Xano vs Tally
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Xano and Tally.
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Verdict: Tally wins
Tally scores 4.3/5, edging out Xano at 4.0/5. Founders, marketers, and small teams who want to collect form responses — including payments and signatures — without paying for a form platform, and who are comfortable in a document-style editor.
Xano Build scalable backends without coding | Tally Build forms without code in minutes | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.0 (1 review) | 4.3 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | Technical founders and small dev teams who want a production Postgres backend with compliance certifications, unlimited API calls at a flat rate, and no DevOps hire. | Founders, marketers, and small teams who want to collect form responses — including payments and signatures — without paying for a form platform, and who are comfortable in a document-style editor. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tierno codeteam featuresapi access | free tierno code |
| Visit Xano → | Visit Tally → |
Xano
Pros
- + Function Stack debugger steps through every layer of an endpoint with live intermediate values — in my testing this made a role-branching endpoint with an external API call debuggable in minutes
- + Flat-rate API pricing: Essential ($85/mo billed annually, xano.com/pricing at time of writing) includes unlimited API requests, so traffic spikes do not move the bill
- + Production compliance stack on paid plans — SOC 2, ISO 27001/27701/9001/42001, GDPR, HIPAA add-on — without building infra for procurement checklists
- + Developer toolchain parity with code-first backends: XanoScript GA, VS Code extension, CLI, Git sync with branching, sandbox environments
- + Auto-generated OpenAPI docs from the database schema; my test schema produced usable spec output with no extra work
Cons
- - The $29 Starter tier was retired in January 2026, making $85/month the production floor — a 193% jump for teams architected around the old pricing
- - No RAM/CPU usage dashboard despite documented 502s from exhausted instance resources; I saw no way to anticipate a ceiling before hitting it
- - XanoScript and Function Stacks do not port to any standard framework — leaving Xano means rebuilding the entire API logic layer
- - Free plan is a sandbox only: 10 requests/20s rate limit and 100K record cap surfaced immediately in my burst testing
- - Expression editor and admin UI get painful at scale; a 3-year user on r/xano cites unexplained 500s and poor function/table organization
Tally
Pros
- + Free tier is production-usable: unlimited forms and submissions with conditional logic, payments, signatures, and no watermark — I built a working intake workflow without paying
- + Document-style editing was the fastest form creation I have tested; a multi-field form with logic went live in under five minutes
- + Native Notion, Airtable, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, and webhook integrations cover the standard small-team automation loop on the free plan
- + EU data storage with GDPR compliance and encryption at rest — a structural advantage for European buyers over US-hosted form tools
- + Transparent competitive positioning: their own comparison pages state rival starting prices (e.g. Formstack from $83/month) instead of vague claims
Cons
- - Free uploads cap at 10MB per file — this is the limit I actually hit with respondent documents; uncapping requires Pro
- - "Unlimited" is governed by a fair-use policy (roughly 500K submissions/month named as extensive), not a contractual right
- - No SSO, SLA, or HIPAA story on any plan at time of writing — enterprise governance is thin
- - Layout control is limited without writing custom CSS on Pro; this is not a visual design tool
- - Complex conditional branching has a real learning curve despite the simple interface
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Xano or Tally?▼
Tally scores higher at 4.3/5 vs 4.0/5 for Xano, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Xano and Tally?▼
Xano: Xano is a no-code backend that provides a database, business logic and REST APIs for applications, without managing servers. Tally: Tally is a form builder that works like a text document: you type, and the fields appear. Unlimited forms and responses are free.
Is Xano or Tally more affordable?▼
Xano starts at €0/mo, Tally starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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