Both surveys and forms collect input from visitors, but they serve different purposes and work in different contexts. Picking the wrong one leads to friction — a checkout form built as a survey, or a quick NPS poll buried in a standalone form link.
The core difference
| Surveys | Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it appears | Inside the Yaplet widget, triggered automatically by a behaviour rule. | As a standalone hosted URL, embedded in a chat conversation, or as a node inside a chatbot workflow. |
| How visitors reach it | Yaplet pushes it to the visitor based on a trigger — the visitor doesn't navigate to it. | The visitor opens a link, a chat bot sends it, or an agent drops it into a conversation. |
| Field types | Rating scales, free text, single choice, multiple choice. Optimised for quick responses. | Short text, long text, single/multi choice, rating, file upload, date picker. More structured. |
| Branching logic | Yes — skip to different questions based on answers. | No conditional branching — linear field sequence. |
| Typical length | 1–5 questions. Short by design. | As many fields as you need. |
| Analytics | Per-question breakdown, completion rate, NPS score, export. | Form submissions list, export to CSV, route to a board. |
When to use a survey
- You want to collect feedback while the visitor is actively using your product — NPS, CSAT, post-onboarding research.
- The response is optional and short — the visitor can answer in under a minute.
- You want to target based on behaviour — "show this only to visitors who've been active for 30 days".
- You need branching — different follow-ups based on how they answered.
When to use a form
- You need structured intake data — a contact request, a bug report intake, a demo booking, a job application.
- You want to drop the form into a chat conversation mid-conversation (agents can share a form link at any point).
- You need file uploads — forms support file attachments; surveys do not.
- You want submissions routed to a board for triage.
- The visitor actively chose to fill something in, rather than being nudged to do so.
Using them together
A common pattern: use a survey to collect an NPS score and the reason behind it, then — if the visitor indicates they want help — drop a form link into the follow-up conversation for structured contact details. The survey captures the mood; the form captures the structured data.
What's next?
To set up a form, see the Forms category. To set up a survey, start with Create your first NPS survey or Build a multi-step survey with branching.