Point any HTML form at one endpoint. 500 free submissions — no card, no time limit — and unlimited forms.
Create free accountDisclosure: splitforms publishes this comparison and is one of the ten services in it. Free-plan limits and prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page as of September 29, 2026; links are in the Sources note at the end. Services are listed alphabetically with no overall winner; each is described by the use case it fits.
At-a-glance comparison (2026)
Ten hosted form-to-email services, listed alphabetically below the table, compared on the things that decide your monthly bill and whether your emails land. Numbers are pulled from each provider's pricing page as of September 2026.
| Service | Free allowance | Cheapest paid | Custom SMTP | Webhooks on free plan | Spam filtering | Dashboard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basin | 50 | $12.50/mo yearly | No | No (Growth plan) | SpamCheck.ai + CAPTCHA | Solid |
| Formcake | 100 | $9/mo | No | No | Honeypot | Basic |
| Formspark | 250 total | $25 (one-time pool) | Paid only | Yes (unsigned) | Akismet | Clean |
| Formspree | 50 | $10/mo | No | No ($20+/mo yearly) | Keyword filter | Solid |
| FormSubmit | Unlimited* | Free only | No | Manual | Honeypot only | None |
| Getform (now Forminit) | 100 | $15.83/mo yearly | No | No | Honeypot | Solid |
| Netlify Forms | Unlimited on current credit plans | Bundled with hosting | No | Yes | Honeypot + reCAPTCHA | Inside Netlify UI |
| splitforms | 500 total, one-time, no expiry | $5/mo | Yes (paid plans) | No (paid, from $5/mo) | Rule-based scorer + honeypot | Modern |
| Static Forms | 250 emails/month | See current pricing | Paid only | No | reCAPTCHA | Basic |
| Web3Forms | 250 | $15/mo ($149/yr) | No | No | Honeypot + reCAPTCHA | Basic |
*FormSubmit advertises unlimited but rate-limits aggressively and has no SLA. Free-tier numbers and pricing are as of September 2026; check the live page before committing.
How was this comparison made?
Each service was compared on six things that predict whether it will work for a real project. No criterion is weighted to produce an overall winner; instead, each service is described by the use case it fits best.
- Free-tier headroom. How many submissions you get before paying, and whether that allowance resets monthly or is a one-time total.
- Cheapest paid plan. What you pay when you outgrow free, and how many submissions it covers.
- Custom SMTP support. Without it, your deliverability depends on the provider's sending setup. For sales lead forms this matters a lot.
- Webhooks on the free tier. Whether forwarding to Slack, Discord, or Zapier needs a paid plan.
- Spam filtering. Honeypot is the baseline; time traps, rate limits and content scoring add more layers. How splitforms scores spam is explained in ai-form-spam-detection.
- Dashboard. Can you search, filter, tag and export submissions, or is it a flat list or inbox only?
Prices and limits are read from each vendor's public pricing page; nothing here is an affiliate placement.
Basin (usebasin.com): best for spam tooling and a polished dashboard
Free: 50 submissions/month. Paid: $12.50/mo billed yearly Starter.
Basin is a respected boutique form backend, popular with designers and agencies. The dashboard is clean, spam filtering (SpamCheck.ai content analysis plus your choice of CAPTCHA) works well.
What's good: decent Zapier integration and a professional-feeling UX. What's missing: 50/month free is tight (you'll upgrade within a month or two), no custom SMTP at any tier so you're stuck with Basin's sending infrastructure, and webhooks start on the Growth plan ($24.17/mo billed yearly). Free does include 100 MB of file uploads. Verdict: good fit for designers who want a polished tool and don't want to think about SMTP. Pricier per submission than splitforms.
Formcake: a small indie form backend
Free: 100 submissions/month. Paid: $9/mo.
Formcake is a smaller indie form backend with a focused feature set. The dashboard handles the basics — list, view, export — without trying to be a CRM.
What's good: simple pricing, indie team you can actually reach. What's missing: smaller team means slower feature velocity, no custom SMTP, no free webhooks, and the 100/month free tier is moderate. Verdict: a fine choice if you want a small team you can reach and a monthly 100 free; it costs more per month than splitforms Pro ($9 vs $5).
