Typeform

What Typeform is and what it does

Typeform is a cloud-hosted service for forms, surveys and quizzes. It originated around a distinctive experience: presenting questions progressively, with visual design and a path adapted to the respondent. It now supports pages containing several questions, so “one question at a time” describes its origin and one interaction style rather than a universal restriction.

The basic unit is a published form. Its creator defines questions, options, rules and endings; the participant provides answers; the organization receives records to review, analyze or transfer elsewhere. The service combines a no-code editor, developer interfaces and AI features.

It is a commercial product with a limited free tier and paid plans. Distinguish an opinion survey, a request starting a process and a scored quiz. They may look similar on screen but require different audiences, interpretation criteria and follow-up.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Company information · Typeform — Contact Info question · Typeform — Pricing.

Company history and platform evolution

Web designers Robert Muñoz and David Okuniev founded Typeform in Barcelona in 2012. An invitation-only alpha and a 2013 beta preceded the February 2014 public launch. The concept combined keyboard interaction, readability and a less rigid way of asking questions.

Early financing included €550,000 in 2013 and €1.2 million in 2014. The 2015 Series A raised $15 million led by Index Ventures; the 2017 Series B added $35 million led by General Atlantic. In March 2022, a $135 million Series C led by Sofina brought cumulative funding above $187 million. These are financing milestones, not sales revenue.

Jay Choi became chief executive on 18 November 2024, succeeding Joaquim Lechà. Current company information retains Barcelona as its headquarters and describes a distributed organization. An old headcount should not be presented as a current figure.

Typeform.io was a separate experiment for creating forms through APIs. The developer platform introduced in 2017 integrated that approach with Typeform accounts; the standalone service was retired in early 2018. The company then described migrating from a PHP application to Go microservices. This is architectural history rather than an exhaustive description of the current system.

Chat by Typeform existed in 2021 and received presentation improvements; its Chat UI was retired in 2023. Current AI capabilities should not be confused with that conversation builder. Later development expanded response collection into contacts, automations, research and landing pages.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Company information · StartUp Beat — Founder interview, March 2014 · Index Ventures — Series B · Typeform — Series C announcement · Typeform — CEO appointment · Typeform — Developer platform history · Typeform — Chat update, June 2021 · Typeform — Chat UI retirement · Wikipedia — Typeform historical coverage.

Question routes adapted to responses

Typeform supports forms whose route changes with the respondent’s answers. Its documentation distinguishes branching, scoring and final outcomes: sending someone to another question is different from assigning points or displaying a conclusion. This matters when routing a request without making an unsupported assessment.

Presentation can support a structured conversation, but quality depends on question design. Define what information the next decision needs and what should not be requested. A short, clear route is usually more useful than a long sequence of fields with no planned purpose.

Reference documentation: Typeform Help — Which type of logic should I use?.

Questions, presentation and languages

Questions can collect text, choices, ratings or contact details; groups organize sections and endings explain what happens next. Images and video add context when they help interpret a question. Format affects the resulting data: a closed choice supports comparison, while open text may reveal an unanticipated issue.

The current Contact Info block is a configurable multi-question page. Typeform distinguishes older blocks predating the August 2026 change and warns that deleting them may remove associated historical responses. Before redesigning an established form, preserve the relationship between field, meaning and version.

Multilingual forms support Spanish, Catalan and English, with results collected in one panel and availability depending on the plan. Translations can be supplied or reviewed; changing the original text requires checking them again. An easy-to-difficult scale should preserve meaning and order across languages.

In OSH, a question about understanding a poster should identify the poster version. If people evaluate different materials under one label, an average can conceal real differences. Add useful context without creating an unnecessary personal dossier.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Contact Info question · Typeform — Multi-language forms · Typeform — Changelog.

Complete responses, partial responses and data quality

Typeform distinguishes complete and partial responses. Partial Submit Points save answers up to a defined position; selected plans alternatively capture answers after every question. Both require deliberate configuration: abandonment does not necessarily mean no information was collected.

Partial responses consume the response allowance. Completing within the same browser session and returning in another session can affect counting differently. Billed responses, records and people are therefore not interchangeable counts.

Define the denominator before calculating results. If 40 people are invited, 30 start and 24 finish, completion is 80% of starters or 60% of invitees. These answer different questions. If only ten people see a branch, its absence from the other fourteen completed responses does not mean disagreement.

When analyzing comments, retain original text alongside any classification. A thematic summary identifies frequent issues, but an uncommon observation can still matter. Counts should preserve the ability to check which responses support each conclusion.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Partial responses · Typeform — Capture every question · Typeform — Response limits.

Publishing, APIs, integrations and MCP

A form can be shared by link or embedded in a website. The developer platform separates Create API for creating and maintaining forms, Responses API for retrieving results, webhooks for notifying another system and Embed SDK for controlling embedding. The choice depends on when information must move, not merely the number of fields.

An integration should preserve response identifier, status and form version. If the destination receives a notification twice, it needs to recognize the same record. If a partial response arrives before completion, update or relate them according to the design rather than creating two independent requests.

The MCP server allows authorized assistants to create or modify forms, inspect responses and work with contacts. Read access and write access have different consequences. A satisfaction analysis only needs relevant results; it does not necessarily require permission to change the questionnaire or initiate communications.

Test the full path to the destination. Successful receipt in Typeform does not prove the spreadsheet, CRM or task inbox received every field. Document who reviews failures and how delivery can be recovered without duplication.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Developer platform history · Typeform — Developer documentation · Typeform — MCP.

