Google Forms vs Microsoft Forms for Approval Workflows

Morgan Hopkins, Customer Success Manager

Last Updated: Mar 9, 2026

If your organization is choosing between Google Forms and Microsoft Forms for building approval workflows, you're comparing two free, capable form builders — but their approaches to approvals are very different. This guide breaks down the key differences to help you decide which is the better fit.

Form Building: Both Are Strong

Both Google Forms and Microsoft Forms offer intuitive drag-and-drop form builders with similar question types: short answer, multiple choice, checkboxes, dropdowns, date pickers, file uploads, and more. Both are free to use with their respective workspace accounts.

For basic form creation, the experience is nearly identical. The meaningful differences emerge when you try to build an approval workflow on top of the form.

Approval Workflows: The Key Difference

Microsoft Forms + Power Automate

Microsoft Forms does not have native approval functionality. To build an approval workflow, you need to connect Microsoft Forms to Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow) and build an automation flow:

• Create the form in Microsoft Forms
• Open Power Automate and create a new flow triggered by a Microsoft Forms response
• Add an "Approvals" action to the flow, configure the approver, approval type (approve/reject or first to respond), and email template
• Add condition branches to handle the approve and reject outcomes
• Add notification actions to email the submitter with the result

This works, but it requires familiarity with Power Automate's flow builder. Building a multi-step approval with conditions, escalations, and notifications can become complex quickly. Power Automate's free tier also has limitations — the premium Approvals connector requires a paid Power Automate license ($15/user/month as of March 2026).

Google Forms + Form Approvals

Google Forms also doesn't have native approval functionality. However, the Form Approvals add-on provides a purpose-built approval layer that works directly within Google Forms:

• Create the form in Google Forms
• Install the Form Approvals add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace
• Open the add-on sidebar, add your approvers, and click Save

No separate automation platform, no flow builder, no conditional logic to configure. The entire setup takes minutes rather than hours.

Feature Comparison

Cost Comparison

This is where the gap becomes significant:

• Microsoft Forms + Power Automate Premium: $15/user/month for the Approvals connector (as of March 2026). For a team of 50 people, that's $750/month ($9,000/year).
• Google Forms + Form Approvals: Plans start at $96/year with no per-seat pricing. The same team of 50 costs $96-600/year regardless of how many people submit or approve requests.

Form Approvals charges per workflow administrator, not per user. Only the person who sets up the approval workflow needs a license — everyone else (submitters and approvers) uses it for free.

When to Choose Microsoft Forms

• Your organization is fully invested in the Microsoft ecosystem (Teams, SharePoint, Outlook) and has existing Power Automate licenses
• You need approvals deeply integrated with Microsoft Teams
• You already have Power Automate expertise in-house

When to Choose Google Forms + Form Approvals

• Your organization uses Google Workspace
• You want the simplest possible setup with no flow builder
• You want to avoid per-seat pricing that scales with headcount
• You want response data stored in Google Sheets where you can report on it freely
• Non-technical staff need to set up and manage approval workflows themselves

Get Started

Try Google Forms + Form Approvals free with 20 responses per month. View pricing or get started today.