What's the difference between Forms and Advanced Forms?

Question

In Jira Cloud in a Company-Managed project I can enable the feature Forms, but I can also go to Project Settings and access a feature called Advanced Forms.

I've created a form in Advanced Forms and it does not show up in the Forms feature, so they are not the same thing.

What's the purpose of each one?

Prachi Bolar · Answer

Hello,

Welcome to community :)

Here is some of the difference

Advanced forms

Access to create a form:

* In Project Settings (may not be easily discoverable)

* Jira/Project admins only

Access types

* only user with a Jira license

* >200 templates available during set-up

* 8 available for Marketing

* field is added and can be left as a form-only field or it can be linked to a Jira field

* Form fields can be duplicated but a form field can only be linked to a Jira field once

* Forms can retrieve JSON data from REST APIs to populate (multiple choice, dropdowns or radios) choice lists on forms

* Form fields can be edited from the form builder

* Jira fields need to be edited via the projects config

* Fields can be set as required

* Additional requirements can be set, based on the field type e.g. for a Checkboxes field, a minimum or maximum number of choices can be set as well as a required choice

* Default response can be selected so when a user lands on the form, a pre-selection is already made for the specific field

Forms

* In Forms tab in a project

* Jira/Project admins only

* Can be disabled in software projects

* Open (to those with site access)

* Limited (to those with issue create permissions) access can be set)

* Public (anyone with the link can make a submission, regardless of licensing, but if an IP allowlist has been created for the site, this will apply)

* Form templates available from the form directory
* Only Jira fields on the selected issue type are available

* Most fields are supported

* Field descriptions can be added from the form builder

* Plain text only

* An admin can select one issue type from the project, to be created from the form

* Submitter cannot select issue type

* Multiple forms per project

Thank You,

Prachi

Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet · Answer

Hi @Pedro Pintado

You're right — Forms and Advanced Forms aren’t the same thing, and it can definitely be confusing.

Advanced Forms are part of Jira Service Management (JSM) and work specifically with request types. They're not visible in the general “Forms” tab because they’re meant to be used behind the scenes — for example, when a customer submits a request through the portal. You won’t access or manage them like the regular Forms feature. The advanced forms you accessed is a workaround used to access JSM forms feature in Software project, but it only can be accessed with the link you used.

On the other hand, Forms in Jira Software or Company-managed projects are more visible and can be opened directly from the Forms tab or attached to issues manually. They’re not tied to request types, which makes them more flexible for internal workflows — but also a bit more limited compared to what JSM offers.

If you're working mostly in Jira Software and want more advanced options — like conditional logic, better layout control, or sharing forms externally for anonymus access you might want to look into apps from the Marketplace that extend form functionality across all Jira project types. (That’s what a lot of teams end up doing when native forms fall short.)

If you want to:

Build dynamic, branded forms with conditional logicShare forms out of Jira (public link, embed on your website/portal)Use forms across all Jira project types (Software, JSM, JWM, JPD)Submit forms inside Jira issues — and even update fields without creating a new issue

Then Smart Forms for Jira developed by my team is a great solution.

Brita Moorus · Answer

Hi, @Pedro Pintado! 👋

Great question! The Forms and Advanced Forms features in Jira Cloud are related but serve different purposes and have different capabilities.

Forms

Forms is Atlassian’s newer, built-in, no-code form builder for Jira Cloud.

It lets you create simple, user-friendly forms that can be used to collect structured data from users.

These forms are typically integrated directly into Jira issues and are designed for straightforward use cases.

Forms created here are accessible via the Forms feature in the project.

More info here: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/what-are-forms-and-what-can-they-do/

Advanced Forms

Advanced Forms is a forms capability for JSM (formerly ProForma, now part of Atlassian’s official Advanced Forms for JSM).

It offers powerful features like conditional logic, validation rules, templates, and multi-page forms.

Advanced Forms integrates deeply with JSM requests but is managed separately from the native Forms feature.

This is why forms created in Advanced Forms don’t show up in the basic Forms list.

Hope this helps! ✨