Briefly vs Google Forms: which tool for client briefs?
Google Forms is free, familiar and simple. Briefly is built for one job: turning what a prospect tells you into a brief you can work from, before the call. Here is an honest comparison on what matters for freelance briefs.
30-second verdict
- →Choose Briefly if you want to know what’s missing from a brief before the call, send your client questions that fit their project, and handle prospects who write by email or WhatsApp. No setup.
- →Choose Google Forms if you need a general-purpose form, tight Google Workspace integration, or several people working on the answers.
Feature comparison
| Criterion | Briefly | Google Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Brief analysis | Yes. Missing info, risks, call questions | No. Answers go to Google Sheets |
| Asking the client for what’s missing | Yes. A short link with only the missing questions | No. You write the follow-up yourself |
| Start from a prospect’s email or WhatsApp | Yes. Paste it, the brief is drafted | No |
| Questions by type of project | Templates for 10 trades, editable | Same form for everyone, unless you build sections |
| Your branding | Logo and colour free; no Briefly mention on Pro | Header image and colour; Google branding stays |
| Where briefs live | A dashboard by status: to complete, ready for the call | A spreadsheet in Google Sheets |
| Integrations | Google Calendar, Notion (Pro) | Google Workspace natively, plus add-ons |
| Team collaboration | No. One freelancer, one account | Yes. Native Google sharing |
| Price | Free (5 analysed briefs a month) · Pro €12/month | Free |
The fundamental difference: a spreadsheet or a brief
With Google Forms, each answer becomes a row in Google Sheets. That’s great for counting survey results, much less so for a client brief: you still have to read every row, notice what the client didn’t say, and write to them again.
Briefly reads the brief for you. You see what’s confirmed, what’s missing and what looks risky, with the questions to ask on the call and a reply ready to send. If something’s missing, your client gets a short link that asks only for that, and the brief updates when they answer.
Try Briefly for free
Paste your prospect’s message or share a link. You get a clear brief, what’s missing, and your call questions. No credit card needed.
Get started free →Generic questions vs questions that fit the project
Google Forms shows the same questions to everyone unless you build sections with conditional logic, which takes time and is easy to break. In practice, most freelancers using Google Forms send one form to every client.
Briefly starts from questionnaire templates for 10 trades (web, branding, video, copywriting, ads…) that you adapt in an editor. A branding project doesn’t get the questions of a website redesign.
Google Forms: a typical answer
- • Project: “Website”
- • Budget: “not too expensive”
- • Timeline: “as soon as possible”
- • Anything else: (empty)
Briefly: the same client, analysed
- • Goal: more quote requests for a craft business
- • Existing: hosting at OVH, logo available
- • Missing: budget range, delivery date
- • Risk: “as soon as possible” with no date
- • To ask on the call: number of pages, who writes the content
Where Google Forms remains ahead
- +
Team collaboration
Google Forms lives inside Google Workspace. If several people work on the answers (agency, partnership), it’s hard to beat.
- +
Versatility
Satisfaction surveys, event sign-ups, internal polls: Google Forms covers all of them. Briefly only does client project briefs.
- +
Large volumes of data
Google Sheets lets you analyse thousands of answers. Briefly isn’t built for that.
Google Forms' hidden cost: your time
Free doesn't mean costless. With Google Forms, the price is paid in manual work on every brief. Over a year, that time is a real expense for a freelancer who bills by the hour.
Read each answer and spot what’s missing
budget, deadline, decision-maker: the usual gaps
Write the follow-up email to the client
then wait, and chase again if they don’t reply
Adapt the form to each type of project
conditional sections to build and maintain
A dedicated tool does most of this for you. The real question isn't which one is free, but how many hours you're willing to spend to avoid a subscription.
Also read
Frequently asked questions
Can Google Forms tell me what is missing from a client brief?
No. Google Forms collects answers into Google Sheets and stops there. Spotting the missing budget or the vague deadline, and writing the follow-up, is up to you. Briefly reads every brief and flags what’s missing, the risks and the questions to ask on the call.
Is Briefly free like Google Forms?
Google Forms is free with a Google account. Briefly has a free plan with no credit card: unlimited briefs received, 5 analysed a month, your logo and colour on the form. Pro costs €12/month or €99/year for unlimited analyses, automatic reminders, estimates from your rates, full white label, Google Calendar and Notion.
Is Google Forms suitable for freelance client briefs?
It can collect the information, but it wasn’t built for it. It doesn’t adapt questions to the type of project unless you build the logic yourself, doesn’t analyse what the client wrote, and doesn’t help when the project starts with an email or a WhatsApp message instead of a form.
Can I use both Briefly and Google Forms?
Yes. Some freelancers use Briefly for client project briefs and Google Forms for everything else: feedback, internal surveys, event sign-ups.
Try Briefly for free
Paste your prospect’s message or share a link. You get a clear brief, what’s missing, and your call questions. No credit card needed.
Get started free →