Google Forms is free, familiar and fast. For a staff survey or a simple anonymous questionnaire, it can be fine. For a clinical trial, the gaps are audit trails, access control, signatures and scheduling, not the form builder.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
| Google Forms | Capture | |
|---|---|---|
| Field-level audit trail | ||
| Re-authenticated e-signatures | ||
| Visit schedule and windows | ||
| Role-based site separation | ||
| Quick simple questionnaire |
The short version
Where it works
Plenty of research activities do not need trial-grade controls: an anonymous survey of clinicians, feedback from patient advisory groups, a quick internal questionnaire. For those, Google Forms is quick and free, and there is no reason to over-engineer.
The line is crossed when the data is identifiable health information, when it supports a regulatory submission or publication as trial data, or when participants return repeatedly on a schedule. At that point regulators and ethics committees expect attributable, time-stamped records, controlled access and a record of every change, the principles summarised as ALCOA+. A form that writes to an editable spreadsheet cannot provide them.
Form responses usually land in a spreadsheet, where anyone with edit access can change a value. Version history exists, but it is not a per-field audit trail with reasons for change, and it does not stop edits. Data managers then cannot show an inspector who changed a value, when, and why.
Weight changed 68.0 to 68.5 kg
Site coordinator · Reason: Transcription error
Query Q-0014 answered on Weight
Site coordinator · Reason: Source checked
Vital signs form locked
Data manager · Reason: Visit cleaned
The alternative
Capture builds questionnaires without code, and the AI form builder drafts questions from a description or an uploaded file. Unlike a general form tool, every answer has a field-level audit trail, participants get questionnaires on a schedule with reminders, and site and sponsor roles see only what they should.
Question form
CRF or ePRO
Lab table
Analytes, units, ranges
1. Systolic blood pressure
Required · Number · mmHg · 0 dp
2. Diastolic blood pressure
Required · Number · mmHg · 0 dp
3. Pulse rate
Required · Number · beats/min
4. Body temperature
Required · Number · °C · 1 dp
5. Position during measurement
Required · Sitting, Supine, Standing
Describe it or upload it, and let the AI draft the questions in the free sandbox.
Use cases
| Use | Google Forms? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Anonymous survey of clinicians | Usually fine | No health information about participants, one-off. |
| Patient advisory group feedback | Usually fine | Not research data, low risk. |
| Registration of interest for a study | Check first | Contact details and possibly health information; check agreements and privacy rules. |
| Cross-sectional patient questionnaire | Check carefully | Identifiable health data needs appropriate agreements and controls. |
| Longitudinal study with follow-ups | Not suitable | No schedule, windows or linkage of responses per participant. |
| Clinical trial data | Not suitable | No audit trail, signatures, edit checks or site separation. |
Moving on
If a study has outgrown a form tool, the move is simpler than it looks. Export the form questions, rebuild them with proper codes and validation, and decide how to handle data already collected: usually it stays in its original export, documented and archived, while new data is collected in the new system from a defined date. Record the switch in the study documentation so the dataset's history is clear.
In Capture, the AI form builder drafts questions from an uploaded file or a description, which you then review, add edit checks to and approve. See how to design a clinical research questionnaire for improving questions along the way.
Google offers a business associate agreement for some Workspace services on eligible plans. Consumer accounts are not covered. Check which services your agreement covers, and remember HIPAA compliance also depends on your configuration and procedures.
Not for regulated trial data. It lacks a field-level audit trail, e-signatures, visit scheduling, edit checks with queries and role-based site separation.
For simple, low-risk, non-regulated questionnaires, such as anonymous surveys or feedback forms.
A system built for clinical research with audit trails and access control. Capture has a free sandbox to compare.
Yes. Describe the form or upload a file and the AI form builder drafts the questions for you to review.
Keep exploring
Build a questionnaire in minutes. Free sandbox.