Point any HTML form at one endpoint. 500 submissions total free, unlimited forms.
Create free accountHow we picked (methodology)
This comparison summarizes publicly available pricing and product documentation, checked September 2026. It is published by SplitForms, which is included in the comparison. It is not an independent laboratory test or an endorsement ranking. Plan limits change, so follow each vendor link and verify current terms before buying. We compare:
- Free-tier submission cap. What can you actually do without paying.
- Recurring versus one-time submission allowance. These limits are not directly interchangeable.
- Spam filtering. Honeypot, spam scoring, reCAPTCHA hooks.
- Dashboard quality. Can you search past submissions, export CSV, filter by date.
- Email deliverability. Does the notification email land in inbox or spam.
- Integration breadth. Slack, Discord, Notion, Sheets, Zapier, custom webhooks.
- Product fit. Whether the service is a hosted form builder, a code-first endpoint, or tied to a particular hosting platform.
The comparison is organized by use case rather than an overall score. A monthly allowance can suit a recurring low-volume form; a one-time allowance can suit a low-volume project with longer-lived use. Hosted builders and form backends solve different jobs.
At-a-glance comparison
| Tool | Free tier | Cheapest paid | Webhooks on cheapest paid plan | Dashboard | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| splitforms | 500 total, one-time | Starter $1/mo (ongoing) | Paid plan | Searchable dashboard | Code-first forms and hosted endpoint |
| Web3Forms | 250/mo | Pro: 10,000/mo; $149/year | No (paid) | 30-day history | Static sites, quick setup |
| Formspree | 50/mo | Personal $10/mo (200/mo) | Paid plan | Mature | Existing users and teams wanting its integrations |
| FormSubmit | Unlimited | n/a | n/a | None | Throwaway forms only |
| Basin | 50/mo | Starter $12.50/mo yearly (250/mo) | Growth plan | Clean | Designers who want polish |
| Forminit (formerly Getform.io) | 100/mo | See current pricing | See current pricing | Good | Hosted form builder and backend |
| Formspark | 250 total | $25 one-time | Yes | Minimal | Single-form sites |
| Static Forms | 50/mo | $9.99/mo | No (paid) | Basic | JAMstack sites |
| Netlify Forms | Unlimited on current credit plans | Bundled with hosting | Yes | Inside Netlify | Netlify-hosted sites only |
| Tally | Unlimited under fair-use guidelines | Pro price varies; see pricing | Included on Free under fair-use guidelines | Notion-style | Hosted forms and visual builder |
For SplitForms, verify the one-time free allowance and paid plan prices on the current pricing page. For competitors, use their linked vendor pricing pages; recurring and one-time limits should not be compared as if they were the same.
SplitForms — code-first form backend
Free tier: 500 submissions total as a one-time allowance, with unlimited forms, dashboard storage, owner email notifications, spam filtering, and MCP access. Paid: the pricing page shows monthly prices; paid tiers add monthly volume, signed webhooks, exports, integrations, and retained uploads when Storage is connected.
This is a fit when you own the HTML or framework form and want a hosted endpoint and searchable dashboard. The one-time free limit is not equivalent to a monthly allowance: estimate expected lifetime usage before choosing it over a recurring free plan.
The hosted MCP supports account form operations through an authenticated endpoint. This is one option in a growing MCP ecosystem; compare available tools and setup requirements before choosing an agent workflow. Get a free access key.
What's missing: no built-in multi-step form builder — it's a backend, not a designer. If you need a Typeform-style UI, pair splitforms with your own frontend or use Tally for the UI.
Verdict: If you write your own HTML and want the most generous free tier with no feature paywalls, this is the pick. See the free HTML contact form template or framework guides for Next.js, React, Astro, and Svelte.
Web3Forms — recurring monthly allowance
Free tier: 250 submissions/month, file uploads, basic spam protection. Paid: starts at $8/month. Best for: static sites and quick setups where 250/month is plenty.
Web3Forms has one job — accept a form POST and forward it to email — and it does that cleanly. Setup is 60 seconds: enter your email, get a free access key, paste it into a hidden input. Same DX as splitforms, lower ceiling, fewer features.
What's good: zero account needed for the initial key (you confirm via email later), responsive support, decent docs, file uploads on the free plan. The brand has been around since 2022 and is stable.
