How to create a comparison tool for your SaaS
Turn a set of forms into a comparison tool: price each answer with calculated fields, show a result page, and route visitors to the right competitor form.
A comparison page puts your product beside the alternatives a prospect is already weighing up, on a page you control. An interactive one goes further: the visitor says what they need and gets a price and a feature list for both sides, worked out as they answer. Tinyform can build the whole thing with forms alone, using calculated fields, conditional logic and a redirect.
Building your own
1. One form per competitor
Decide first which features and which prices the comparison will cover, then settle on a structure that makes the two sides easy to read against each other. Three groups tend to work:
- The numbers: forms, responses, seats, storage.
- Customisation: branding, styling, domains.
- Features and integrations.
2. Logic and calculations
Insert two Calculated field blocks: one for your own price and one for the competitor's. Every calculation in the form writes into one of these two.
Under each question, insert a Conditional logic block whose Calculate action changes the price when the answer calls for it.
If you sell plans rather than add-ons, use the Assign operator instead of Add. An answer that needs a feature from your 60-a-month plan should set the price to 60, not add 60 to whatever was there.
Assigning has one trap. If the visitor picks a feature from the 60 plan and later picks one from the 30 plan, the second rule would overwrite the price downwards. Guard each assignment with a condition on the field itself: when the calculated field is less than or equal to 30, then assign 30. A higher price already set is then left alone.
3. A result page
Add a New page at the end and put another Calculated field on it for the outcome of the comparison. A logic block works out which of the two prices is lower, and answer piping prints it: type @ in a text block and pick the field under Mention a calculated field.
The page can carry as much of a summary as you like. Write each detail as its own block, mark the ones that only apply sometimes as hidden, and use Show blocks in a logic rule to reveal them when the visitor's answers warrant it.
4. A landing form
Create one more form to act as the front door. It needs a title and a Dropdown question listing the competitors.
5. A redirect that depends on the answer
On the landing form, add a Calculated field with Text as its result type, and a Conditional logic block per competitor that assigns that competitor's form address, /r/<id>, to the field when it is picked.
Publish the landing form, open its Settings tab and switch on Redirect on completion. In the URL box, type @ and pick the calculated field from the menu; the visitor is sent wherever the field resolved to when they pressed the button. Redirect on completion has the details of the row.
Putting it on your site
Each finished form embeds in a page of your own from its Share tab. The Standard embed starts with Hide title, Align left and Transparent background switched on, which is the right set for a tool that should read as part of the page rather than as a form sitting in it. Embed your form covers the rest.