Formspark: best for one-time credits instead of a subscription
Free: 250 submissions (one-time pool, not monthly). Paid: $25 one-time for 50k.
Formspark is the cleanest dashboard in this list and uses a pay-once-per-pool pricing model rather than a monthly subscription. You buy a bucket of submissions and use them until they run out.
What's good: the pay-once model is refreshing if you hate subscriptions, the dashboard is genuinely well-designed, Akismet spam filtering is solid. What's missing: the 250 free is a one-time pool — not 250 every month — so it disappears once exhausted, and the model breaks down if you have sustained high traffic (you're constantly refilling). Verdict: a good fit if you would rather prepay once than hold a subscription.
Formspree: best for an established brand and docs
Free: 50 submissions/month. Paid: $10/mo Personal, $20/mo Professional, $60/mo Business (billed yearly).
Formspree is the original form backend and still the most widely recognized. The dashboard is mature, the docs are thorough, and the brand has been around long enough to be trusted by enterprise.
What's good: stable, predictable, the React component (@formspree/react) is well-maintained. Plugins for plugins everywhere. What's missing: the 50/month free tier is the lowest in this list — you'll hit it within a week of any moderate traffic. Webhooks start on the Professional plan ($20/mo billed yearly), and Business at $60/mo billed yearly is steep for the submission count it covers. Verdict: a safe choice if you're already integrated; the trade-off is a small free tier and a higher price per submission. See splitforms vs Formspree for the full breakdown, or migrate from Formspree if you've decided to switch.
FormSubmit: best for free, no-signup email forwarding
Free: Unlimited (rate-limited). Paid: No paid tier.
FormSubmit is the "just works in HTML, no signup" option — you set the form action to https://formsubmit.co/your@email.com and it forwards to you. Zero configuration, zero accounts.
What's good: literally one line of HTML, no signup. What's missing: no dashboard (submissions live in your inbox, with a 30-day archive readable through its API), webhooks only via the _webhook field, no custom SMTP, and no SLA or paid support. Verdict: fine for prototypes and low-stakes contact forms; pick a backend with a dashboard when every lead matters.
Getform (now Forminit): best for bundled native integrations
Free: 100 submissions/month. Paid: $15.83/mo Pro, billed yearly. (Getform rebranded as Forminit in January 2026.)
Getform pitches itself as a no-code form backend with integrations as the headline feature. The dashboard is solid, the integration catalog is broad.
What's good: native integrations with Airtable, Google Sheets, Slack, MailChimp — pre-built, no Zapier middleman needed. What's missing: the $15.83/mo (billed yearly) entry point is one of the highest here, the 100/month free tier is restrictive, and webhooks require the paid plan. The pricing is built for agencies, not individuals. Verdict: only worth it if you're a small agency managing many client forms and the bundled integrations save you Zapier costs.
Netlify Forms: best if your site stays on Netlify
Free: unlimited form submissions on current credit plans; legacy plans cap at 100 submissions/month. Paid: legacy Pro "$19+ when exceeded".
Netlify Forms is built into the Netlify hosting platform — if your site is already on Netlify, you add data-netlify="true" to your form and it works. No separate signup.
What's good: zero-config if you're already on Netlify, current credit plans include unlimited form submissions, and entries live beside your deploys. What's missing is portability: the handler only works on Netlify-hosted sites. Verdict: strong value for a site staying on Netlify; use a standalone backend when hosting must remain interchangeable. See splitforms vs Netlify Forms.
splitforms: custom SMTP and signed webhooks on a $5 plan
Free: 500 submissions total, one-time, no card, no expiry. Paid: $5/mo Pro (5,000 subs/month) or $49/year Annual (15,000 subs/month).
splitforms is the publisher of this page. Its free tier is a one-time 500 submissions rather than a monthly allowance, which suits launches and low-traffic sites; a site taking more than about 40 a month will use it up within a year. Email notifications are free on every plan. When you upgrade, $5/mo Pro is the lowest monthly price in this list, and paid plans add custom SMTP so you control the sending domain.