Compare its current paid tiers, retention, and features against the expected usage for your form. A recurring monthly allowance may be a better fit for some low-volume sites than a one-time total allowance.
Verdict: Good for a personal site with light traffic. If you expect more than ~8 submissions a day, jump straight to splitforms instead. Full breakdown in splitforms vs Web3Forms.
Formspree — established form backend
Free tier: 50 submissions/month. Paid: current published pricing lists Personal at $10/month for 200/month and Professional at $20/month for 2,000/month. See the Formspree pricing page for live feature details.
Formspree pioneered the category and is the most polished tool in this list in terms of feature breadth. Plugins for popular CMSes, Stripe payment integration on higher tiers, multi-step form support, and a mature API. If you already use Formspree and your traffic fits in 50/month free, there's no urgent reason to leave.
What's good: rock-solid deliverability, AJAX endpoints with proper CORS, integrations with Stripe, Zapier, and most CMSes. The product is battle-tested.
A recurring monthly allowance may fit low-volume sites. Compare current feature tiers against your expected workload; it differs from SplitForms' one-time free allowance.
Verdict: Reliable but priced for 2014. If you're evaluating fresh, splitforms covers the same ground at a fraction of the cost. If you're a Formspree user feeling the bills add up, the 5-minute migration guide covers the switch.
4. FormSubmit — free forever, but you get what you pay for
Free tier: truly unlimited, no signup required, no paid plans. Best for: throwaway forms, hackathon projects, or testing.
FormSubmit is the only tool here with no business model and no signup. You set the form action to https://formsubmit.co/[email protected], confirm once via email, and submissions forward to that inbox. No dashboard, no analytics, no webhooks.
What's good: literally zero friction. Useful when you need a contact form online in 30 seconds and don't care about any downstream features.
What's missing: no dashboard means no record of submissions outside your inbox. No webhooks, no integrations, no spam filtering beyond a basic honeypot, no support channel if something breaks. The project is maintained by one person and could disappear with no notice. Multiple users report deliverability issues during high-traffic periods.
Verdict: Fine for a personal portfolio that gets two submissions a year. Anything with real stakes — client work, lead capture, customer support — needs a tool with an actual product behind it. Use splitforms' free tier instead; you'll get a dashboard, exports, and someone to email when things break.
5. Basin — clean dashboard, designer-friendly
Free tier: 100 submissions/month across all forms, 5 forms max. Paid: starts at $12.95/month (1,000 submissions, webhooks, file uploads). Best for: design-conscious users who want a polished admin.
Basin (usebasin.com) is a small, focused tool with the nicest dashboard in this list. Submission inbox feels like a proper email client, filtering is good, and the UI is genuinely pleasant to use. It's the tool we'd recommend if dashboard polish was the only criterion.
What's good: best-in-class submission UI, clean integrations menu, solid email deliverability, transparent pricing.
What's missing: the 100/month free cap splits across all your forms combined — so if you have 3 contact forms, that's 33/month each on average. Webhooks, file uploads, and most integrations are paid. The $12.95 starter plan gives you 1,000 submissions; splitforms Pro covers 5,000 for $5/month.
Verdict: A solid tool, but you're paying a premium for UI polish. If you want a similarly clean dashboard without the paywall on webhooks and uploads, see splitforms vs Basin or the full alternatives roundup.
6. Getform — files-heavy forms specialist
Free tier: 50 submissions/month, 1 form, basic file uploads. Paid: starts at $12/month (1,000 submissions). Best for: forms that depend on file attachments.
Getform's differentiator is file handling. The free tier allows file uploads (most competitors don't), and the dashboard surfaces attachments well. If you're collecting resumes, design files, or photo submissions, this is one of the few free options that actually supports it.
What's good: file uploads on free tier, S3-style storage, decent integrations (Slack, Trello, Mailchimp), reasonable dashboard.
What's missing: the 50/month single-form free cap is tiny. Webhooks require the $12 plan. The integration menu looks broad but several integrations (Zapier especially) are paywalled higher. Once you exceed 50/month or need a second form, you're on the $12 plan — splitforms' $5 plan covers 5x the submissions plus webhooks plus file uploads.
