Google Forms collects answers into a spreadsheet in minutes. pylo collects them into your own data model and starts the process behind them: permissions, flows, admin UI and analytics in one system, hosted in Germany.

TL;DR

Google Forms is the form most people have already used: free with a Google account, built in minutes, answers in a Google Sheet. For a survey, a quiz or a sign-up list that is all you need. The limits show up when the form is the front door to a process: the answers sit in a response sheet, connecting them to customers, orders or projects means Apps Script, add-ons or automations in workflow tools, file uploads require respondents to sign in to Google, and nobody can update an existing record through a form. pylo is a backend platform with a form builder inside: every form writes directly into your own data model, a submission starts the process right away and your team works with the result in the same system. If the form is a quick questionnaire, keep Google Forms. If the form is how work enters your company, pylo removes the tools behind it.

What is pylo?

pylo is a Backend-as-a-Service platform from Germany that you can use to build the operating system for your company. You model entities, fields and relations in the admin panel or through the API, and pylo generates a typed GraphQL API instantly. The form builder is part of that system: every form writes directly into your own data model. The same permission model governs the API, the admin UI, forms, flows, dashboards and the MCP server, and pylo flows run the process that starts when someone submits a form.

What is Google Forms?

Google Forms is Google's form and survey tool, free with any Google account and included in every Google Workspace plan. You add questions of a dozen types, group them into sections, send respondents to different sections based on an answer, validate input, collect files into your Google Drive and turn a form into a graded quiz. Responses live in the form and, with one click, in a linked Google Sheet. Email notifications, Apps Script and a library of add-ons cover what the form itself does not, and you need to integrate third-party tools to get it into your preferred system.

At a glance

A response sheet versus records on your data model

Google Forms optimises the moment of creating the form. Anyone can build one, share a link and watch the answers arrive in a Sheet. That Sheet is also where the trouble starts for business forms: a customer who fills in a service request becomes a row, not a customer with a request, so linking the row to the right account, assigning it to someone and tracking it to completion happens in another tool, and the copy drifts from the original within weeks.

pylo optimises what the answer becomes: each form field maps onto a field on your entities, with relations to customers, products or events, so a service request is linked to the customer it came from, a job application to the position, a booking to the event. The record behind your form submissions it is complete from the first second and ready to be worked with.

How pylo forms work

pylo forms are built on your data model. You add fields such as text, long text, email, phone, number, URL, checkboxes, single or multiple choice and file uploads, structure the form with headings, paragraphs and page breaks, and map every field to a field on one of your entities, including relations. Fields can be hidden, carry default values, placeholders and tooltips, show or hide depending on earlier answers and check input against validation rules. A form can be public or require a login, and you can limit submissions per form and per user. You embed a form on any website as an iFrame, or build your own frontend on the API.

One form can run as several instances with different share links, each with its own availability window, its own submission limits and, for authenticated forms, its own list of users who may fill it in. The same registration form can run for every event or every client without copying it. You can also mark a field as the matching key, for example an email address, so a submission updates the existing record instead of creating a duplicate.

What happens after submit

In Google Forms a submission triggers an email, and everything else runs through Apps Script you write and maintain or an add-on each with its own limits and errors to watch. In pylo a submission is not a row in a separate sheet; it is a record in your entities. Every submission emits an event, and that event can start a pylo flow: send a confirmation, create follow-up records, assign the request to the right team member, call an external system or wait for an approval. Flows include retries, custom rate limiting, error handling and full event logs, and you can write your own flow actions in TypeScript. Your team then works with the result in pylo's admin UI, with list and detail views and fields that show or hide depending on the record's state.

Permissions and who sees the answers

Google Forms shares responses the way Drive shares files: a collaborator sees all of them or none. Access to single responses or to individual answers is not part of the model, so teams copy rows into separate sheets per department. pylo separates tenants at the row level. Inside a tenant, any entity can act as the requester (ARO) and any entity as the requested object (ACO), with hierarchies and field-level rules. The same rules apply to the form, to the records it creates, to the admin UI where your team processes them, to dashboards and to MCP. A branch manager sees the requests from their branch, a partner sees only the applications they submitted, and nobody needs a copy of the sheet.

File uploads without a Google account

A Google Form with a file upload question forces every respondent to sign in to a Google account, and the files land in the form owner's Drive, where they count against that person's storage. For a supplier sending a certificate or an applicant sending a CV, that is often a dealbreaker. pylo forms accept uploads on public forms without any account, store the files in EU-hosted object storage as fields on the record and apply the record's permissions to them.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Google Forms shows summary charts per question, and the Sheet is where any further analysis happens. Every create, update and delete in pylo emits an event with the full before and after state, including every form submission and every change your team makes to it afterwards. You build dashboards on events and records together, for example submissions per form instance, conversion from request to offer or the time a request stays open, with the same permissions as the rest of pylo.

