At-a-glance: the 10 tools compared
Free tier limits as of 2026-05. Skim this table, then jump to whichever tool fits your situation. splitforms is row 1 because nothing else gives you a 1,000-submission free tier with webhooks, AI spam classification, and zero lock-in on the same plan.
| Tool | Free tier | Cheapest paid | Webhooks free | Dashboard | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| splitforms | 1,000/mo | $5/mo (5,000) | Yes | Yes | Embed-based capture, any framework |
| HubSpot Free | Unlimited contacts | $15/mo Starter | No | Yes | Forms + a real CRM |
| Sumo | Unlimited popups | $39/mo Pro | No | Yes | Exit-intent + popups |
| OptinMonster Lite | 1 campaign | $9/mo Basic | No | Yes | WordPress popups |
| Mailchimp | 500 contacts | $13/mo Essentials | No | Yes | Newsletter signups |
| ConvertKit (Kit) | 10,000 subs | $15/mo Creator | No | Yes | Creator newsletters |
| Brevo | Unlimited contacts | $9/mo Starter | Yes | Yes | Email + SMS combo |
| Tally | Unlimited forms | $29/mo Pro | Limited | Yes | Notion-style hosted forms |
| Typeform Free | 10 responses/mo | $25/mo Basic | No | Yes | Conversational surveys (low-volume) |
| Google Forms | Unlimited | Free (Workspace $6/user) | No | Yes (Sheets) | Internal / quick surveys |
Want the deeper backend comparison? Read the best free form backend services 2026 roundup for the engineering-side picks.
How we picked (criteria that actually matter)
Most "best of" lists rank tools by name recognition. We ranked on what determines whether you actually capture and convert leads:
- Free tier headroom. A 50-submission cap is useless if one Reddit post buries your form. We weighted real-volume capacity heavily.
- Webhook support on the free tier. Webhooks are how leads flow to a CRM, Slack, or Zapier. Paywalling them is a tax on growth.
- Spam protection. Honeypot-only is a 2010s answer. AI classification, IP rep checks, and rate limits matter in 2026.
- Framework fit. Code-first sites (Next.js, Astro, Svelte) need embed-friendly tools. WordPress sites can use plugin-first tools.
- Cost at scale. What does it cost when you 10x? Some "free" tools become $40-100/month once you grow.
- Lock-in. Can you walk away with your data? Hosted-only tools (Typeform, Tally) own your form. Embed-based tools (splitforms) don't.
If you only care about one criterion, pick free-tier headroom. Running out mid-campaign isn't recoverable.
1. splitforms — best for embed-based lead capture on any framework
Free tier: 1,000 submissions/month. Cheapest paid: $5/month Pro (5,000 submissions). 4-year plan: $59 (averages ~$1.23/month). Webhooks free: yes. AI spam: yes, free tier.
splitforms is what you use when you write your own HTML and want submissions to land in your inbox, a webhook, or a dashboard — without installing an SDK or learning a form builder. You paste a regular `<form>` tag pointed at our API endpoint, drop in an access key, and it works on Next.js, Astro, Svelte, Vue, plain HTML, WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Framer — anywhere a form can render.
What's good: free tier is 20x bigger than Formspree's. Webhooks, AI spam classification, and MCP integration for AI agents are all free. Real dashboard with submission history and export. Custom SMTP support means notification emails come from your domain, so deliverability is whatever you configure. Built-in honeypot, optional reCAPTCHA, IP throttling.
What's missing: no hosted popup builder — splitforms doesn't do exit-intent overlays out of the box. Pair with Sumo if you want both. No native CRM views — pipe submissions to HubSpot Free via webhook.
Verdict: if you already write code or use a static site generator, this is the default. Sign up at splitforms.com/login, grab a key, ship in 60 seconds. Framework starters at /forms/nextjs, /forms/react, /forms/astro, /forms/vue, /forms/svelte.
2. HubSpot Free — best if you need forms plus a real CRM
Free tier: unlimited contacts and form submissions, basic CRM, email marketing. Cheapest paid: $15/month Starter (per seat). Webhooks free: no (workflows are paid).
HubSpot Free is the heavyweight here. You get a hosted form builder, a contact database that doesn't cap at 500, basic deal pipelines, and meeting scheduling. For a small B2B SaaS doing outbound, it's genuinely useful without paying. The form builder outputs an embed script or hosted page; both feel dated but work.
What's good: the CRM layer. If "lead capture" really means "build a sales pipeline," HubSpot does this where splitforms doesn't. No contact cap on free — Mailchimp caps at 500. Includes email templates, basic automation triggers, and call logging.
