What it does
Orbeon Forms provides a browser designer and a runtime for collecting structured form data on your infrastructure. Form Builder creates reusable definitions; Form Runner handles each completed document. Community Edition is free, while Professional Edition adds licensed features and support.
Start a definition from the Form Builder Summary page. Arrange sections and grids, add fields, then save and test before publishing. In Form Runner, a respondent creates a document from that definition, enters answers and reviews, saves, submits or downloads the result. Editing the reusable definition and editing one person's answers are separate tasks.
The designer supports translated labels, help and error messages. Forms can produce HTML and PDF output. Professional Edition adds features such as Excel import/export, form versioning, handwritten signatures and PDF templates.
Editions and deployment
| Edition or support plan | Use | Included support |
|---|---|---|
| Community Edition | Free builder and runtime | Community support |
| PE Basic | Development, QA and staging | Two incidents |
| PE Silver | Production | Unlimited incidents; four assistance hours |
| PE Gold | Production | Unlimited incidents; eight assistance hours and emergency hotfixes |
Professional plans are annual subscriptions per server. One subscription covers multiple instances on the same physical machine; cloud VMs need separate subscriptions when shared physical hardware cannot be established. A developer's local PE installation can use a renewable 90-day trial licence, but a shared development server needs PE Basic.
Community Edition uses LGPL 2.1. The default builder works without configured user roles; an organization can require sign-in through its application server or another authentication system and limit which applications each role may edit.
Strengths
- Reusable form definitions are separate from individual submitted documents.
- Labels, help and validation messages can be translated in the designer.
Watch out for
- Cloud VM deployments can require several Professional subscriptions.
- PE Basic covers development and staging, not production.
Best for
- Organizations running reusable, multilingual application or reporting forms on their own infrastructure
Sources
- Download Orbeon Forms (Oct 27, 2026)
- Orbeon Forms PE pricing (Oct 27, 2026)
- Form Builder (Oct 27, 2026)
- Editing forms and builder permissions (Oct 27, 2026)
- Users and authentication setup (Oct 27, 2026)
- Community Edition LGPL 2.1 licence (Oct 25, 2026)
- Enterprise Form Editor for 2026 - Secure & On-Premise | Orbeon Forms (Oct 25, 2026)