Raman Makkar

Background

I founded splitforms in 2012 and have been building it ever since — mostly in TypeScript, Postgres, and the Next.js / React side of the JAMstack. Before splitforms I shipped SaaS products and developer tools, 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.

splitforms is independent and bootstrapped, funded entirely by paying customers — never venture capital. That shapes almost every product decision: I'd rather build a focused product I can stand behind 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 (500 submissions, no card, no time limit). Sane Pro pricing ($5/month for 5,000 submissions a month) and an Annual plan at $49/year for projects that want one predictable bill. Signed webhooks unlocked from the $5/month Pro plan. A dashboard built this decade. Plain HTML integrations and data export, so leaving is always one URL change away.

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. This is the unglamorous infrastructure that has to work every time, especially during a launch spike — you can watch the live record on the status page.
• 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.
• Automatic spam detection. A honeypot and per-IP rate limits catch the obvious bots, and rule-based content scoring catches the long tail without making visitors prove they're human. I write a lot about spam-filter false-positive review UX and what actually works in production 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: [email protected] — for anything personal, or splitforms questions you'd rather not put through the support address.
• GitHub: github.com/Ramanmakkar1 — public profile. The splitforms codebase itself is private; bug reports go to [email protected].
• 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.

• Spam & Security · 5 min read
  Is a Public Form Access Key Safe? What to Keep Secret

  Understand public form keys versus secret API tokens, why CORS is not authentication, and how to protect a SplitForms contact form against unwanted submissions.

• Guides · 6 min read
  Form Backend Migration Checklist: Fields, Files and Email

  Move an existing form to SplitForms with a practical checklist for field mapping, redirects, uploads, email recipients, webhooks, testing and rollback.

• Comparisons · 6 min read
  Formspark vs Formcarry: Pricing and Workflow Compared

  Compare Formspark’s prepaid submissions with Formcarry’s monthly plans, including uploads, spam filters and AI tools, plus when SplitForms is a better fit.

• Tutorials · 8 min read
  FormSubmit File Uploads: How Attachments Work (and Their Limits)

  Yes, FormSubmit.co supports file attachments: set enctype="multipart/form-data" and add a file input. Files are emailed (10 MB total) but never stored. Setup, limits, fixes.

• Spam & Security · 7 min read
  hCaptcha Pricing (2026): Is hCaptcha Free? Plan Limits

  hCaptcha Basic is free (its plans page says up to 10,000 requests/month); Pro is $99–$139/month with 100,000 evaluations. How it compares with reCAPTCHA and Turnstile.

• Tutorials · 10 min read
  React Hook Form + Zod: Schema Validation Step by Step (2026)

  Wire Zod into React Hook Form with zodResolver: install, define a schema, infer types, show errors, validate async, and submit the parsed data to a form endpoint.

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 https://splitforms.com/api/submit and submissions land in your dashboard with built-in spam filtering and email notifications — no server to run. Read more on the homepage or the about page.