What's missing: webhooks and most automation are paywalled hard. The embed script is heavy (200kb+) and slows page loads. Pricing scales steeply — Starter is $15/seat/month, and you'll be nudged toward Marketing Hub Pro ($800+/month) for landing pages or workflows.
Verdict: use it as your CRM, capture leads with splitforms, pipe them in via webhook. Don't use HubSpot's form builder if you care about page weight.
3. Sumo — best free popup and exit-intent toolkit
Free tier: unlimited popups, basic A/B testing, list export. Cheapest paid: $39/month Pro. Webhooks free: no.
Sumo (originally SumoMe, then Sumo) survived the popup-tool wars by going generous on the free tier. You get welcome mats, scroll boxes, smart bars, and exit-intent popups without paying. Targeting is decent: device, URL, scroll percentage, exit detection. The visual builder is unfussy, and the free tier doesn't plaster their branding aggressively.
What's good: popup variety on the free tier. A/B testing is included. Direct integrations with Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and a generic Zapier hook (paid). Lightweight script compared to OptinMonster.
What's missing: the free tier has "Powered by Sumo" branding on popups, which kills the look on serious sites. No webhooks. No conditional logic. Reporting is shallow. The product hasn't evolved much in three years — Sumo is in maintenance mode rather than active development.
Verdict: good as a free entry point for exit-intent. Outgrow it within a quarter if you're serious. Pair with splitforms for the actual contact form on your site — Sumo for top-of-funnel, splitforms for the form people fill out.
4. OptinMonster Lite — best free WordPress popup plugin
Free tier: 1 campaign, 1 site, basic targeting. Cheapest paid: $9/month Basic (annual). Webhooks free: no.
OptinMonster started as a WordPress plugin and never fully escaped that origin. The free Lite version gives you one active campaign on one site, with the core popup engine and basic display rules. It's the right pick if you run a WordPress blog and want a popup that integrates cleanly with your existing setup.
What's good: the templates are genuinely better-designed than most competitors. Exit-intent works reliably. The WordPress integration is one-click — install the plugin, sign in, your popups appear in WP's admin. Better targeting than Sumo at the paid tiers (geolocation, referrer, page-level rules).
What's missing: the free tier is genuinely cramped — one campaign is enough to test, not enough to run real lead capture. Pricing jumps fast: Pro features (exit-intent on mobile, A/B testing, MonsterLinks) are gated behind the $29+/month tier. No free webhook support.
Verdict: trial it free, upgrade if popups become a core acquisition channel, otherwise Sumo's free tier is roomier. For non-WordPress sites, skip both and use a code-first stack.
5. Mailchimp — best free newsletter signup forms
Free tier: 500 contacts, 1,000 emails/month, 1 audience. Cheapest paid: $13/month Essentials. Webhooks free: no.
Mailchimp's embedded signup forms are still the default for newsletter capture on small sites — partly inertia, partly because they work. You get a hosted form URL, embeddable HTML, and a popup variant. Submissions land in your audience and trigger any welcome automations you've built.
What's good: the audience tools, segmentation, and welcome automations are mature. Templates are professional. Free tier is sufficient for a personal site or new newsletter. The embedded form HTML is portable — you don't need their hosted page.
What's missing: 500-contact cap on free hits fast if you actually grow. Pricing scales aggressively — by 5,000 contacts you're paying $75/month. The form HTML they generate is generic and hard to style. No webhooks on free. Anti-spam is basic; expect bot signups unless you add reCAPTCHA yourself.
Verdict: still the default for "subscribe to my newsletter," but as soon as you hit ~2,000 contacts, look at ConvertKit/Kit or Brevo. For the contact form itself, use splitforms and pipe to Mailchimp via webhook — best of both.
6. ConvertKit / Kit — best free creator newsletter capture
Free tier: up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms. Cheapest paid: $15/month Creator. Webhooks free: no.
ConvertKit (rebranded to Kit in 2024) raised its free tier to 10,000 subscribers, which is genuinely generous. The product is built for creators — authors, podcasters, course sellers — and the forms reflect that: clean, embeddable, optimized for newsletter sign-ups rather than contact forms.
What's good: 10,000 subs free is the highest in this list. Landing pages are free and unlimited. The deliverability is consistently strong (creator audiences tend not to mark as spam). Tag-based segmentation is simpler than Mailchimp's audience model. Honest pricing — no surprises at scale.
What's missing: no automation sequences on the free tier — that's the upsell. No webhooks free. The form designer is limited; if you want a custom-styled inline form, you're fighting their CSS. Not a fit for B2B lead capture — it's a creator-first tool.
Verdict: if you're building an audience as a writer or creator, this is the most generous free tier. Pair it with splitforms for any non-newsletter form (contact, demo request, support).
7. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — best free combined email + SMS
Free tier: unlimited contacts, 300 emails/day. Cheapest paid: $9/month Starter (5,000 emails). Webhooks free: yes.
Brevo rebranded from Sendinblue in 2023 and quietly built one of the more generous free tiers in this category. Unlimited contacts (vs Mailchimp's 500) is the headline; the 300-emails-per-day cap is the catch. For lead capture purposes — where you're collecting addresses, not blasting newsletters — that limit rarely bites.
What's good: unlimited contact storage on free is rare. Built-in SMS sending (paid per credit, but available). Transactional email API included. Has webhooks on the free tier. EU-based hosting, which matters for some GDPR setups. Form builder is functional, embed HTML is portable.
What's missing: the 300-email/day cap stops bulk newsletter sends. The form designer is utilitarian — embeddable but not pretty. Deliverability is fine but not best-in-class; you'll see more spam-folder hits than with ConvertKit. UI feels enterprise-ish and slow.
Verdict: excellent if you need email + SMS in one tool, or if you have a large contact list but low send volume. For pure form capture on a code-first site, splitforms is still leaner.
8. Tally — best free Notion-style hosted forms
Free tier: unlimited forms, unlimited responses, basic logic. Cheapest paid: $29/month Pro. Webhooks free: limited.
Tally is what Typeform should have been — clean, Notion-feel forms with a genuinely usable free tier. Unlimited forms, unlimited responses, conditional logic, file uploads, even payments (with a 2% Tally fee on free). Hosted at a Tally subdomain, but you can embed iframes anywhere.
What's good: the free tier is shockingly generous — most other hosted form builders cap responses, Tally doesn't. The editor is fast and pleasant. Conditional logic, calculations, hidden fields all work free. Direct integrations to Notion, Airtable, Slack, Google Sheets.
What's missing: hosted-only — you're embedding an iframe, not owning the HTML. Custom domains, removing branding, advanced analytics, and full webhook access are paid. Page-load impact from the iframe is noticeable. No real API for programmatic submission — it's built for form-fill, not for posting from code.
Verdict: the right pick if you want hosted no-code forms with real depth and you don't mind iframe embedding. For code-first sites, splitforms beats it on integration weight. Compare side-by-side in splitforms vs Tally.
9. Typeform Free — best conversational forms (for tiny volume)
Free tier: 10 responses/month, unlimited forms, basic logic. Cheapest paid: $25/month Basic. Webhooks free: no.
Typeform popularized the one-question-at-a-time form pattern and still does it best — the animations, transitions, and on-mobile experience are polished. The free tier is borderline useless for production, but it's great for prototyping a survey or testing whether conversational format lifts your completion rate.
What's good: the UX is genuinely best-in-class for surveys and long forms. Logic jumps work well. Built-in analytics show drop-off per question. Templates are professional and varied. Embedding options are flexible.
What's missing: 10 responses/month on free is a trap — most users discover it after launching, then face an upgrade-or-die moment. Pricing is steep ($25/month for the entry tier with branding still visible). Hosted-only. No webhook on free. Slow page loads.
Verdict: use for surveys you genuinely send to humans (employee feedback, customer research), not for always-on contact capture. Read migrate from Typeform if you're already on it and hitting the cap, or the head-to-head Google Forms vs Typeform vs splitforms.
10. Google Forms — best free internal / quick survey tool
Free tier: unlimited forms and responses. Cheapest paid: free (Workspace $6/user adds branding/domain). Webhooks free: no.
Google Forms is what you reach for when you need a quick poll, internal survey, or one-off RSVP. It's free forever, responses land in a Google Sheet automatically, and anyone with a Google account is already authenticated. The form UI is dated but workmanlike.
What's good: truly unlimited free. Native Sheets integration is instant. File uploads work. Quiz mode is solid for assessments. Quizzes can auto-grade. Section logic is basic but available. No spam protection needed because submissions tie to Google accounts (if you require sign-in).
What's missing: the URL is hideous (forms.gle/xyz), the branding screams "Google," and there's no real way to embed without an iframe. No webhooks, no native CRM hooks, no AI spam. Notification emails are clunky. Custom styling is essentially nonexistent. Not suitable for any customer-facing lead capture where brand matters.
Verdict: perfect for internal surveys and one-time RSVPs. Wrong tool for a contact form on your homepage. If you want the "everything to Google Sheets" behavior on a real form, read store form submissions in Google Sheets — splitforms does this without the Google Forms aesthetic.
Which one should you pick? (decision tree)
- You write your own HTML / use Next.js, Astro, Svelte, Vue, plain React: splitforms. Free tier 1,000/mo, webhooks free, zero lock-in. Sign up.
