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Tally is free for almost everything — which makes most setups sloppy. This walks through the right setup path: workspace structure, brand kit, GDPR, and the integration baseline that prevents 80% of the rework that hits at month three.
Who this is forFounders and marketers picking Tally over Typeform/Google Forms because it is free and unlimited. If you plan to ship more than two real forms, the defaults are wrong for you — read this before launching anything.
What you'll need
Step 1
Free covers unlimited forms, unlimited responses, and most integrations. Pro ($29/mo) unlocks custom domains, branding removal, file uploads over 10MB, and advanced logic. Most lead-gen funnels start on Free.
Tally Free is genuinely unlimited on responses, forms, and questions — which is why most teams pick it over Typeform. The catch: a small "Made with Tally" footer sits on every form.
Tally Pro ($29/mo or $24/mo annual) removes the watermark, adds custom domains (forms.yourcompany.com), unlimited file uploads, and unlocks calculator + conversion-tracking blocks.
Pro is worth it once you have a public-facing brand to protect or want forms on a custom subdomain. Below that, Free is the right call for 12-18 months.
Tally Business is rare — only needed for SAML SSO, audit logs, and enterprise compliance. Skip unless legal asks for it.
Rule of thumb: start Free, upgrade to Pro the moment you put a Tally form on a paying-customer-facing page.
Step 2
One workspace per business unit. Folders per funnel. Naming convention enforced from day one.
In Tally, open the workspace dropdown (top-left). Rename "My workspace" to your company name. Ambiguity creeps in fast once you invite a second person.
Create folders per funnel: "Lead Capture," "Customer Feedback," "Onboarding," "Internal Forms." Tally folders are flat — no nested subfolders — so plan top-level structure carefully.
Naming convention: `[funnel]-[purpose]-[YYYYMM]`. Example: `leadcap-pricing-page-202605`. Future-you will thank present-you when there are 30 forms in the account.
Invite teammates with role-appropriate access. Tally has Owner, Admin, and Editor. Default everyone to Editor unless they need billing access.
Step 3
Set workspace-level theme: logo, primary color, fonts. New forms inherit these defaults so you stop fixing brand drift one form at a time.
In Workspace settings → Branding (Pro tier), upload your transparent PNG logo at 200x200px or higher.
Set primary color (button + progress) and accent color. Use exact hex codes from your website CSS — eyeballing it leads to "looks almost like our brand" forms that subtly erode trust.
Pick a font from the Tally library. Default "Inter" is safe and matches most modern sites; switch only if your brand uses a specific custom font.
On Free, you can still apply brand colors per form — just commit to one defined palette in a doc and copy-paste hex codes. Brand kits are Pro-only.
Step 4
Tally is built privacy-first by default (no IP tracking, no third-party cookies), but you still need to set retention and add a GDPR consent question for EU traffic.
Tally does not record IP addresses, does not set tracking cookies, and is GDPR-compliant out of the box. This is one of the few SaaS tools where the defaults are already correct.
Add a GDPR consent question manually to any form that captures EU traffic. Use the Checkbox block with text like "I agree to receive marketing emails from [Company]" and mark it required.
Set form-level "Auto-delete responses after X days" in Form settings → Privacy if you have a retention policy. Default is forever; pick 365 or 730 days for marketing leads.
Add a privacy policy URL in workspace settings — Tally displays it as a footer link on every form.
Step 5
Authorize Notion, Airtable, Slack, Google Sheets, and your email tool once at the workspace level so any form can use them without re-auth.
Open Form settings → Integrations. Browse the integration directory.
Connect Notion first if you use it as a CRM — Tally → Notion is one of the cleanest native integrations in the ecosystem.
Connect Airtable next if Notion is not your system of record. Both are free integrations in Tally.
Connect Slack for response notifications and Google Sheets for backup exports. Free, fast, prevent data loss if any other sync ever breaks.
Pro tip: avoid Zapier when a native Tally integration exists. Native connectors are faster, more reliable, and free.
Step 6
Build a test form. Submit a real response. Verify the data lands in Notion/Airtable, your email tool, and Slack within 30 seconds.
Build a simple test form (name, email, "How did you hear about us?"). Apply your brand colors. Connect to Notion + Slack.
Submit a response from incognito with a real email you control.
Open Notion and confirm the row appeared with correct field mapping. Open Slack and confirm the notification fired.
If anything is missing, check field mappings before launching real forms. Fixing mapping after 300 real responses is 10x harder.
Delete the test response from Tally and from Notion to keep analytics clean.
Common mistakes
Staying on Free for customer-facing forms
What goes wrong: The "Made with Tally" footer appears on every form. Customers and investors read this as "we did not invest in our own product." Trust cost is real but unquantifiable — likely 5-10% conversion drop on high-stakes forms.
How to avoid: Upgrade to Pro ($29/mo) the moment a Tally form goes on a customer-facing page. Free is fine for internal forms and lead magnets, not for checkout-adjacent flows.
No workspace structure — every form in the default folder
What goes wrong: After 6 months you have 25 unsorted forms. Nobody can find the customer-feedback form. Marketing rebuilds an existing form because they could not find it. Estimated drift cost: 6-10 hours/quarter.
How to avoid: Create 4-5 folders by funnel at setup. Enforce naming convention from form #1. Audit monthly for the first quarter.
Setting brand colors per form on Free instead of documenting hex codes
What goes wrong: Three months in, brand colors drift across 12 forms because each one was tweaked separately. Rebrand requires touching every form by hand. ~$150-300 of avoidable cleanup labor.
How to avoid: On Free, keep a shared doc with hex codes + fonts. Copy-paste exactly into each form. Upgrade to Pro if drift is a recurring problem.
Skipping the GDPR consent checkbox on EU-facing forms
What goes wrong: EU resident files a GDPR complaint. You face a regulatory inquiry plus the cost of legal advice ($1,500+). Reputation cost is harder to quantify.
How to avoid: Add a required Checkbox block with explicit consent language on every form that may capture EU traffic. Add your privacy policy URL in workspace settings.
Using Zapier for the Tally → Notion sync
What goes wrong: You burn 100-300 Zaps/month on something the native Tally → Notion integration does for free, and the Zap breaks every time Tally tweaks payload format. ~$30-50/month of avoidable Zapier spend.
How to avoid: Use the native Tally → Notion integration. Native connectors are faster, more reliable, and free.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to build a Tally form that actually converts
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
Setting up Tally once is a project. Building forms that consistently capture, route, and convert is a job. A vetted conversion-funnel specialist will set up the workspace, build the first 3-5 forms, connect them to your stack, and own ongoing optimization. From $14-16/hr — most engagements land at $300-700/mo depending on volume.
See specialist rates
Yes — Tally Free is unlimited responses, unlimited forms, unlimited questions. The catch is the "Made with Tally" footer and no custom domain. For most internal use cases and small businesses, Free is genuinely all you need.
Three triggers: (1) you put a form on a customer-facing page and the watermark looks unprofessional, (2) you need a custom domain (forms.yourcompany.com), (3) you need calculator blocks or conversion-tracking pixels.
Tally wins on price (unlimited responses vs. Typeform's 10/mo cap). Typeform wins on polish, animations, and brand-builder tooling. For lead gen at low volume, pick Tally. For high-design landing-page forms, pick Typeform.
Yes. Tally stores every response in its own Responses tab indefinitely (unless you set auto-delete). You can export to CSV anytime. Integrations are for real-time routing, not primary storage.
Not directly — there is no automated Typeform → Tally importer. Rebuild forms by hand. Most lead-gen forms take 15-25 minutes to rebuild in Tally's editor.
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