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Contact form without backend
Contact form without a backend or server.
Updated · plan facts checked against /pricing
A contact form works without a backend: copy the HTML form, point its action attribute at a hosted form endpoint, and every submission is emailed to you and saved to a dashboard. No server, database, or PHP to run. First 500 submissions free.
- 500 free total
- No server or DB
- Any static host
- 1Copy this HTML form. Paste it into any page, on any host.
- 2Point action= at a form endpoint. Use https://splitforms.com/api/submit and your free access key.
- 3Get submissions by email. Each one is emailed to you and saved to your dashboard.
<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
<input name="name" placeholder="Name" required>
<input name="email" type="email" placeholder="Email" required>
<textarea name="message" placeholder="Message" required></textarea>
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>Compare the options
Three ways to run a contact form without a backend.
Each method below works with no server of your own. They differ in how long setup takes, what happens to spam, where messages end up, and what limits apply.
| Method | Setup time | Spam handling | Where submissions go | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted form endpoint (splitforms, Formspree, Web3Forms…) | About 5 minutes: change the form's action URL and add a hidden key field. | Built in on the provider side — typically a honeypot, rate limits and content checks; details vary by provider. | Emailed to you and stored in the provider's dashboard, with export or webhooks depending on plan. | The provider's plan caps. Free tiers range from 50 a month to 500 in total (splitforms). |
| Google Apps Script + Google Sheets | 20–40 minutes: write a doPost script, deploy it as a web app, and handle the redirect or CORS response yourself. | None by default. Any honeypot, rate limiting or filtering is code you write and maintain in the script. | Rows in your own Google Sheet. Email alerts need extra script code. | Google's daily Apps Script quotas — for example about 100 email recipients a day on a free Google account. |
| mailto: link as the form action | About 1 minute: set action="mailto:[email protected]". | No filtering, and your address sits in the page source for scrapers to harvest. | Nothing is stored. The visitor's own email app has to open and send the message. | Fails silently for visitors with no desktop mail app set up, which includes most webmail and many phone users. |
Just HTML, no backend
No PHP, Node.js, Python, database, or SMTP — plus one optional script tag for the time-trap field.
Works on any static host
GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, or Amazon S3 — anywhere you can serve HTML.
Spam filtered by default
Honeypot, time-trap, and IP rate limits screen bots before they reach your inbox.
Optional extras
How do I add spam protection and a thank-you page?
Add three optional hidden fields to the same form: botcheck, a honeypot checkbox that must stay empty; form_loaded_at, a time-trap filled by one line of JavaScript; and redirect, the thank-you page visitors land on after they send. The form still posts to https://splitforms.com/api/submit, and it still works if you leave any of them out.
<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
<input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="https://yoursite.com/thanks">
<input type="hidden" name="form_loaded_at" id="form_loaded_at">
<input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1">
<input name="name" type="text" placeholder="Name" required>
<input name="email" type="email" placeholder="Email" required>
<textarea name="message" placeholder="Message" required></textarea>
<button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>
<script>
document.getElementById('form_loaded_at').value = Date.now();
</script>Setup
How to add a contact form without a backend.
Four steps, no server or database — the same whether you paste the form into raw HTML, a framework component, or a WordPress Custom HTML block.
Point your form at the endpoint
Set the form's action to https://splitforms.com/api/submit with method POST, then add access_key as a hidden field.
Add the built-in spam fields
Include the hidden botcheck honeypot (leave it empty) and a form_loaded_at field set to the page-load timestamp — splitforms also rate-limits abuse automatically.
Deploy and test
Push the page live, submit a real test entry, and confirm it lands in your inbox and the submissions dashboard.
Why it works
Why does a contact form need a backend? It normally doesn't.
A working contact form usually needs four moving parts — a server to receive the POST, a database to store each message, an email service to notify you, and spam protection. On a static site or JAMstack app there's no server to run any of it, so a hosted contact form backend handles the server, database, email, and spam filtering for you — you just add one URL to your HTML form.
- No server to receive the POST request
- No database to store submissions
- No SMTP or email service to configure
What you get
What do you get with a no-backend contact form?
