ClearForms Review: Overview, Features, Pricing & Alternatives in 2025

Still stuck with endless paper forms?

If you’re dealing with outdated permitting or licensing processes, you know how much time and effort your staff wastes on manual paperwork and back-and-forth email threads.

And honestly, this leads to frustration for staff and public alike—lost paperwork and stalled approvals eat up your day, which just slows everyone down.

ClearForms is built to fix exactly that, offering a no-code, online platform made for local governments like yours to simplify digital forms, automate workflows, and speed up applications. Its smart routing, online reviews, and digital signatures can remove a lot of those constant process headaches.

In this review, I’ll guide you through how ClearForms can actually streamline your government workflows—so you spend less time chasing paperwork and more time serving your community.

In this ClearForms review, you’ll get a clear look at its standout features, pricing, real-world usability, and how it stacks up to leading alternatives so you can make a confident call.

By the end, you’ll know if it has the features you need to finally fix your permitting and licensing tangle for good.

Let’s get started.

ClearForms Overview

ClearForms began as CityGrows in 2015. Based in Maynard, MA, their mission is to improve government operations, now as a part of the ClearGov software suite.

What I find really sets them apart is their focus on providing affordable online permitting and licensing. They specialize in serving local governments—cities, counties, and special districts—that are often overlooked by massive, complex enterprise vendors.

A key development was their 2022 acquisition by ClearGov, which rebranded the platform. You’ll see the impact of this strategic integration through this ClearForms review.

Unlike legacy systems like Accela that can be overwhelming, ClearForms is built around a fast and flexible no-code setup. It feels designed by people who actually understand the reality of daily government workflows and their resource constraints.

They work with a wide range of public agencies, from their first partner, the City of Santa Monica, to numerous smaller townships, fire districts, and counties.

Their strategy centers on empowering your internal staff to take control. The idea is giving you tools for quick digitization without the typical pain, expense, and delay of a formal RFP process.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

ClearForms Features

Tired of endless government paperwork and slow processes?

ClearForms features are designed to digitize and streamline government operations, making it easier for both staff and constituents. Here are the five main ClearForms features that truly make a difference.

1. Flexible Digital Forms

Stuck with outdated, clunky forms?

Inefficient paper forms or basic PDFs often lead to incomplete submissions and frustration for applicants. This creates unnecessary administrative burdens.

ClearForms lets you create custom, mobile-responsive online forms with various question formats and conditional logic. From my testing, the drag-and-drop customization is incredibly intuitive, making it easy to publish and share forms quickly. This feature eliminates common submission errors.

This means you can provide a seamless application experience, drastically reducing back-and-forth communication with constituents.

2. Automated Workflows with Logic

Is manual routing slowing down approvals?

Applications often get stuck in email inboxes or physical folders, leading to delays and missed deadlines. This can frustrate everyone involved.

The platform automates workflows by routing applications to the right people with smart logic and formulas. What I love about this feature is how forms dynamically adjust based on applicant input, ensuring all necessary information is collected. This reduces processing time significantly.

So you get faster approvals and a more efficient internal process, ensuring applications move smoothly through departments.

3. Online Reviews and Approvals

Are internal reviews a chaotic mess?

Disjointed review processes often rely on endless emails and spreadsheets, making it hard to track progress or provide timely feedback. This creates bottlenecks.

ClearForms provides a centralized dashboard for digital reviews, allowing staff to approve, halt, or request changes directly within the system. Here’s what I found: assigning specific users or roles is incredibly flexible, ensuring the right person reviews the right step. This feature streamlines collaboration.

This means your team can manage the entire review cycle digitally, reducing reliance on manual communication and improving accountability.

4. Integrated Online Payments and Digital Signatures

Struggling with disconnected payment and signature tools?

Manual payment reconciliation and physical signature collection create administrative overhead and can delay application processing. This impacts your cash flow.

The platform integrates online payments and offers digital signature capabilities, fully digitizing the application process. This is where ClearForms shines; it greatly simplifies payment collection and reconciliation, eliminating the need for separate systems. This feature boosts compliance.

You can reduce incomplete applications and get paid faster, all while offering constituents a convenient, fully online submission experience.

5. Data Access, Reporting, and Open Data

Can’t easily access or share vital government data?

Lack of centralized data access and transparent reporting makes it hard to track performance or meet public information requests. This hinders decision-making.