What's included: signed webhooks on both paid plans from $5/mo (Formspree starts them at $20/mo billed yearly), rule-based spam scoring plus a honeypot and time trap, a dashboard with search, filter, tag and export, and guides for Next.js, React, Astro, Vue, and Svelte.
What's missing: no EU data residency (US hosting with SCCs), webhooks and file uploads are paid, and there is no native iOS/Android SDK. Start at splitforms.com/login.
Static Forms: simple static-site email delivery
Free: 50 submissions/month. Paid: $7.99/mo Hobby.
Static Forms targets the JAMstack crowd — Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy, Gatsby. The pitch is "form backend for static sites," which is true but generic since every backend on this list works with static sites.
What's good: cheap entry point ($7.99/mo), straightforward integration. What's missing: the dashboard is barebones, no rule-based spam filtering (reCAPTCHA only), and no free webhooks. Verdict: functional for email-only static-site forms; check its live pricing page, since we could not confirm every current limit.
Web3Forms: best for a generous monthly free tier
Free: 250 submissions/month. Paid: Pro $15/mo or $149/yr.
Web3Forms has one of the most generous metered free tiers here — 250 submissions/month, unlimited forms and domains, advanced spam protection, hCaptcha, custom redirects, and 30 days of history.
What's good: simple HTML-first integration, reasonable spam filtering, no aggressive paywalling. What's missing: dashboard is basic (a flat list of submissions, limited search), no custom SMTP, no free webhooks. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with crypto. Verdict: the best fit here for a steady trickle of email-only submissions that don't need webhooks. We compared all three at web3forms vs formspree vs splitforms.
Which form-to-email service is best for each use case?
- A generous free tier that resets monthly: Web3Forms (250 a month, 30 days of history).
- Free with no signup: FormSubmit (unlimited email forwarding, no dashboard).
- Static site staying on Netlify: Netlify Forms (unlimited on current credit plans).
- File uploads on a free plan: Basin (100 MB on Free); FormSubmit emails attachments.
- Prepaid credits instead of a subscription: Formspark ($25 for 50,000).
- Bundled native integrations for agencies: Getform (now Forminit).
- Established brand: Formspree.
- Custom SMTP and signed webhooks at a low monthly price: splitforms Pro ($5/month for 5,000).
- Largest one-time free allowance: splitforms (500 total, no expiry).
If you want to try splitforms, its 500 free submissions need no card and have no time limit. Sign up at splitforms.com/login and paste the access key into your form. We have a setup guide at add a contact form in 60 seconds.
When is splitforms not the right choice?
- You need EU data residency. splitforms hosts data in the US under Standard Contractual Clauses (see the DPA).
- You want a free allowance that resets monthly. splitforms Free is 500 once; Web3Forms gives 250 every month.
- Your site is staying on Netlify. Netlify Forms is built in and unlimited on credit plans.
- You need webhooks or file uploads without paying. Both are paid on splitforms; FormSubmit offers a free webhook field and Basin free uploads.
- You want a visual form builder or surveys. splitforms receives your own HTML form; Tally or Typeform host the form for you.
The HTML you write is identical across providers
One reason there's no real lock-in: the HTML form is portable. Here's the splitforms version — to swap providers later, you only change the action URL and the access key field name.
<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" />
<input type="text" name="name" required />
<input type="email" name="email" required />
<textarea name="message" required></textarea>
<input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" />
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>That snippet works on any static site, any framework, any CMS. The botcheck honeypot field catches naive bots; splitforms layers spam scoring on top of it. If you want the deeper anti-spam writeup, see honeypot vs reCAPTCHA and form spam protection complete guide 2026.
If you're already on a different provider
Migration takes about 5 minutes per form. The HTML form data path is just an attribute, so switching providers means: (1) sign up for the new service, (2) change the action URL, (3) update the access key hidden input, (4) recreate webhooks if you have any. There's no database migration, no API rewrite, no DNS change.
We have step-by-step migration guides:
- Migrate from Formspree to splitforms — full field-name mapping cheat sheet
- Migrate from Typeform — for multi-step / quiz-style forms
- Best free form backend services 2026 — narrower free-tier-focused list
For docs and the API contract, see /docs and /api-reference. Plan and billing questions are in /faq. If you want to skim everything we've published on form backends, the index is at /blog. Or grab a copy-paste free HTML contact form template that's pre-wired to splitforms.
