Formstack Fills the Hole Left by Adobe Form Central Retirement

Nearly four years ago, Adobe introduced Forms Central, an online service that let you easily distribute, collect and analyze data using web or PDF forms and surveys. Last week they announced they were killing off the product, and final retirement was July 28, 2015. For users of the service this means finding a new home, such as FormStack.

FormStack

Looking at the Adobe community response to Forms Central being killed off, there is definite disappointment in the announcement and outrage at how things were handled – but one of the biggest issues is that the retirement date is mid-year, meaning that people who depend on the forms for a full business cycle are now scrambling for a replacement. From their FAQ they note:

There are several forms solutions that offer functionality similar to FormsCentral. Popular choices include: Formstack, JotForm, Survey Monkey, and WuFoo.

We have gotten some information from the folks at Formstack about how their product works, and how it can be a good solution for those needing to transition from Forms Central, and how it’s just a great way to collect web data!

Here is what they say:

Formstack’s robust form-building solution helps businesses create branded, mobile-ready web forms. By marrying form and website data for better engagement and conversions, Formstack provides digital marketers the resources to understand multichannel campaigns and convert more leads. From A/B testing and analytics, to social media plugins and custom themes, Formstack allows for smarter data collection and optimization that leads to measurable business value.

Using Formstack, you can quickly engage with your entire audience, giving you more time to nurture new leads.

A Pledge for Inspired Software
Formstack’s birthday is February 28, 2006. We started as one guy trying to provide a simple data capture solution. Since then, our product has evolved into a robust platform that helps users of all industries better engage with their customers and manage data. Formstack is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, but our 500,000+ customers live and work all over the world.

Key industries include, travel, nonprofit, education, marketing, sports administration, religious administration, healthcare and business.

The key thing I read there is that while it is clear that Adobe viewed Forms Central as a failed experiment, their customers (albeit too few) felt differently. Formstack views online forms and data collection as core to their business identity, have nearly a decade of experience, and are not planning to go anywhere!

Notable Features for Increasing Conversions:
• Form Importer: Formstack’s Form Importer feature was made for customers looking to transition old forms to Formstack. Just plug in the URL of your old form, and Formstack will recreate it in our builder interface. Save hours recreating old forms in another form builder with this time-saving feature.
• Drag-and-Drop Builder: Formstack’s drag-and-drop form builder makes it easy for users to create a variety of forms with no coding knowledge. All forms are mobile-ready and can be easily embedded on a user’s website for better brand compliance.
• Social Media Plugins: With Formstack’s Facebook Tab Embed feature, users can insert their forms on their Facebook business pages without needing advanced development. Using Social Autofill, form viewers can use their social media data to automatically complete fields on their forms.
• Intuitive Analytics: Leverage in-app analytics or Formstack’s Google Analytics plugin to improve form conversions. Identify the form questions that are causing users to click away, or track campaign conversions using data from Google.
• Third-Party Integrations: We integrate with over 35 different applications to pass form submissions seamlessly to other parties. Formstack also offers e-commerce functionality, integrating with 11 top payment gateways.
• 508 Compliance: Formstack is the only third-party form builder to offer Section 508 compliant software.

Head to the Formstack site to get all of the details and grab a 14-day trial to see if it works for you and your business!

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About the Author

Michael Anderson
I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!