Tezera vs Microsoft Forms: Which one is actually built for hiring?
Microsoft Forms is free with Microsoft 365, which makes it the path of least resistance for teams already living in Excel, Teams, and SharePoint. Tezera is also free to start. So the question is: if you're already in the Microsoft world, why not just keep going?
The honest answer depends on what you need hiring to look like. Microsoft Forms is a general-purpose survey tool that handles quizzes and feedback well. Tezera is a hiring platform with the workflow baked in from job creation through to the offer. Here's how they compare.
Job creation
Free
Free with Microsoft 365
The case for Microsoft Forms is convenience: it's already in your subscription, the link shows up in Teams, the responses land in Excel. For a team that lives in Microsoft 365, that's friction removed. But the same shape of trade-off applies as with any general-purpose form tool — convenience now, more work later. Once applications start arriving, you're sorting them by hand. There's no candidate pipeline, no shortlist view, no scheduling, no real assessments.
AI assistance
Custom hiring AI that helps you define your ideal candidate
Limited AI for question suggestions
Microsoft Forms has light AI for suggesting questions, but it's built for general surveys — not hiring. Tezera's AI walks you through tailored questions designed to help you articulate the profile of your ideal candidate. By the end you have a clear picture of who you're looking for, not just a generic question list.
Receiving applications
Free
Free
Forms dumps responses into Excel. From there: you sort, you filter, you score, you chase candidates by email. Tezera processes applications inside the platform — review, rank, and shortlist in the same place applications arrive.
Processing applications
Built-in. Review, rank, and shortlist inside the platform
Responses land in Excel. Sorting and ranking is on you
Tezera handles processing applications natively — built-in. Review, rank, and shortlist inside the platform. Microsoft Forms: responses land in Excel. Sorting and ranking is on you, which usually means the work either doesn't happen or moves to another tool you stitch in yourself.
Assessments
Timed assessments and webcam assessments
Quiz mode with time limits, but no proctoring or webcam
Forms has quiz mode with time limits, which works for an internal training quiz. It doesn't work for hiring. There's no proctoring, no webcam verification, no way to confirm the candidate is the one taking it.
Tezera supports timed and webcam assessments natively. Real signal, not self-reported claims.
Interview management
Schedule and reschedule directly in the platform
Not supported
Microsoft Forms is out the moment you start interviewing. You're back to Outlook invites and reschedule chains. Tezera manages interviews directly, including rescheduling.
Job promotion
Helps get your role in front of the right people
Not supported
Forms doesn't help you find candidates — it just hosts the form. And the application page is unmistakably Microsoft's: generic styling, Microsoft branding. Tezera promotes your role and puts your brand front and centre.
Branded application page
Your brand, front and centre
Microsoft styling, limited customisation
Microsoft Forms leaves you with microsoft styling, limited customisation — Tezera does branded application page natively: your brand, front and centre.
Microsoft Forms is fine for what it's designed to be: a survey tool inside Office. If you're collecting feedback from your team or running an internal quiz, it works. For hiring, the convenience savings disappear the moment applications start arriving and the real work begins.
Already in Microsoft 365? Forms is great for surveys. For hiring, Tezera handles what Forms doesn't.