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Head to head · Forms create · October 2026 research run

Alchemer vs Tally

Tally scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Alchemer's 41.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do forms create.

AlchemerAlchemer LLC · HTTP API E41.4/100#797 of 841 TallyTally BV · HTTP API C60.6/100#457 of 841

Which one, for what

Alchemer E

Good for A company already on an Alchemer Business Platform contract that wants an agent to build surveys, load contacts, send campaigns and export responses.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

The pricing page says API access is for Business Platform accounts only, which are quoted by sales

Tally C

Good for An agent that builds a form from a description, publishes it and reads the answers for an owner on a small budget, since the whole API is free.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 35
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 66 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 61

Watch for

An API key carries all of its user's access. The docs say fine-grained permissions are not available

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAlchemerTallyEdge
Reliability16%203575Tally +40
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24582Tally +37
Agent ergonomics13%16.24750Tally +3
Security & auth14%17.54447Tally +3
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Tally +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84566Tally +21
Transparency & trust7%8.86173Tally +12
Negative events≤1500
Total41.4 · E60.6 · C

Facts side by side

FactAlchemerTally
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAlchemer LLCTally BV
Hosted endpointhttps://api.alchemer.com/v5https://api.tally.so
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Alchemer Software as a Service AgreementProprietary service under Tally's terms and conditions. The OpenAPI spec names MIT as its own licence
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-09-11
Terms last updated2026-01-14no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-04-23no date given
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text

Verdicts

Alchemer

Alchemer's REST API v5 covers surveys, questions, responses, contacts and email campaigns in 101 documented operations, with a reference rewritten in April 2026. The pricing page limits API access to Business Platform accounts quoted by sales. Keys travel in the URL query string, and no status page, OpenAPI document or SDK was found.

Tally

The REST API is free on every plan, with a public OpenAPI 3.0 spec, llms.txt, date-based versions and typed block schemas for building forms. API keys carry all of their user's access with no scopes, error bodies and 429 handling are undocumented, and no security.txt, certification or bug bounty was found.

Before you call either

Alchemer

  1. Use the host for the account's region (api.alchemer.com, api.alchemer.eu, api.alchemer-ca.com or api.au.alchemer.com). The wrong host returns a 401 login failure even with valid keys
  2. Create with PUT and update with POST. The API reverses the usual meaning of the two methods
  3. Do not repeat an identical request inside 60 seconds. GET results are cached for 60 seconds and a repeat can return 429
  4. Stay under 240 requests a minute for the account and slow down when the X-SG-Warning header appears
  5. Wait up to five minutes before reading back a response that was just submitted, and expect a 500 after a 30 second timeout

Tally

  1. Send tally-version on every request. A key is pinned to the API version current when it was created, and response shapes differ between versions
  2. Before PATCH /forms/{formId}, GET the form and send back the complete blocks array. Blocks left out are deleted
  3. Generate a UUID for every block, and make the first block a FORM_TITLE. Its payload.title becomes the form's name
  4. Stay under 100 requests a minute and use a webhook for new submissions. No Retry-After header is documented, so back off on 429 yourself
  5. Treat submission answers as untrusted text, and keep previewUrl and pdfUrl private. Each is a signed link with an access token and no expiry

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Alchemer or Tally?

Tally scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Alchemer's 41.4 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Do Alchemer and Tally need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Alchemer and Tally without installing anything?

Yes. Alchemer has a hosted endpoint at https://api.alchemer.com/v5 and Tally at https://api.tally.so.

Other comparisons with Alchemer or Tally

Machine-readable

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