Open Source Google Forms Alternatives, Compared for Developers

The short answer

Use Google Forms for a quick survey, registration, or internal request. It avoids installation, upgrades, database administration, and deployment work.

Use a self-hosted option when your team needs a defined data boundary. You can place the database, object storage, backups, and access logs under the same controls as the rest of your system.

FilaForms fits the Laravel case. It installs as a Filament plugin inside an existing application. Form definitions and submission data stay with the application database.

FilaForms is not an open-source project. It is a commercial, closed-source Filament plugin.

It is not a hosted service. FilaForms has no cloud version. Your team runs the application, applies upgrades, and owns the operational work.

The Laravel form builder for Filament is useful when forms are part of a product workflow. Its form-building features include visual building, conditional logic, multi-step forms, and submission analytics.

What open source changes for form data

Source availability alone does not define the data boundary. Hosting determines which systems receive submissions, attachments, and metadata during normal operation.

Self-hosting lets you choose the database region and backup destination. You can use existing application authentication and authorization. You can also apply the retention policy that already covers related records.

Those choices bring work with them. Someone must patch dependencies, monitor queues, protect storage, test backups, and respond to failures. A self-hosted form product does not remove that responsibility.

This is why a hosted tool remains a sensible default for many teams. Choose self-hosting because the control is useful, not because the word open source appears in a requirement.

The wider self-hosted landscape

Different projects solve different form problems. Formbricks describes itself as a free, open-source survey platform with cloud and self-hosted deployments. It suits feedback collection across a customer journey.

LimeSurvey offers a Community Edition for installation on your own server. It suits organisations that need a dedicated survey platform for research or structured questionnaires.

FilaForms targets another boundary. It keeps the form builder in a Laravel and Filament application your team already runs. This avoids running a separate survey product beside the application.

The table above helps separate those choices from Google Forms. The next question is where a submission should trigger work in your system.

Where FilaForms fits in a Laravel application

Forms are built visually in the Filament panel. Developers then use the submitted data in Laravel workflows.

For example, a support request can create a case in your domain model. An application can notify an owner, place a follow-up job on a queue, or retain the submission under a customer record.

FilaForms provides more than 25 field types, conditional logic, multi-step forms, a submission dashboard, analytics, and email notifications. These features suit teams that need a form flow within an existing product.

The limitation matters. FilaForms requires Laravel and Filament. It is the wrong choice for a non-technical team that needs a standalone link with no application to maintain.

Google Forms can be the better decision in that situation. Its value is speed and low operational cost. A developer should not introduce a deployment pipeline for a form that does not need one.

Exporting submitted data to CSV

Data ownership includes a practical exit path. Google documents a response option named "Download responses (.csv)" in its response management guide.

You can apply the same principle to data held by your Laravel application. The command below writes each FilaForms submission's data to a CSV file. Each row contains JSON so fields can differ between forms without losing values.

Save this command in app/Console/Commands/ExportFilaFormsSubmissions.php. Laravel discovers commands in that directory. Run php artisan filaforms:export-submissions to create the export.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Console\Commands;

use FilaForms\Core\Models\FormSubmission;
use Illuminate\Console\Command;
use JsonException;

final class ExportFilaFormsSubmissions extends Command
{
    protected $signature = 'filaforms:export-submissions {path?}';

    protected $description = 'Export FilaForms submission data to a CSV file';

    public function handle(): int
    {
        $path = $this->argument('path') ?? storage_path('app/filaforms-submissions.csv');
        $directory = dirname($path);

        if (! is_dir($directory) && ! mkdir($directory, 0755, true) && ! is_dir($directory)) {
            $this->components->error("Unable to create {$directory}.");

            return self::FAILURE;
        }

        $file = fopen($path, 'wb');

        if ($file === false) {
            $this->components->error("Unable to write {$path}.");

            return self::FAILURE;
        }

        fputcsv($file, ['submission_data']);

        try {
            foreach (FormSubmission::query()->cursor() as $submission) {
                fputcsv($file, [json_encode($submission->data, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR)]);
            }
        } catch (JsonException $exception) {
            fclose($file);
            $this->components->error($exception->getMessage());

            return self::FAILURE;
        }

        fclose($file);
        $this->components->info("Exported submissions to {$path}.");

        return self::SUCCESS;
    }
}

The command exports each submission's data to a CSV file for review or transfer. You can run it from a deployment task, an administrative workflow, or a scheduled backup process.

Keep exports in protected storage when submissions contain personal data. Limit access to the command in production. Delete temporary copies according to the retention policy for the underlying records.

Making the decision

Start with the team that will operate the form. A marketing or operations team may need a fast hosted workflow. A research team may need a dedicated survey platform. A Laravel product team may need the submission lifecycle to live beside its code.

Choose the smallest operational commitment that meets the data requirement. You can keep Google Forms when a hosted form is enough. You can self-host when control, integration, and long-term ownership justify the maintenance.