Raman Makkar

Background

I've been writing code professionally for about a decade, mostly TypeScript, Postgres, and the Next.js / React side of the JAMstack. Before splitforms I shipped a string of small SaaS products and developer tools — some that worked, plenty that didn't — and along the way I burned a lot of hours re-implementing the same boring form-handling glue: an HTTP endpoint, a queue, a spam filter, a notification email, sometimes a webhook. Every project, the same plumbing. splitforms is what happens when you finally decide to build that plumbing properly, once, for everyone.

I'm an indie developer, not a venture-backed founder. The company is bootstrapped, funded entirely by paying customers, and intentionally tiny. That shapes almost every product decision: I'd rather have a small product I can keep answering for personally than a sprawling one I can't.

Why splitforms

The form-backend space has been weirdly stagnant for years. The expensive tools charge enterprise prices for what is, fundamentally, an HTTP endpoint and a queue. The cheap ones run on shoestrings and silently drop traffic during launches. The free tiers shrink every six months and the upgrade paths are priced as a punishment for growing. Most of the dashboards feel like they were last touched in 2017.

I built splitforms because the gap is real and the fix isn't complicated — it's a matter of caring about the basics. A free tier that's actually useful (1,000 submissions per month, no expiring trial). Sane Pro pricing ($5/month for 5,000 submissions) and a long-horizon $59 4-year plan for indie projects that want predictability. Signed webhooks free on every tier. A dashboard built this decade. A real human reading the support email. Open source code so you can audit or self-host if you ever need to.

Areas of focus

Most of what I write about and ship lives at the intersection of these four areas:

• Form backends. The HTTP endpoint, the queue, the retry semantics, the email deliverability tuning. The unglamorous infrastructure that has to work 100% of the time, especially during a launch spike, and is how I judge every form service against splitforms.
• Developer tools and DX. Less SDK rot, more copy-paste HTML. The integration is a standard form POST or a fetch() call — nothing to npm-install, version-pin, or migrate when frameworks shift again. Boring is good.
• AI-powered spam detection.Honeypots and IP reputation are still useful, but a small classifier catches the long tail without making visitors prove they're human. I write a lot about practical LLM classifiers, false-positive review UX, and what works versus what just looks impressive in a benchmark.
• MCP for AI agents.splitforms ships a first-class Model Context Protocol server so coding agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf — can list forms, read submissions, and generate template HTML directly. Most form backends still ship a JavaScript SDK from 2018; I'd rather ship a protocol from 2026.

Contact

The fastest ways to reach me. I read everything and reply to almost all of it within a day or two.

• Email: townmedialabs@gmail.com — for anything personal, or splitforms questions you'd rather not put through the support address.
• GitHub: github.com/Ramanmakkar1 — splitforms source, issues, and pull requests.
• LinkedIn: profile coming soon.
• X / Twitter: handle coming soon. For now, long-form writing lives on the splitforms blog.

Latest posts by Raman

The six most-recent guides, tutorials, and comparisons I've published on the splitforms blog.

• Tutorials · 22 min read
  HTML contact form code: 12 free templates you can copy-paste in 2026

  12 ready-to-paste HTML contact form templates — minimal, accessible, styled, multi-step, file upload, popup. Free, no signup, with backend wired in 60 seconds via splitforms.

• Spam & Security · 17 min read
  Form spam protection in 2026: the complete guide

  Honeypot vs reCAPTCHA vs AI classifiers in 2026 — what works, what's defeated by LLMs, and the layered approach modern form backends use to keep spam out.

• Comparisons · 16 min read
  Best React form library in 2026: an honest comparison

  Honest 2026 comparison of React Hook Form, Formik, TanStack Form, react-final-form, and pure useState — bundle size, DX, validation compat, and when each one wins.

• Comparisons · 16 min read
  Best Next.js form library in 2026: a fair comparison

  An honest 2026 comparison of React Hook Form, Formik, TanStack Form, Conform, and pure server actions for Next.js — with code, benchmarks, and tradeoffs.

• Guides · 16 min read
  HTML form action explained: a complete guide for 2026

  What the HTML action attribute does, how to point it at a backend, and the modern alternatives — with copy-paste examples for static sites, React, Next.js, Webflow.

• Guides · 13 min read
  Migrating from Typeform to splitforms: a developer's guide

  Step-by-step guide for moving form submissions from Typeform to splitforms — pricing comparison, code-level migration, and what you'll gain (and lose) in the switch.

See the full archive for everything I've written.

About splitforms

splitforms is a form backend API for developers building static sites, JAMstack apps, and modern web frameworks. Point any HTML form's action at the endpoint and submissions land in your inbox with built-in spam filtering, signed webhooks, file uploads, and a real dashboard. Read more on the homepage or the about page.