Jotform vs Cognito Forms: Pricing, Team Seats, and Payment Fees Compared

Jotform and Cognito Forms are aimed at the same kind of work: forms with logic, calculations, payments, and approval steps. Their free plans even match on volume, at 100 responses a month.

They differ on three things that affect what you pay. Cognito Forms includes more users at lower prices. Jotform doesn’t add its own fee to payments, where Cognito Forms does on its two lowest plans. And Jotform puts HIPAA features on a less expensive plan.

This comparison is based on each company’s pricing and support pages as of October 13, 2026. We haven’t tested either product hands-on, so it doesn’t judge which builder handles complex forms better in practice.

Pricing and limits

Sources: Jotform pricing and Cognito Forms pricing. Jotform calls responses “submissions” and Cognito Forms calls them “entries.”

A few comparisons from the table:

Entry-level paid plan. Cognito Pro costs $24 a month for 2,000 entries. Jotform Bronze costs $39 for 1,000 submissions. On price and volume, Cognito Forms is ahead here.

At 10,000 a month. Cognito Team is $62 with five users. Jotform Gold is $129 with one user. Jotform Gold includes HIPAA features and Cognito Team doesn’t, which accounts for part of that gap if you need them.

Number of forms. Cognito Forms says forms are unlimited on every plan. Jotform limits active forms by plan: 5 on free, 25 on Bronze, 50 on Silver, 100 on Gold.

Trials. Cognito Forms offers a 14-day free trial of its paid plans. Jotform has no paid-plan trial and offers a 30-day refund.

For Jotform’s storage, upload, and signature limits, see our Jotform Pricing guide.

Team access

This is the plainest difference between the two.

Cognito Forms builds users into its plans: 5 on Team, 10 on Business, 20 on Enterprise. Business and Enterprise also include guest seats.

Jotform’s standard plans are single-user. Its help center says free and non-Enterprise paid plans can’t invite team members, and its pricing page calls Enterprise its only multiuser plan. Enterprise pricing is by quote.

If three people in your office build and review forms, Cognito Team at $62 a month covers that. With Jotform you’d be asking for an Enterprise quote.

Payments and fees

Both let you take payments on every plan, including the free one. The costs work differently.

Cognito Forms says forms and payments are unlimited on every plan. Its product page lists four payment options: Cognito Pay, Stripe, PayPal, and Square. According to its support pages, which one you can use depends on the plan. Its own processor, Cognito Pay, is available on every plan at 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. On the Individual and Pro plans, Cognito Forms adds a fee on top of that: 2% of the payment on Individual and 1% on Pro. PayPal and Square are listed as available on the Team and Enterprise plans, where Cognito Forms says it adds nothing beyond what the processor charges.

So on the two lowest plans, the support pages list Cognito Pay as the option, and the added fee applies to every payment made through it. Cognito’s product page says more broadly that you can accept payments through Square, Stripe, or PayPal on any plan level, so confirm which processors your plan allows before you rely on one. Its payment documentation doesn’t mention the Business plan.

Jotform says it never charges a transaction fee of its own, on any plan. It caps the number of payment submissions instead: 10 a month on the free plan, 100 on Bronze, 250 on Silver, and 1,000 on Gold. Jotform says it works with more than 40 payment gateways, including Square, PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net.

Which is cheaper depends on what you sell. Take a business collecting 60 payments a month at $50 each, or $3,000 in total. On Cognito Pro, the added 1% fee comes to $30 a month, on top of the $24 plan and the standard processing fee. On Jotform, 60 payments requires Bronze at $39, with no added fee. The totals are $54 and $39. With smaller amounts or fewer payments, the result reverses.

Processing fees apply on both sides and aren’t in those totals. Run your own numbers: count payments per month and multiply your monthly total by the added fee.

Complex forms, calculations, and workflows

Both products list the features that complex forms need.

Cognito Forms’ product page lists calculations, conditional logic, repeating sections and tables, lookup fields, workflow tasks, document generation, electronic signatures, and save and resume. Its pricing page places electronic signatures and save and resume on Pro, and workflow and approvals on Team.

Jotform lists conditional logic that can show or hide fields and change emails and thank-you messages, along with approval workflows, document e-signatures through Jotform Sign, PDF generation, and a report builder. Its help center says features are the same across plans, with volume as the main difference. Jotform says approval flows allow up to three approvers on the free plan and 10 on paid plans.

So the feature lists overlap heavily. Where each feature sits is the difference: Cognito Forms ties some to plan level, and Jotform ties usage to plan level.

We can’t tell you which handles a complicated calculation or a multi-step approval more gracefully. Both have free plans. If your form is complex, build the hardest part of it in each before you decide.

HIPAA

Jotform offers HIPAA features on Gold ($129 a month, or $99 billed yearly) and Enterprise. Cognito Forms lists HIPAA compliance on its Enterprise plan ($199 a month, or $149 billed annually).

On listed price, Jotform’s HIPAA-eligible plan costs less. Cognito’s Enterprise plan includes 20 users and Jotform Gold includes one, so compare them with your team size in mind. Neither plan makes a practice compliant by itself.

Who should choose which

A small office with shared form duties. Cognito Forms. Team seats are included at prices Jotform’s standard plans don’t match.

A solo business taking a steady stream of larger payments. Jotform. No added fee, and Bronze covers 100 payments a month.

A solo business taking many small payments. Cognito Forms. No payment cap, and a 1% or 2% fee on small amounts stays small.

A solo practitioner who needs HIPAA features. Jotform Gold is the lower listed price.

A multi-person practice that needs HIPAA features. Compare Cognito Enterprise, with 20 users, against a Jotform Enterprise quote.

If Jotform looks like the better match, confirm the limits on the plan you’d need. Check Jotform’s current plans and limits

FAQ

Is Cognito Forms cheaper than Jotform? At the entry level, yes: $24 a month against $39. Add any payment fees to get the real monthly cost.

Does Cognito Forms charge a fee on payments? On Individual and Pro plans, it adds 2% and 1% to Cognito Pay transactions. Its support pages list PayPal and Square for Team and Enterprise, where it says it adds no fee of its own.

Does Jotform charge a fee on payments? Jotform says no. Your payment processor’s fees still apply, and each plan caps the number of payments per month.

Which is better for teams? Cognito Forms includes 5 users on Team and more on higher plans. Jotform’s standard plans are single-user.

Do both have free plans? Yes, both with 100 responses a month. Cognito’s has unlimited forms, and Jotform’s has 5.

For other options, see our Jotform Alternatives guide.