FAQ
Is this list biased toward splitforms?
splitforms publishes this page and is one of the ten services in it, so read it as a vendor-written comparison. To keep it checkable, the services are listed alphabetically with no overall winner, each one is described by the use case it suits, free limits and prices come from each vendor's own pricing page as of September 29, 2026 (links under Sources), and a section lists when splitforms is not the right choice.
What is a form-to-email service, exactly?
It's a hosted backend that accepts an HTML form POST and forwards the submission to your inbox without you running a server. You set the form's action URL to the service, add an access key, and the service handles validation, spam filtering, and SMTP. You skip writing API routes, configuring nodemailer, and renting a mailbox — your static site, JAMstack project, or Webflow page suddenly has a working contact form.
Which service has the best free tier in 2026?
It depends on your pace. splitforms gives 500 submissions to start, with no card, no time limit and a full dashboard. Web3Forms gives 250 a month with 30 days of history. Formspark gives 250 in total. Formspree caps Free at 50/month. For a low-traffic site, splitforms' 500 lasts longest before you pay; for steady traffic above about 40 a month, Web3Forms' monthly 250 goes further.
Do all these services support custom SMTP?
No, only a few. splitforms supports custom SMTP on Pro ($5/mo) so you can route via Gmail App Password, AWS SES, or your own server. Formspark and Static Forms have limited SMTP options on paid plans. Basin, Web3Forms, FormSubmit, Formcake, and Netlify Forms use their own SMTP infrastructure exclusively — you don't get to control the sending IP, SPF, or DKIM. If deliverability matters (transactional alerts, sales leads), custom SMTP is non-negotiable.
Are webhooks really paywalled on most services?
Mostly, yes. Formspree starts webhooks on its Professional plan ($20/mo billed yearly). Forminit (Getform) starts them on Pro. Basin starts them on Growth ($24.17/mo billed yearly). splitforms includes signed webhooks on both paid plans, from $5/mo. FormSubmit is the exception: its free _webhook field forwards submissions without a paid plan. If you plan to forward submissions to Slack, Discord, Zapier, n8n, or a custom endpoint, check the free-tier webhook policy before signing up — it changes the real cost.
What's the lowest-cost plan if I get 10,000 submissions a month?
splitforms Annual at $49/year (about $4.08/month, up to 15,000 submissions a month) is the lowest price among the standalone services here for that volume. Web3Forms Pro is $15/month (or $149/year) for 10,000. Formspark's credits work out to roughly $5/month at that pace. Formspree needs its Business plan at $60/month billed yearly. Netlify's current credit plans don't meter form submissions at all, but only if you host on Netlify.
Can I self-host instead of paying for any of these?
Yes — but it's almost never worth it for under 50,000 submissions/month. You'd pay for a VPS ($5-10/mo), maintain SMTP credentials, configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC, handle abuse reports, and write the spam filtering yourself. Most indie devs who try self-hosting spend more time on the infrastructure than they save on the subscription. The breakeven on engineering hours alone is usually 50k+ submissions. We wrote about this trade-off in detail in /blog/self-hosted-vs-saas-form-backend.
Do any of these work with Next.js / React / Astro / Vue / Svelte?
All of them, because the contract is just an HTML form POST. The framework doesn't matter — your `<form action="...">` posts the data and the service handles the rest. splitforms publishes guides for Next.js, React, Astro, Vue, and Svelte, and Forminit publishes framework setup guides too; the rest mostly document plain HTML, which works the same way.
How do I switch providers if I'm already locked into one?
There's no real lock-in — the data path is just an HTML attribute. To switch, you (1) sign up for the new service, (2) update the form's `action` URL in your HTML, (3) update the access key hidden input, (4) recreate any webhooks. The whole migration takes about 5 minutes per form. We have a step-by-step guide at /blog/migrate-from-formspree that walks through the cut-over, field-name mapping, and rollback plan if something breaks mid-switch.