Verdict: Picks up some niche cases for file-heavy forms on tiny budgets, but generally outclassed on price-to-value. See splitforms vs Getform.
7. Formspark — one-time pricing, but capped capacity
Free tier: 250 total submissions (not per-month — total, ever). Paid: $25 one-time for 50,000 submissions total. Best for: a single low-volume form on a personal site.
Formspark sells one-time submission credits rather than monthly plans. The pricing is unusual — and for the right use case it's great. A personal portfolio that gets 5 messages a month would take a decade to burn through the $25 plan.
What's good: one-time payment model, webhooks included, no monthly fees, simple billing.
What's missing: the dashboard is minimal, the brand has low public visibility, and the 250-total free credit means you blow through it once and never get free credits again. Spam filtering is basic. No file uploads in the free tier.
Verdict: Niche but legitimate for low-volume sites that want to pay once and forget the monthly bill. For ongoing free use, splitforms' 500 total resets monthly — Formspark's 250 free credit doesn't reset at all. The $59 for 3 years splitforms plan is the better long-horizon deal if you want a low-frequency billing cycle with much more capacity.
8. Static Forms — JAMstack-targeted, basic features
Free tier: 50 submissions/month, 1 form. Paid: starts at $9.99/month. Best for: static sites that need a no-frills email handler.
Static Forms positions itself for the JAMstack crowd — sites built with Next.js, Astro, Hugo, Eleventy, etc. The product is functional but unremarkable: form posts go to your email, basic spam filtering, simple dashboard.
What's good: reliable email delivery, fast setup, clear docs.
What's missing: every paywall you'd expect — webhooks, file uploads, multiple forms, integrations. The 50/month single-form cap is among the most restrictive here. The $9.99 plan still skips some integrations, and the dashboard has no rich search or filtering. No honeypot defaults, no custom redirects without upgrading.
Verdict: No specific reason to pick Static Forms over the higher-ranked tools. Same JAMstack use case is served better by splitforms (with the static-site setup guide) at zero cost up to 500 total.
9. Netlify Forms — only useful if you're on Netlify
Free tier: unlimited form submissions on current credit plans, only for Netlify-hosted sites. Legacy plans keep their older metered limits. Best for: existing Netlify customers who want zero-config.
Netlify Forms is built into the Netlify hosting platform. Add a netlify attribute to your form tag and Netlify auto-detects and starts collecting submissions. Zero setup, zero account beyond Netlify itself.
What's good: zero-config if your site is already on Netlify, decent spam protection via honeypot and reCAPTCHA hooks, submissions visible in Netlify dashboard.
What's missing is portability: move the site away from Netlify and the form handler stops working. The same integration that makes setup effortless is also the lock-in.
Verdict: Convenient and generous if you're committed to Netlify hosting. Choose a portable backend when the site may move. See splitforms vs Netlify Forms for the full comparison.
10. Tally — form-builder UI, not a backend
Free tier: unlimited submissions and many features, including conditional logic and webhooks, under fair-use guidelines. Paid: Pro adds branding removal, custom domains, and team features; check Tally's pricing page for the current regional price. Best for: hosted forms and visual-builder workflows.
Tally is a different category from the rest of this list — it's a form builder (like Typeform) rather than a backend for your own HTML. You design the form in Tally's UI, share a link or embed it, and submissions land in Tally's dashboard. The Free plan includes unlimited responses; Tally's branding remains until a paid plan removes it.
Tally is a hosted form builder with unlimited responses and a broad free feature set, including conditional logic, file uploads, payments, and webhooks subject to its fair-use guidelines. Pro adds branding removal, custom domains, and team features.
Tally-hosted forms can be shared by link or embedded. SplitForms serves a different need: receiving submissions from HTML markup that you own on your site. Compare the products by workflow rather than assuming they are interchangeable.
Verdict: Pick Tally for a hosted visual builder; consider SplitForms for an endpoint behind your own form. See SplitForms vs Tally and Tally alternatives.
Which one should you pick?
Quick decision tree based on the most common use cases:
- You write your own HTML and want the most generous free tier: splitforms. 500 total free, webhooks from $5/month, free rule-based spam scoring. Sign up here.
- You need a multi-step Typeform-style UI: Tally for the UI, splitforms for the backend if you outgrow Tally.
