Typeform makes forms people enjoy filling in. pylo makes forms that write directly into your data model and start the process behind them: permissions, flows, admin UI and analytics in one system, hosted in Germany.

TL;DR

Typeform is the form builder people remember: one question per screen, beautiful design and a flow that feels like a conversation. It is excellent at getting answers. What happens with them is up to the tools you connect, usually a CRM, a spreadsheet and Zapier in between. 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 experience itself is your product, choose Typeform. If the form is the front door to a process, 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 Typeform?

Typeform is a form and survey builder from Barcelona, Spain. Its signature is the conversational format: one question at a time, full-screen, with images, video and branding. You get branching logic, hidden fields, variables and calculations, AI-assisted form creation and a large library of templates. Answers can go to more than a hundred integrations such as HubSpot, Google Sheets, Slack and Zapier, or to your own systems through webhooks. Higher plans add drop-off analysis, contacts and automations, lead enrichment and a Salesforce integration.

At a glance

Conversational forms versus forms on your data model

Typeform optimises the moment of answering. One question per screen keeps people engaged, and for surveys, quizzes, lead magnets and brand-heavy campaigns that matters. The answers end up as Typeform responses, and to use them you connect another tool: a CRM for leads, a spreadsheet for applications, a project tool for requests.

pylo optimises what the answer becomes. The forms are classic multi-page forms rather than one question at a time, and they are not built as a design tool. In return, each field writes into a field on your entities, with relations to customers, events or products, so an application is linked to the job it is for and a booking to the event it belongs to.

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, 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 onboarding form can run for every client or every event 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 Typeform you send notifications, push answers through integrations or a webhook, and on Plus and above add contacts and automations as a paid add-on. Anything more complex, such as creating a deal, checking for an existing contact or assigning the request, usually runs through Zapier or Make, each with its own account, limits and errors to watch.

In pylo a submission is not a response in a separate inbox; it is a record in your entities. Every submission emits an event, and that event can start a pylo flow: send a confirmation email, 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

Typeform plans come with 1 to 5 seats, and everyone who needs to look at the responses needs one, or the responses have to be copied somewhere they can see them. Workspace access controls who can edit and view forms; access to single responses or fields is not part of the model.

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 sales rep sees the leads from their region, a partner sees only the requests they submitted, and nobody needs a separate seat in a form tool to look at the answers.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Typeform reports show completion rates, answers per question and, on Business and above, drop-off analysis per question. That is useful for improving the form itself; reporting on what happened to the leads or applications afterwards happens in other tools.

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

Typeform uses AI to create forms from a prompt, to suggest questions and, on higher plans, to summarise responses and enrich leads.

pylo's MCP server is ready to connect, for developers who use agentic coding and for team members who want to analyze 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

Typeform prices by responses and seats. Branding removal starts on Plus, and the EU data center, SSO and HIPAA are Enterprise features. On top of Typeform you usually pay for the CRM or database the answers go to and for the automation tool that moves them there.

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. Especially on the free plan, pylo has the better offer, because the limits are higher and you get any feature you also get on the paid plans.

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.

Typeform is a European company, but standard accounts store responses on AWS in the US. Keeping responses in the EU requires the EU responses data center on an Enterprise contract. Typeform offers a DPA.

Where Typeform is the better choice

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

• The form experience itself matters most: one question per screen, rich design, images and video. pylo forms are functional, not a design tool.

• You run surveys, quizzes, NPS or lead magnets where completion rate is the key metric, with drop-off analysis per question.

• You need payments, AI-generated forms, video questions or lead enrichment

If the form is the product, Typeform is excellent. pylo is for teams where the form is the start of a process.

Where pylo is a great Typeform alternative

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

• 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 response table 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.

• 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 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 pylo show one question per screen like Typeform? No. pylo forms are multi-page forms with page breaks, so you can split a form into steps, but not into a full-screen conversational flow.

• 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.

• Can I keep using Typeform and send the answers to pylo? Yes. Typeform 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.

• 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.