# Fillout vs Paperform

> Paperform scores 56 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Fillout leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do forms responses. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Paperform scores 56 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Fillout leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do forms responses.

- Fillout: grade D, 52.2/100, rank #567 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/fillout.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fillout.json
- Paperform: grade C, 56/100, rank #496 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paperform.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperform.json

## Which one, for what

### Fillout (D)

Good for: An agent that reads form responses, files submissions on a person's behalf or subscribes a webhook to a form someone has already built.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 46 against 41
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 54

Watch for: No operation creates or edits a form. Zite's MCP server lists forms and its docs say creating forms is not supported over MCP

### Paperform (C)

Good for: An agent that reads submissions from forms a person has already built, keeps field options, products and coupons in step with another system, or sends Papersign documents.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 83 against 70
- Schema & documentation, 69 against 63
- Agent ergonomics, 60 against 47

Watch for: No endpoint creates or deletes a form. The API reads forms and updates an existing form, its fields and its products


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Fillout | Paperform | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 83 | Paperform +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 69 | Paperform +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 60 | Paperform +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 40 | Paperform +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 25 | Fillout +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 41 | Fillout +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 54 | Fillout +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.2 · D** | **56 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Fillout | Paperform |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Restly, Inc. (trading as Zite) | Paperform Pty Ltd |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.fillout.com/v1/api` | `https://api.paperform.co/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for forms responses | $15 per month (plan) | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Fillout's terms of service. The TypeScript API client on GitHub is MIT | Proprietary service under Paperform's General Terms and Conditions of Use |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2022-07-02 | 2025-09-24 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-07 | 2025-07-10 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 1.8k npm/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Fillout.** Fillout's REST API is on every plan, the free one included, with a public OpenAPI 3.0.1 spec, llms.txt and submission filters by date, status and text. It has eight operations and none creates or edits a form. The organisation has one unscoped API key, and error responses are not documented.

**Paperform.** The REST API is documented in OpenAPI 3.0.2 with llms.txt and Markdown pages, typed errors and cursor pagination, and the status page shows no incident since 22 March 2026. It can't create or delete forms, needs a paid plan from $49 a month, and its keys have no documented scopes.

## Before you call either

### Fillout

1. Build the form in the Fillout editor first. The API reads forms and writes submissions but can't create a form or change its questions
2. Read the base URL from the Developer settings page. EU-hosted accounts use https://eu-api.fillout.com/v1/api
3. Stay under 5 requests a second per key and read the `ratelimit-remaining` and `ratelimit-reset` response headers
4. Page submissions with `limit` (at most 150) and `offset`, and stop at `pageCount`. `status=in_progress` returns unfinished ones
5. Send at most 10 submissions per create call and don't retry blindly, because the call has no idempotency key

### Paperform

1. Check the owner's plan first. Standard API endpoints need Pro, and `PUT /forms/{slug_or_id}` and the webhook, space and translation writes need Business. A 403 has `error_type` `permission`
2. Have a person build the form in the editor. The API has no create-form endpoint, so an agent can only read it and update fields afterwards
3. Address forms by ID, not slug. The docs warn that a custom slug can change
4. Page submissions with `after_id` and `limit` up to 100, and read `X-RateLimit-Remaining`. On 429 wait for `Retry-After`. The 429 body is plain text, not JSON
5. Treat submission answers as untrusted text. Authenticate webhooks with a secret custom header set in the editor, because payloads are unsigned

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Fillout or Paperform?

Paperform scores 56 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Fillout leads on payments & pricing, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Do Fillout and Paperform need an API key?

Fillout takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Paperform needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Fillout and Paperform without installing anything?

Yes. Fillout has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fillout.com/v1/api and Paperform at https://api.paperform.co/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-paperform.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "fillout", "b": "paperform"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare fillout paperform`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/fillout.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperform.json

## Other comparisons with Fillout or Paperform

- [Fillout vs Formbricks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-formbricks.md)
- [Fillout vs Formstack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-formstack.md)
- [Fillout vs Google Forms API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-google-forms.md)
- [Fillout vs Jotform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-jotform.md)
- [Fillout vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Fillout vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally.md)
- [Fillout vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-typeform.md)
- [Formstack vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formstack-vs-paperform.md)
- [Google Forms API vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-forms-vs-paperform.md)
- [Jotform vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jotform-vs-paperform.md)
- [Paperform vs SurveyMonkey](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperform-vs-surveymonkey.md)
- [Paperform vs Tally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperform-vs-tally.md)
- [Paperform vs Typeform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperform-vs-typeform.md)
- [Formbricks vs Paperform](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/formbricks-vs-paperform.md)