Shout

What it is

Shout is a form, survey and quiz builder with a CRM and a shared inbox attached, made for operations, support and marketing teams that want every submission to turn into a conversation. The homepage title says it plainly: "Forms, Surveys & Shared Inbox for Teams". The company's About page says it launched in 2001 and reports 3M+ users in 100+ countries, which makes it an older product than most no-code form tools. The pages don't name a headquarters.

What you build and how

The core builders number 4: surveys, quizzes, forms and a custom calculator builder. The survey side offers question types including matrix questions, and the About page frames surveys as a way to collect feedback in every direction, from customers, employees and other audiences. The quiz builder adds automatic scoring, conditional logic and analytics, and the company pitches it for education and lead generation. The form builder is described as a way to "capture lead information, record consent, register guests, track incidents and much, much more", with built-in validation.

The calculator builder gets its own page. You pick questions as inputs, choose operators and assemble formulas through a visual interface, with no code. The page says you can build ROI, pricing and savings calculators, assessment tools and quote generators. Results can be gated behind an email address, handed to the visitor as a PDF download, or emailed to them. You can change colors, fonts and layout, add your logo, and embed a calculator on any site with an embed code; the page says the embeds are responsive across desktop, tablet and phone.

What sets Shout apart from a plain form tool is what happens after submission. The homepage says "Form builders treat responses as data. We treat them as conversations." Every response lands in a shared team inbox, where a form submission, a customer enquiry or a support message sits alongside the rest. The pricing page says you can reply to anyone who submits a form straight from the inbox, and that you connect your Gmail or Outlook account so replies go out from your own company address. The homepage demo shows the pattern with a job application: the applicant uploads a CV, the submission appears in the team inbox, a colleague leaves an internal note, and the team replies to the candidate from the same screen. Teams can assign conversations, add internal notes and see who is handling what.

The data layer is the integrated CRM, which the About page and the calculator page both describe as part of the product at no additional cost. Per the pricing page, every form response creates or updates a contact, and you can link questions to contact fields like name, email or company. When a known contact opens a form, their details are filled in automatically. Lists manage consent such as marketing opt-ins, and segments are saved filters that group contacts by attributes or activity. You can email survey invitations to those contacts, and the company says the forms and inbox are "natively integrated", so no Zapier is needed to connect them. The pricing page also lists a Contact Hub, a 50,000 contact allowance on one tier and higher AI limits.

Reporting comes from report dashboards that cover responses and email metrics together. The pricing page gives the example of product interest broken down by age group and location. Collaboration includes shared surveys, joint work on reports, separate dashboards and role-based access control.

The evidence from the pages

Shout offers a 14-day free trial; the pricing page says all paid trials include full Pro features for 14 days with no credit card required. It is a trial, not a free plan. The pricing page organizes plans as Essentials, Pro and Business, and its comparison table lists surveys, forms and quizzes as unlimited. It adds that you can change plans at any time, that your data stays accessible for 30 days after cancellation and that you can export all of it. It also says the company offers special pricing to registered non-profit organizations, and the higher tiers mention purchase order and wire payments and additional seats.

For concrete prices, the only figures on the pages come from a Shout blog post written for a 2023 roundup of calculator builders. It lists Pro at $25 per month paid annually, with unlimited submissions and impressions, 5000 email invitations, 3 users, 3 live calculators, and unlimited surveys, quizzes and forms. It lists Business at £59 per month paid annually, with 7000 email invitations, 5 users and 3 live calculators. The same post describes a trial limited to 20 submissions. Because the pricing page now presents Essentials, Pro and Business and its price table is not reproduced in the text of the page, check the pricing page for current figures.

On privacy, the About page calls Shout "a privacy-first application", and the homepage says GDPR compliance is built in, with consent tracking and data retention controls. The calculator page says Shout tracks lawful basis for processing and records consent automatically. If you need a formal security certification, ask the company, because the privacy claims above are about consent and retention features.

Who it suits and who it doesn't

Shout suits a team whose forms are the front door to a relationship: a recruiting team taking applications, a sales team handling enquiries, a customer success group running satisfaction surveys, or a team running 360 degree feedback, which the company lists among its solutions. The shared inbox and the form-to-contact loop save you from wiring a form tool, a spreadsheet and a help desk together. The calculator builder is a useful extra for agencies and consultants who want a lead-generating quote tool without a developer.

It is less of a fit for someone who wants a free form forever, since the entry point is a 14-day trial. It's also a team product, with plans listing a few users each, so a solo creator who only needs a quick embed may find it heavier than they need. Shout is built around forms, surveys, a CRM and an inbox rather than an app builder or workflow canvas, so teams that need richer automation or custom apps around their forms will need other tools. And since the sample prices on the pages are dated and mixed between dollars and pounds, anyone budgeting should confirm the current plan prices in writing.