ClearForms provides robust tools for searching, sorting, and exporting submission data, plus an automatic open data portal. From my testing, the customizable open data portal enhances transparency, allowing citizens to access public information effortlessly. This feature offers valuable insights.

This means you can easily track key metrics like revenue or permits issued, providing data-driven insights and enhancing public transparency.

You’ll appreciate how these ClearForms features work together to create a comprehensive, integrated system that digitizes nearly every aspect of local government operations, ultimately improving efficiency for both staff and constituents.

ClearForms Pricing

Navigating software costs feels overwhelming, doesn’t it?

ClearForms pricing operates on a custom quote model, meaning you’ll need to contact sales directly to get detailed cost information tailored for your specific government agency’s needs.

1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors

Understanding their cost approach.

ClearForms uses a custom pricing model, emphasizing affordability for local governments, not requiring an RFP, and offering no setup or maintenance fees. What I found regarding pricing is that it likely involves a transaction-based component, receiving a small percentage of fees processed, alongside a base subscription.

Budget-wise, this means your costs are often tied to usage and revenue generated, making it more flexible.

2. Value Assessment & ROI

Is this software a good investment?

From my cost analysis, ClearForms aims to deliver significant ROI by streamlining inefficient paper processes and enhancing compliance. Compared to legacy systems, their approach helps reduce administrative burdens and manual errors, which directly translates to cost savings. This means strong value through process efficiency for your operational budget.

The result is your budget gets more predictable operational expenses and improved service delivery for constituents.

3. Budget Planning & Implementation

Consider total cost of ownership carefully.

Given ClearForms’s custom pricing, you’ll need a detailed proposal for a complete picture, including any module add-ons or unique requirements for your specific agency. The stated “no setup fees” is a huge plus, meaning your initial investment is lower than many enterprise solutions that hit you with large upfront costs.

So for your budget planning, you can expect an approach that aims to be cost-effective and scalable for public sector needs.

My Take: ClearForms’s pricing strategy focuses on flexibility and cost-effectiveness for local governments, allowing agencies to avoid rigid contracts and scale solutions based on their unique operational needs.

The overall ClearForms pricing reflects an affordable, values-driven approach for government operations.

ClearForms Reviews

What do customers actually think?

This section provides a thorough analysis of ClearForms reviews, distilling real user feedback and experiences to offer you balanced insights into customer sentiment and the software’s performance.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

Most users report positive experiences.

From my review analysis, ClearForms users generally express high satisfaction, particularly praising its ability to streamline government processes. What I found in user feedback is how it empowers non-technical staff to manage digital workflows efficiently, significantly boosting compliance rates.

This suggests you can expect improved operational efficiency and greater staff autonomy.

2. Common Praise Points

Users consistently love its ease of use.

Customers frequently highlight ClearForms’ intuitive, no-code setup, enabling quick implementation of digital forms and workflows. From the reviews I analyzed, the self-sufficiency it offers governments truly stands out, reducing reliance on IT and external consultants, and speeding up processing times dramatically.

This means you’ll likely achieve faster go-live times and immediate efficiency gains.

3. Frequent Complaints

Limited public reviews are a common point.

While ClearForms offers strong testimonials on its site, the scarcity of independent ClearForms reviews on major platforms like G2 and Capterra is notable. Review-wise, you won’t find extensive third-party feedback, which could make a comprehensive comparison with competitors challenging for potential users.

This isn’t a deal-breaker on its own but requires trusting provided case studies.

Overall, ClearForms reviews indicate strong user satisfaction based on direct testimonials, focusing on self-service and efficiency improvements.

Best ClearForms Alternatives

Searching for the best ClearForms alternative?

The best ClearForms alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different government sizes, specific departmental needs, and budget considerations.

1. Accela

Managing highly complex, large-scale government processes?

Accela is a powerhouse for large government agencies with diverse needs across multiple departments, offering a broader suite of modules. From my competitive analysis, Accela offers highly scalable, deeply integrated solutions for extensive customization capabilities, though it comes with higher costs and significant IT involvement.

Choose Accela when your agency is large and requires a highly customized, extensive platform with dedicated IT support.

2. CityView Suite

Prioritizing comprehensive community development solutions?

CityView provides a full, integrated suite specifically for community development and land management, aiming for a paperless and efficient process. What I found comparing options is that CityView offers a deeply integrated community development suite, which makes it ideal if you need an out-of-the-box system covering many related functions.

Consider this alternative when your primary focus is a broad, integrated solution for community development and land management.

3. GovWell

Needing highly adaptable software for unique workflows?