- You need a CRM with pipeline stages and contact management: HubSpot Free for the CRM, splitforms for the forms, webhook between them.
- Your "leads" are newsletter subscribers and you're a creator: ConvertKit/Kit (10,000 subs free).
- Your "leads" are newsletter subscribers and you want template/automation maturity: Mailchimp until 2,000 contacts, then evaluate.
- You need email + SMS combined: Brevo.
- You want a hosted no-code form builder with depth: Tally.
- You run WordPress and want plug-and-play popups: OptinMonster Lite or Sumo.
- You're running surveys, not a contact form: Typeform for polished UX (paid), Google Forms for free internal.
The common "right answer" for a small business site is the stack: splitforms (contact form) + Mailchimp or ConvertKit (newsletter) + Sumo (exit-intent) + HubSpot Free (CRM if you do outbound). All free tiers, no overlap.
How to switch (or just get started)
If you're starting fresh, the fastest path to a working capture form is 60 seconds:
- Sign up at splitforms.com/login — email + 6-digit code, no card.
- Copy your access key from the dashboard.
- Paste the form below into any page on your site.
<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's a working lead capture form. Submissions email you, log to the dashboard, and (if you wire it up) fire a webhook to your CRM or Slack. If you're moving from a paid tool, the migration guides cover the common ones: migrate from Formspree, migrate from Typeform. Need a styled starter? Grab the free HTML contact form template. Connecting to other tools — HubSpot, Zapier, Slack, Airtable — each takes about two minutes.
Browse more tooling comparisons on the blog, or check /docs and /api-reference for the request contract. Plan and security questions live in the /faq.
FAQ
What's the difference between a lead capture tool and a form backend?
A form backend (splitforms, Formspree, Web3Forms) takes HTML forms you write and routes submissions to email, webhooks, or storage. A lead capture tool usually means a hosted widget builder (OptinMonster, Sumo) where you configure popups inside their UI. splitforms does both — you control the HTML but get a dashboard, AI spam, and webhooks. Most small sites only need a backend.
Do I need a CRM to capture leads?
No. For under ~500 leads/month, an inbox plus a spreadsheet beats most CRMs. splitforms can email each submission, push to Google Sheets via webhook, and store everything in the dashboard — a free CRM-lite. Add HubSpot Free only when you have a real sales process: multiple stages, multiple reps, follow-up sequences. Until then, a CRM is overhead, not productivity.
Are popups still effective in 2026, or do they hurt SEO?
Intrusive interstitials hurt rankings on mobile — Google's been clear since 2017. Exit-intent popups, scroll-triggered slide-ins, and inline opt-ins are fine. Conversion rates vary: 1-3% on cold blog traffic, 5-10% on warm pages with a real offer. Test with one free tool before paying for premium features.
What's the best free option for a Next.js / React app?
splitforms is built for code-first frontends. Drop a regular HTML form with `action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit"`, add your access key, deploy. Works in Next.js App Router, Pages Router, server actions, React, Astro, Svelte, Vue — no SDK install. The free tier covers 1,000 submissions/month, includes webhooks, AI spam, and a dashboard. See the /forms/nextjs guide for a copy-paste starter.
How many free submissions do I actually need per month?
A typical indie SaaS landing page gets 5-50 contact submissions/month. An agency site with SEO traffic gets 50-300. A high-volume blog with newsletter opt-ins can hit 500-2,000. splitforms' 1,000/month free tier covers everything except heavy newsletter capture. Mailchimp's free tier handles 500 contacts. Stack tools if you need more headroom.
Can I use multiple tools together?
Yes, and it's often the right move. Common stack: splitforms for the contact form, Mailchimp or ConvertKit for the newsletter, Sumo for exit-intent popups. Each does what it's best at. The mistake is using a popup tool like OptinMonster for your contact form — it's the wrong primitive.
Do free plans come with email notifications?
splitforms, HubSpot Free, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Brevo, Tally, and Google Forms all email you on new submissions on the free tier. Sumo and OptinMonster Lite usually require connecting to a separate email tool — they're capture widgets, not inbox tools. Typeform Free emails responses but caps you at 10 per month, which is the real reason most people upgrade.
What about GDPR and privacy compliance?
Any tool capturing EU resident data needs a DPA, lawful basis, and the right to delete. splitforms publishes a DPA, supports custom SMTP, and lets you delete submissions on request. HubSpot, Mailchimp, Brevo all have mature compliance docs. Sumo and OptinMonster require you to add your own consent checkbox. Read /faq and the /blog/gdpr-compliant-form-submissions walkthrough.