Every submission lands in your inbox and a searchable dashboard, stored in row-level-secured Postgres — see our GDPR page. The free plan covers 500 submissions total across unlimited forms, and paid plans start at $5/month (Pro); see the full pricing breakdown.
- Email notifications on every plan, free
- Searchable submissions dashboard; CSV, XML, and PDF export on paid plans
- Honeypot, time-trap, and content-scoring spam filters, optional reCAPTCHA v2
- Slack, Discord, Telegram, Sheets, Notion, Airtable, and signed webhooks on paid plans
- File uploads on paid plans: up to 5 files × 5 MB per submission
How SplitForms works
What happens after someone submits your form?
splitforms receives the submission, filters spam, saves it to your dashboard and emails you — then, on paid plans, sends it on to your webhooks and integrations. No backend infrastructure to build.
Add your endpoint
Point your form to your unique SplitForms endpoint. That's it.
Receive submissions
We instantly capture and organize every submission in your inbox.
Route anywhere
Send data to email, spreadsheets, CRMs, webhooks, and 7,000+ apps.
No credit card required. Set up in under 60 seconds.
Connect & automate
Where can submissions go besides email?
On paid plans, submissions can also go to Slack, Discord, Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, Zapier or any signed webhook — and splitforms works on the platforms you build on, from WordPress and Shopify to Next.js. With Stripe connected, your forms can take payments too.
NewTake payments on your formsDeposits, bookings, order forms — submitters check out through Stripe and the money goes straight to your Stripe account. Included on every paid plan.See plans →FAQ
Contact form without a backend, answered.
View all FAQsCan a contact form work without a backend?
Yes. Point the form's action attribute at a hosted form backend such as splitforms, and it receives the POST, emails you each submission, filters spam, and stores every entry in a dashboard. You write no server code and set up no database; submissions are kept in row-level-secured Postgres for you.
How do static sites handle contact forms?
A static site has no server to receive a POST, so the form sends its data straight to a hosted endpoint instead. Set action to https://splitforms.com/api/submit with method POST, add your access key as a hidden field, and it works on GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, Amazon S3, or any host that serves HTML.
Is a contact form without a backend secure?
Yes. Submissions travel over HTTPS, and the access key in your HTML only lets people submit to your form; it can't read your submissions. Spam is screened by a hidden honeypot field, a time-trap that catches instant bot submissions, rule-based content scoring, and per-IP rate limits (6 per minute per form), with optional reCAPTCHA v2 for extra coverage.
Does a contact form without a backend need JavaScript?
No. A native HTML form submit works with zero JavaScript. Add one small script only if you want the optional time-trap spam field, or to submit with fetch() and show an inline success message instead of loading a new page.
How many submissions can I collect for free?
The free plan includes 500 submissions across unlimited forms, with email notifications, spam filtering, and the dashboard — no card and no time limit. It is a one-time allowance rather than a monthly one. When you need a monthly allowance, Pro is $5/month for 5,000 submissions a month with every paid feature, and Annual is $49/year for 15,000 a month.
Can I send no-backend form submissions to Slack, Sheets, or email?
Email notifications are free on every plan. Paid plans, from $5/month, add Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, Slack, Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp, and HMAC-signed webhooks.
Simple pricing
How much does splitforms cost?
Free gives you 500 submissions for $0 — no card, no time limit. Pro is $5/month for 5,000 submissions a month, and Annual is $49/year for 15,000 a month with every Pro feature.
Free
$0— 500 submissions
For side projects and indie devs.
- 500 free submissions
- Unlimited forms
- Email notifications included
- Smart spam filtering
- Submissions dashboard
- Redirect after submit
- MCP server included
Recommended
Pro
$5/ month
Billed monthly
Every paid feature, for agencies and growing products.
- 5,000 submissions / mo
- Unlimited forms
- Webhooks and integrations
- CC/BCC, auto-replies and routing
- File uploads with 500 MB storage
- Stripe payments on your forms
- 3 team seats
- Cancel anytime
Annual
$49/ year
About $4.08/mo, billed yearly
Every Pro feature with triple the volume — $0.27 per 1,000 at full use.
- 15,000 submissions / mo
- Unlimited forms
- Everything in Pro
- File uploads with 5 GB storage
- 3 team seats
- Priority email support
No credit card required on Free • Cancel anytime • Full pricing and FAQ