GovWell excels when your government has unique internal processes requiring extensive software adaptation to fit existing workflows. From my analysis, GovWell focuses on significant customizability for diverse processes, enabling work from any device and reducing busy work, though public pricing isn’t available.

Choose GovWell if your specific operational needs demand a highly adaptable solution that can be extensively customized.

4. Permit-LV

Exclusively focused on building permit management?

Permit-LV is a specialized building permit management software, ideal for smaller localities processing 200-5000 permits annually. Alternative-wise, Permit-LV is highly specialized for permit automation, offering automated fee calculations and easy tracking, though it’s less versatile than ClearForms’s broader applicability.

Choose Permit-LV if your government’s core need is a dedicated building permit and inspection solution within its specific volume range.

The best ClearForms alternatives depend on your government’s size, specific departmental focus, and budget rather than features alone.

ClearForms Setup

Concerned about complicated software setup and training?

This ClearForms review reveals a straightforward deployment, designed for quick setup, helping you get essential government workflows online fast.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Getting started is refreshingly simple here.

ClearForms emphasizes a “self-service no-code setup” allowing non-technical users to get permitting workflows online rapidly. From my implementation analysis, workflows can go live in as little as a half hour, making it exceptionally fast compared to typical government software.

You’ll want to prepare by identifying which forms and processes you want to digitize first to leverage this speed.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Minimal IT infrastructure changes needed.

ClearForms is a cloud-based solution, so your technical requirements are simply internet access via a web browser. What I found about deployment is that there’s no local server installation or upgrades required, significantly simplifying your IT team’s involvement.

Plan for stable internet connectivity and standard web browser access, freeing your IT resources for other critical tasks.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption happens naturally with familiar concepts.

The platform’s user-friendly interface and no-code capabilities suggest a lower learning curve, empowering users to “control your own technology.” From my analysis, intuitive design minimizes extensive training needs, fostering quick user self-sufficiency and reducing reliance on overburdened IT teams.

Invest in introductory sessions and leverage the support center to ensure staff quickly become proficient with the new digital workflows.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support during implementation is streamlined.

ClearForms’ focus on user self-sufficiency implies a supportive, albeit efficient, model, providing articles on topics like role creation and user management. What I found about deployment is that self-service capabilities are key to rapid adoption and successful workflow implementation.

For your implementation to succeed, prioritize internal champions and leverage the accessible support resources to resolve any queries quickly.

The overall ClearForms setup emphasizes speed and self-sufficiency for government teams, enabling rapid digital transformation of public services.

Bottom Line

Is ClearForms the right fit for your agency?

This ClearForms review provides a direct assessment of who benefits most from its features, highlighting its strengths and areas for consideration.

1. Who This Works Best For

Local governments lacking extensive IT resources.

ClearForms shines for small to medium-sized government agencies, including cities, counties, and districts, seeking to digitize permitting and licensing without large IT teams. What I found about target users is that teams needing self-sufficiency in managing digital workflows find immense value in its no-code approach.

You’ll succeed if your goal is quickly transforming paper-based processes into efficient, citizen-friendly online services.

2. Overall Strengths

Unmatched ease of setup and operational efficiency.

The software succeeds with its no-code self-service setup, empowering non-technical staff to quickly digitize workflows and automate processes for permits and licenses. From my comprehensive analysis, its affordability and rapid implementation timelines stand out, eliminating the need for complex, lengthy procurement cycles and high upfront costs.

These strengths translate directly into faster service delivery and significant efficiency gains for your government staff.

3. Key Limitations

Limited public pricing and independent user reviews.

A primary drawback is the absence of detailed public pricing tiers and a noticeable scarcity of independent user reviews on major software comparison sites. Based on this review, you must directly engage ClearForms for specific cost breakdowns, making upfront budget comparisons challenging without direct contact.

I’d say these limitations are manageable by simply requesting a demo or quote, rather than fundamental flaws in the software itself.

4. Final Recommendation

ClearForms is highly recommended for its niche.

You should choose this software if your local government seeks an affordable, agile, and user-friendly platform to modernize diverse permitting and licensing workflows. From my analysis, this solution excels in streamlining citizen-facing services and boosting internal staff efficiency, making it an ideal choice for smaller agencies.

My confidence level is high for its target audience, providing a reliable path to digital transformation.

This ClearForms review shows strong value for local government entities, providing practical benefits for modernizing their operations without excessive cost or complexity.