AI and MCP with guardrails

Google adds Gemini features across Workspace, including help with writing questions. pylo's MCP server is ready to connect, for developers who use agentic coding and for team members who want to analyse their submissions and records. The AI gets exactly the connected user's read permissions, nothing else. pylo never applies an AI's writes directly: they arrive as proposals that a human accepts or declines inside pylo, whatever AI client someone uses.

Pricing

Google Forms is free, and for a questionnaire it should be. The costs appear around it: the automation tool that moves answers into your CRM, the seats in the tool the answers end up in, and the time someone spends keeping the sheet and the system in sync. pylo does not bill per form, per response or per seat. Submissions are records in your entities, so they count towards the included records of your plan. The price already includes hosting, flows, the admin UI, forms, analytics and personal onboarding, every plan has every feature and unlimited users. Plans differ only in included usage for records, flow actions and file storage.

Hosting, compliance and reliability

All pylo content data, data models and databases live in data centres in Germany. Our subprocessor list is public and names every non-EU parent company openly. A GDPR data processing agreement is part of the terms, and we never use customer data to train AI models. Paid plans come with a 99.5% availability SLA, hourly encrypted backups kept for 30 days at a separate German location, and support from the team that builds the product.

Google stores Forms data in its data centres worldwide. Keeping it in Europe requires Google Workspace data regions, which come with Enterprise Plus and Frontline Plus or as a paid add-on on other plans. Google offers a DPA for Workspace customers and holds the usual certifications.

Where Google Forms is the better choice

We would rather tell you than have you find out later:

• You need a survey, quiz, poll or sign-up sheet in five minutes, and a spreadsheet is the right place for the answers.

• Your organisation lives in Google Workspace and the form should sit next to the Sheet and the Drive folder.

• Graded quizzes with automatic scoring, which you have to code yourself for integration with pylo.

• You want it free with no account to set up beyond the one you have.

If the answers are the end of the story, Google Forms is fine. pylo is for teams where the form is the start of a process.

Where pylo is a great Google Forms alternative

We think these are the main reasons to pick pylo over Google Forms:

• Forms that write into your data model. Every field maps to a field on your entities, including relations, so a submission is a record, not a row in a sheet you sync somewhere else.

• No duplicates. A matching key such as the email address lets a submission update the existing record instead of creating a second one.

• File uploads for everyone. Public forms accept files without a Google account, stored in EU object storage with the record's permissions.

• The process starts on submit. Every submission is an event that can start a pylo flow, with retries, rate limiting, typed actions and full logs, without Apps Script, Zapier or Make in between.

• Your team processes the result in the same system. Admin views, state-dependent fields and permissions come with the backend, so there is no second tool to look at the answers.

• Permissions on every submission. Hierarchies and field-level rules apply to forms, records, admin UI, dashboards and MCP, with authenticated forms and per-user limits on every plan.

• One form, many instances. Run the same form for every client, event or campaign with its own time window, limits and users.

• No per-seat or per-response pricing. Unlimited users and API requests and all features on every plan. Only three meters are billed: flow actions, records, and file storage/traffic.

• German hosting from a German company. Data stays in Germany on every plan, including the free one, and the DPA is part of the terms. You get a 99.5% SLA from the first paid plan, hourly backups with 30-day retention, and personal support from the people who build the product.

FAQs - Questions and answers about pylo

• Can I keep Google Forms and send the answers to pylo? Yes., an Apps Script trigger or a Zapier step can send every submission to a pylo webhook, where a flow creates or updates the right records. Many teams start that way and move forms over one by one.

• Do respondents need an account? No, public pylo forms, including ones with file uploads, work without any login. Authenticated forms are available when you want to know who submitted.

• Can I embed pylo forms in my own website? Yes, you embed a form as an iFrame, or build a fully custom frontend with the Next.js SDK or the typed GraphQL API and write submissions into your entities with the same permissions.

• Is pylo open source? No, but you can export all data at any time as CSV or JSON or through the API. The data models, flow definitions and generated SDK code are yours to keep, even after you leave.

• Where exactly is my data? Content data is in data centres in Germany and backups are kept at a different German location.

• Can I get access now? pylo is currently in private beta. Request access and we will set up your first entities and forms with you on a call and onboard you personally for your first project.