# Fillout vs Tally

> Tally scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do forms responses. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally.md (~2,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fillout-vs-tally.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

Tally scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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
- Tally: grade C, 60.6/100, rank #395 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tally.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tally.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.

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

### 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 70
- Schema & documentation, 82 against 63
- Security & auth, 47 against 37
- Maintenance & community, 66 against 46

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Fillout | Tally | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 75 | Tally +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 82 | Tally +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 47 | 50 | Tally +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 37 | 47 | Tally +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 66 | Tally +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 73 | Tally +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **52.2 · D** | **60.6 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Fillout | Tally |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Restly, Inc. (trading as Zite) | Tally BV |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.fillout.com/v1/api` | `https://api.tally.so` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| 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 Tally's terms and conditions. The OpenAPI spec names MIT as its own licence |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-11 |
| Terms last updated | 2022-07-02 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-10-07 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Fillout or Tally?

Tally scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Fillout's 52.2 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

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

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

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

Yes. Fillout has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fillout.com/v1/api and Tally at https://api.tally.so.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Fillout or Tally

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