Tally is a genuinely good form builder: a clean, doc-style editor with a generous free plan. So why look for a Tally alternative? Because Tally still asks you to build every form by hand. Formly is an AI form builder: describe the form you need in plain language and get a complete, editable draft in seconds. And because Formly speaks MCP, your AI agent can build and manage forms for you, too.
Credit where due: Tally's free plan includes unlimited forms and submissions (within fair use), conditional logic, calculations, and file uploads. Its Notion-like editor is pleasant, and Pro (from $24/month) adds branding removal, custom domains, and team collaboration.
If you build a handful of simple forms by hand and don't mind doing the assembly yourself, Tally is a fine choice.
In Tally, a new form starts as an empty document. In Formly, it starts as a sentence: "a job application form for a senior designer with a portfolio link and resume upload." The AI generates the pages, questions, and field types; you refine the draft in a full editor and publish. Tally has no AI form generation.
Formly ships an MCP server and a public REST API, so AI agents can create, edit, publish, and read your forms directly from chat: "build a feedback survey and publish it" becomes a finished, live form without opening a dashboard. If your team already works in Claude Code, Cursor, or ChatGPT, this changes what a form builder is for. See the MCP guide.
Iterating on a Formly form can also happen by prompt: "add a 1–5 rating question," "make the email field required." You choose per change whether the editor or the AI is faster.
Like Tally, Formly takes privacy seriously: hosted in Europe, GDPR compliant, no cookies, and no tracking of your respondents.
| Feature | Formly (Pro) | Tally |
|---|---|---|
| AI Form Generation | ✅ Included | ❌ Not available |
| AI Agent Access (MCP + REST API) | ✅ Included | ❌ Not available |
| AI Form Editing by Prompt | ✅ Included | ❌ Not available |
| Unlimited Forms & Submissions | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes (fair use) |
| Conditional Logic & Answer Piping | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| File Uploads & Signatures | ✅ Included | ✅ Yes (10 MB/file free) |
| Remove Branding / White-Label | ✅ Included | 💰 Pro plan |
| Custom Domains | ✅ Included | 💰 Pro plan |
| Partial Submissions | ✅ Included | 💰 Pro plan |
| Team Collaboration | ✅ Included | 💰 Pro plan |
| Webhooks | ✅ Included | ✅ Yes |
| EU Hosting, GDPR, No Cookies | ✅ Yes | ✅ GDPR compliant |
Tally pricing and limits as of July 2026. Check their site for current details.
At the paid tier (which is where branded, business-grade forms live on both products), the price is nearly identical. The difference is what you get for it: with Formly, that price includes an AI that builds and edits the forms, and an agent interface that automates them.
No. Formly has one paid plan (Pro, $29/month or $24/month annually) with everything included and unlimited usage. If a free manual form builder is all you need, Tally is a good option. If you want AI to do the building and agents to do the managing, that's what Formly's plan buys.
Formly's editor is a full visual form builder: you can rewrite, reorder, and restyle everything. The difference is you rarely start from scratch: the AI generates the first draft.
There's no one-click import, but recreating a form is fast: paste your question list into a prompt and Formly rebuilds it, usually in under a minute.
Yes, that's a core feature. Connect Formly to any MCP-compatible agent (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Codex) and it can create, edit, publish, and read forms for you. See the developer docs.
Describe your next form instead of building it.
