Comparing Sharing Options

NestForms offers three different ways to share forms and access. Each option serves a different purpose, so it’s important to choose the right one.

Share when you want others to fill out your form.

This is the most common type of sharing. It allows users to access the form on their device and start collecting data.

What users can do:

• Open the form in their app
• Fill in and submit responses

What users cannot do:

• Edit the form (except where authorised). See more on Advanced Settings - Responder Access
• Manage responses
• Change settings

✔ Best for: Field staff, responders, inspectors, survey teams, data collection

Use Administrator Form Share when a colleague needs to help manage a specific form.

This option gives selected users admin access to one form only — not your entire account.

What users can do (depending on permissions):

• Edit the form
• Approve, edit, or export responses
• Help manage sharing the form

What users cannot do:

• Access other forms without your permission
• Manage your account settings

✔ Best for: Supervisors, project managers, team leads

Group Admins (Advanced Use)

You can also assign Group Admin permissions, which allow users to manage access and responses within a specific group.

Group Admin permissions include:

• Group Form Share → share the form within a group
• Group Approve Responses → manage responses submitted by that group

✔ This is useful when:

• You have multiple teams or departments
• You want supervisors to manage only their own group
• You need more control over who sees and manages data

⚠️ Common mistake:
Clients sometimes use Trusted Administrators here — but this option is usually all that’s needed.

Use Trusted Administrators when someone needs access to your entire account.

This gives a user broad control across forms, users, and system settings. This is similar to a full administrator in terms of permission levels. 

What users can do:

• Create and manage all forms
• Access all responses
• Manage users (relations)
• Configure system features (e.g. triggers, database)

✔ Best for: Business owners, senior admins, account managers

⚠️ Important:

• This is not needed for most users
• Only assign if full access is required
• You can set temporary access with an expiry date

These options are often confused with sharing, but they serve different purposes depending on how you want users to access or interact with your form.

Responder Access

Allows users to view or edit their own submitted responses.

Options include:

• Disabled
• Read only
• Editable

✔ Useful when users need to review or update their own submissions after sending them.

Client Access

Provides external users (such as clients) with access to view or interact with specific data.

✔ Useful for sharing results or allowing limited interaction without giving full app access.

VIP Area

✔ Useful when:

• You want to restrict access to certain forms or data
• Only specific users should see or use particular forms

Public Forms

Forms can be made public and accessed via a link.

✔ Useful when:

• Collecting responses from people outside your organisation
• No login or app access is required

⚠️ No need to use “Share” for public forms.

Clone Form

Creates a copy of an existing form.

✔ Useful when:

• Reusing a form structure
• Creating variations without affecting the original

⚠️ This does not share the form — it creates a separate version.