordinary maintenance: apply updates promptly and protect the admin login behind a strong password.
- Can these handle file uploads and spam?
- Most do. The form backends and builders here accept file uploads and screen submissions with honeypots and rate limiting, often with a captcha too, so a public form does not fill with junk. Check each tool's specifics, but the protection you expect from a hosted service is available here without the tracking.
- Will my respondents notice a difference?
- They should notice less, not more. A privacy-friendly form looks and works like any other to the person filling it out, except no hidden tracker rides along to profile them afterward. The change is invisible to them and meaningful for their data.
- How hard is it to move off Google Forms?
- Easier than it looks. You rebuild the questions once in your new builder, swap the embed or link on your site, and point people at the new form. Existing responses export from Google as a spreadsheet, so nothing is stranded, and from then on every answer lands somewhere you own.