Free Accounts and Free Trials: What's Included and What's Limited
Two products share this help centre, and they handle “free” differently:
| Free Online Surveys | Shout | |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent free plan | Yes — the Free plan, free forever | No |
| Free trial of paid plans | 14 days, no credit card | 14 days, no credit card |
| Entry-level paid plan | Essentials | Essentials |
So if you signed up at freeonlinesurveys.com, you have a Free plan that never expires, and you can also trial a paid plan. If you signed up at shout.com, there is no free plan: every new account starts a 14-day free trial, and you choose a paid plan (or let the trial lapse) at the end of it.
Shout: the 14-day free trial
Section titled “Shout: the 14-day free trial”Every new Shout account starts on a 14-day free trial. No credit card is required, and the trial includes the full Pro feature set so you can try everything before you choose a plan.
Two limits apply during the trial:
- Email invitations — you can send up to 250 email invitation messages during the trial.
- Responses — you can collect up to 20 responses during the trial. Your forms keep collecting after that, but you’ll need to upgrade to see the rest of the responses in your results.
Upgrading to any paid plan lifts both limits immediately. To upgrade, click your profile icon at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar and choose Upgrade — see How to Upgrade Your Plan.
When the 14 days end without an upgrade, your account and forms are kept, but the trial allowances stop and paid features are switched off until you choose a plan. Your data stays accessible for the period described in Data Retention.
Shout does not have a free plan. The Essentials plan is the cheapest paid plan — see Plans and Pricing and the plan comparison for what each paid plan includes.
Free Online Surveys: the Free plan
Section titled “Free Online Surveys: the Free plan”Free Online Surveys offers a Free plan that is free forever — it never expires and never needs a credit card. It’s designed for individuals running occasional surveys.
What the Free plan includes
Section titled “What the Free plan includes”- Unlimited surveys, forms and quizzes
- 20+ question types, with single- or multi-question pages
- Logic and branching
- Charts, graphs and individual response viewing
- Sharing by web link, QR code and web embed
- Built-in contact manager
- 1 user
Free plan limits
Section titled “Free plan limits”- Responses — up to 1,000 responses per month across your account. Your surveys keep collecting after that, but you’ll need to upgrade to see the rest of the responses in your results.
- Collection window — each survey has a 14-day collection window. Upgrading removes the window.
- Branding — Free Online Surveys branding stays on your surveys.
- Not included — email invitations, Stripe payments, custom exit pages, NPS, text piping, hidden fields, address autofill, A/B testing, and PDF/Excel export. These are available on paid plans.
Trying a paid plan on Free Online Surveys
Section titled “Trying a paid plan on Free Online Surveys”Free Online Surveys also offers a 14-day free trial of its paid plans (Essentials, Plus and Business), with no credit card required. If you don’t continue after the trial, your account returns to the Free plan — your surveys and data are kept, but anything that relies on a paid feature (for example responses beyond the Free plan’s monthly allowance, or exports) becomes unavailable until you upgrade again.
For current prices see the Free Online Surveys pricing page, or open the Upgrade page inside the app.
Which applies to me?
Section titled “Which applies to me?”- Signed up at freeonlinesurveys.com → the Free plan (free forever), with an optional 14-day trial of a paid plan.
- Signed up at shout.com → a 14-day free trial, then a paid plan. There is no free plan.
If you’re not sure which product your account is on, look at the web address you use to log in. Questions about a specific account? Contact us via Contact Us.