AI, research and contact automations

Typeform AI helps build forms and workflows from instructions, files or context, and can assist translation and synthesis. Its initial value is reducing preparation work; it does not establish question neutrality or validate what a scale measures. Check double-barrelled questions, missing choices and conclusions broader than the answers.

Research Flow, added in September 2026, combines structured studies with AI-moderated conversations and synthesis. It targets user and market research, not validated psychosocial or medical assessment. In prevention it could explore how people understand a resource, using an appropriate protocol without replacing a specific assessment methodology.

Contacts & Automations adds profiles, segmentation and follow-up; Growth Flow develops the commercial journey after a response. For preventive-information requests, separate acknowledgment from a campaign. Possessing an email address does not itself establish which communications that person expects.

Typeform Pages, added in October 2026, supports landing pages. A page and its form should communicate the same commitment: what is requested, what is delivered and which steps require review. Avoid generated promises that the team has not agreed to fulfill.

Reference documentation: Typeform — AI · Typeform — Research Flow · Typeform — Contacts and Automations · Typeform — Changelog.

Plans, availability and mobile use

The offering distinguishes Core plans such as Basic, Plus and Business from Growth, Talent, research and Enterprise offerings. Plans determine response allowances, collaborators and features. Trying a feature in the editor does not necessarily mean a form using it can be published on the current plan.

The monthly allowance is shared across an account’s forms. At the limit, forms can become private until the allowance increases or the next period begins. Deleting responses does not restore quota. Before a campaign or internal consultation, estimate participants, tests and partial responses, and check which other forms consume the same allowance.

Typeform needs an internet connection to load forms and submit answers; it has no offline mode. At a site with intermittent coverage, a completed screen is not proof of receipt. Acceptance testing should include the actual device, connection loss and receipt confirmation alongside appearance.

Compare the complete workflow. A spreadsheet may fit analysis of existing data; a form provides a structured entry point for clear requests across devices. Neither use automatically turns responses into approved decisions.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Response limits · Typeform — Pricing · Typeform — Offline limitation.

Security, data access and the 2018 incident

In June 2018, an attacker accessed a backup containing form data predating 3 May. The incident was detected on 27 June; public reporting distinguished this information from account passwords and payment-card details. It is a historical event, not evidence of a vulnerability remaining open today.

Current documentation describes AWS hosting and audited controls including SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001:2022. Provider controls do not decide what an organization should ask, who should see each answer or how long to retain it. Process design remains the user organization’s responsibility.

For an OSH consultation, distinguish information needed to respond from information that is merely interesting. Define access to results, attachment handling and export destinations. Before publishing an aggregate report, check whether combining site, job and comment could identify someone even after removing their name.

Reference documentation: Typeform — Security · BleepingComputer — 2018 breach.

Uses for routing queries and collecting information

• Material requests: identify activity, language and audience to route a request to the appropriate team.
• Session preparation: collect advance questions and format needs without unrelated personal information.
• Resource feedback: ask about specific comprehension difficulties and arrange follow-up when context is missing.

These are Sabentis proposals. A logic or scoring result should not be presented as a validated preventive diagnosis. The form organises information for competent review.

Worked example: requesting awareness materials

Hypothetical example. An organisation wants material requests without repeated exchanges to clarify audience and language.

1. Define the minimum information: activity, audience, language, intended date and the question the material should help answer.
2. Create branches showing relevant questions for each request type. Avoid outcomes promising automatic availability or approval.
3. Prepare different endings for complete requests and those needing clarification. Explain that submission is for review and who handles the next step.
4. If attachments are allowed, define acceptable documents and access controls. Test the route without a file as well.
5. Trial every branch with test data and inspect the destination records. Check that classification preserves context and exclude tests from real results.

Acceptance means receiving an understandable request that supports action or a specific clarification. Submission does not confirm the material exists or that the requested date is accepted. Preserve the original request when it is later amended so changes remain explainable.

An additional test can use twelve fictional requests: six for Spanish materials, four for Catalan and two for English. If the team receives a correction changing a Catalan request to Spanish, the destination should show seven and three respectively while retaining twelve requests, not thirteen. Requests without a date should seek clarification, and no ending should claim a session has been booked. This separates classification, updating and actual commitment.

Reference documentation: Typeform Help — Which type of logic should I use? · Typeform Help — File Upload question.

Files, links and automatic conclusions

Typeform warns that some exports, integrations and response-sharing features can create publicly accessible links to uploaded files. Before requesting documents, examine access across the whole journey, not only within the responses panel. An apparently internal file may be accessible to whoever receives its link.

A score reproduces configured rules; it does not validate their underlying criterion. If used to prioritise requests, explain its purpose and review exceptions. Distinguish incomplete submissions, abandonment and questions never shown. Confirm account limits and features before committing to a collection volume or particular route. Do not make file upload mandatory unless the process actually needs it.

Reference documentation: Typeform Help — Which type of logic should I use? · Typeform Help — File Upload question.

When to choose Typeform

It may fit situations where respondent experience and branching are central to low-effort information collection. Test on phones and computers, including unexpected answers and people unfamiliar with internal terminology.

Compare Google Forms and Microsoft Forms against environment, identity, permissions and later processing. Do not choose on appearance alone: access to results and attachments is part of the process.

Frequently asked questions about Typeform in OSH

Does branching constitute expert advice?

No. It applies rules defined by the designer. A conclusion needs its own supporting evidence and appropriate review.

Are uploaded files always restricted?

Do not assume so. Some functions create links accessible to their holders; review exports and integrations before collecting documents.

How should a form be verified before distribution?

Test branches, endings, received data, permissions and behaviour without answers or attachments where those options are permitted.

Reference documentation: Typeform Help — Which type of logic should I use? · Typeform Help — File Upload question.