ApplyDeskGoogle Forms is fine for a one-off poll. It is a poor staff application. The failure mode is familiar: a pinned link, a Sheet nobody owns, and a role given by whoever saw the row first.
What the sheet cannot do
- Prove the Discord account. Anyone can type a username. Login binds the application to an ID.
- Enforce account age or server membership. You find out in review, or never.
- Keep notes next to the answers without a second tab and a fight over who edited the cell.
- Notify a review channel with a durable link. Webhooks into Discord rot; the Sheet still sits there.
- Assign the role when you decide. Someone still has to remember to click in Server Settings.
- Ban someone from applying again without a denylist you maintain by hand.
Privacy is worse than it looks
A shared Sheet is usually shared too widely. Trial mods get a link “just to help review” and now they have every applicant’s answers, including the people you rejected for leaking. Forms also have no concept of a workspace audit log. When someone asks you to delete their application, you are hunting rows.
If you already have a Form
You do not have to throw the questions away. Export or import the public form, then add Discord login, age gates, and a queue. The questions were never the hard part — the process around them was.
ApplyDesk exists for that process: a branded apply link, a review queue, notes, and a bot that hands out the role. Start from a template or paste what you already ask.