- You're already on Netlify and plan to stay: Netlify Forms is the simplest bundled option.
- You already use Formspree and your traffic fits in 50/month: stay until billing hurts, then migrate to splitforms.
- You need retained file uploads: splitforms Pro with Storage, or compare Getform if upload storage is your main requirement.
- You want a polished dashboard and you don't mind paying: Basin is genuinely beautiful, but splitforms' dashboard is close and free.
- You need a throwaway form for 30 minutes: FormSubmit. Don't use it for anything serious.
For most readers — indie devs, freelancers, small business owners — the answer is splitforms. The 500 total free tier covers nearly every real-world use case without forcing an upgrade, and the $5/month paid plan handles serious traffic with room to spare. See the free contact form API comparison, the broader form backend roundup, and the cheapest form-to-email comparison for additional context.
How to switch to splitforms (5 minutes)
If you're moving from any of the tools above, the migration pattern is identical. Field names stay the same — only the action URL and authentication change.
<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>Get the access key at splitforms.com/login — email, 6-digit code, copy the key from the dashboard. Then update your form HTML, redeploy, send a test submission, confirm it landed in your inbox and the splitforms dashboard. Done.
For step-by-step migration from a specific tool, see migrate from Formspree or migrate from Typeform. Framework-specific guides for Next.js, React, Vue, Astro, and Svelte cover the per-framework wiring.
Reference: docs, API reference, FAQ, or browse all blog posts.
FAQ
What makes a contact form tool actually free?
A free plan can have submission caps, paid feature tiers, branding, or hosting requirements. Compare those terms with your workload and check the provider's current pricing before relying on a long-term free plan.
Which tool has the highest free submission limit?
There is no single comparable limit across this list: some providers use monthly quotas, some use one-time balances, and hosted builders use separate response rules. SplitForms lists 500 submissions total; Web3Forms lists 250/month. Netlify's allowance depends on its current credit plan and hosting setup. Check each provider's live terms.
Are free contact form tools spam magnets?
Yes — every public form is. The difference is which tool defends you out of the box. splitforms ships rule-based spam scoring and honeypot fields free. Most competitors give you a basic keyword blocklist or a hidden honeypot and paywall the smart stuff. If you publish your form on a real domain, expect 50–500 spam attempts per month at minimum, and pick a tool whose free tier includes actual filtering — not just an option to enable Google reCAPTCHA.
Do free tiers include webhooks?
Almost never. Formspree, Getform, Basin, and Formspark all paywall webhooks at $5–$20/month. splitforms includes webhooks on its $5/month Pro plan, which is the single biggest cost gap in this comparison. If your stack needs a webhook to push submissions into Slack, Discord, a CRM, or a custom endpoint, the 'free' tools that paywall webhooks become $10–$20/month tools the day you ship.
What about file uploads on a free plan?
File uploads are the second-most-paywalled feature. splitforms accepts normal multipart form posts, while retained uploads require a paid plan and a connected Storage integration. Web3Forms allows files free. Formspree, Basin, Formspark, and Getform all require a paid plan for uploads. If your form needs resume uploads, design files, or document attachments, this is one of the first features to verify on whatever tool you pick — the free tier docs often bury the file-upload limit three pages deep.
Should I self-host instead of using a free service?
Probably not. The math rarely works for indie sites. A self-hosted form backend means writing the API endpoint, the dashboard, the spam filter, the webhook signer, the email deliverability config, and on-call for it forever. The cheapest hosted free tier (500 submissions total on splitforms) covers most personal and small-business sites without any of that. We wrote a longer piece on the trade-off in the self-hosted vs SaaS breakdown linked in this article.
Can I move between these tools later?
Yes, and most migrations take five minutes per form. The action URL and authentication header change, but field names (name, email, message) stay identical because HTML form names pass through every backend. The harder migration is webhooks (signature header names differ) and historical submissions (which don't migrate — export to CSV from the old tool first). We have a step-by-step migration guide from Formspree linked in the article.
Is the cheapest paid plan worth it once you outgrow the free tier?
Compare monthly price, submission allowance, retention, and required features. SplitForms pricing includes monthly prices; Formspree currently lists Personal at $10/month for 200 submissions/month. Use the vendor pricing pages linked below for current limits and feature tiers.