Waitlist for Eleventy
Pre-launch capture form with optional referral source. Free for 500 submissions per month — no backend, no SDK, no plugin.
Why Eleventy developers choose splitforms for waitlist
Eleventy (11ty) is a flexible static site generator that lets you use any templating language, but it doesn't process form submissions — the output is static HTML. Adding a Node server or a Netlify function just for a contact form defeats the simplicity that makes Eleventy appealing. The waitlist on this page posts from the browser to splitforms, so your Eleventy site stays static. It works with Nunjucks, Handlebars, Liquid, Markdown, and every Eleventy template language because the form is plain HTML.
Yes — this is the shortest safe path for Eleventy.
Use the HTML snippet on this page, keep the waitlist fields visible in your Eleventy UI, and let splitforms handle delivery, spam filtering, storage, and webhooks.
Paste the HTML version, then replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY.
The posted payload contains email, name, how did you hear about us?. Required fields are email.
Eleventy is a Node-based static site generator — it produces HTML at build time and ships nothing else.
Pre-launch waitlists let you capture demand before the product ships. The multi-step form qualifies the use case so launch-day conversions skew toward the highest-intent signups.
Built for Eleventy developers who hate operating a backend.
Splitforms is the form backend for Eleventy sites. One POST endpoint, no SDK, no plugin — drop the waitlist into a page and ship.
Splitforms is the form backend for Eleventy sites. One POST endpoint, spam filtering, and a real dashboard — drop-in, no server, no PHP. Free for 500 dashboard submissions per month; Starter adds email, signed webhooks, exports, and retained uploads; Pro is $5/mo for 5,000.
- ✓500 form submissions per month
- ✓2 forms on Free; unlimited forms on Pro
- ✓Spam protection (honeypot + classifier)
- ✓Webhooks: Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, custom
- ✓CSV export of all submissions
- ✓Email notifications (CC and BCC on Pro)
Drop into any Eleventy project.
Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with your splitforms key, paste into a Eleventy page, and ship. No build-time integration required.
Generate, embed, receive.
Three actions stand between you and your first waitlist submission. None of them require a backend, a database, or a CAPTCHA library.
Generate a free splitforms key
Sign in at splitforms.com — your access key is created instantly. No credit card, no setup wizard, no SDK to install.
Paste the waitlist into your Eleventy project
Drop the form snippet into a Eleventy page, component, or layout. Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with the key from your dashboard. The form action is a hard-coded URL — no env vars or build-time wiring needed.
Receive submissions
Dashboard updates live on Free. Starter adds email delivery, signed webhooks, CSV export, Slack/Discord forwarding, and BCC to your team.
The reason this waitlist exists.
Multi-step (Typeform-style) · webhooks into Loops / ConvertKit / Beehiiv.
Waitlists are the cheapest growth tool a pre-launch product has — Superhuman, Notion, and Linear all built sizable waitlists before paid launch. The form captures email plus a question or two on use case ('what would you use this for?', 'what tools do you use today?') so the launch sequence segments by intent. Multi-step flow boosts completion vs a single form — the prospect commits in step 1 and answers the qualifying questions in step 2-3 with momentum. Push waitlist signups to a dedicated ESP audience (Loops, ConvertKit, Beehiiv) so launch-day emails segment by use case and target the highest-intent signups first.
Step 1: capture email
Single email field — keep step 1 frictionless. Loss-rate from email-only is near-zero; once the email is in, momentum carries through later qualifying questions.
Step 2-3: qualify use case
One or two questions on use case ('what problem brings you here?', 'what tools do you use today?'). Optional but most users complete because they're invested by step 2.
Push to ESP segment
Webhook to Loops / ConvertKit / Beehiiv / Mailchimp into a 'waitlist' audience. Launch-day emails segment by use case so the highest-intent signups get the first invite waves.
What changes when this waitlist lives in Eleventy.
These notes come from the Eleventy platform registry and are rendered on this template page so crawlers see the framework-specific answer without opening a separate guide.
Eleventy is a Node-based static site generator — it produces HTML at build time and ships nothing else. There is no runtime, no /api/contact endpoint, no hooks for handling a form POST. The historical workarounds: (a) deploy to Netlify and use Netlify Forms, (b) write a Cloudflare Worker that handles POST /contact and forwards to your email provider (~4 hours plus ongoing operation), or (c) use a third-party form API (Formspree, Web3Forms, Basin, splitforms). Eleventy's data cascade lets you neatly pull an access key from _data/site.js and use it in a Nunjucks/Liquid include — but the actual delivery layer is always external. Splitforms is the lowest-friction external option.
Eleventy deploys to any static host. The form posts cross-origin to splitforms.com so the host is irrelevant for delivery. Eleventy v3's ESM-only config is the major upgrade gotcha — .eleventy.js (CommonJS) silently stops exposing globals; rename to eleventy.config.mjs. Local dev runs on localhost:8080 — add to splitforms allowed-domains for testing or use a separate dev key. _data/site.js (not .json) lets you read from process.env; keep .env in gitignore. For 11ty + Netlify (the classic combo), you can use Netlify Forms instead, but you cap out at 100/mo — splitforms gives 500/mo and works on every host.
Eleventy v3 is ESM-only — your config must be .mjs
If you upgraded to Eleventy 3 and your .eleventy.js (CommonJS) silently stopped exposing globals, that's why. Rename to eleventy.config.mjs and use ESM export default. Otherwise addGlobalData('splitformsKey', …) won't reach your templates.
Liquid filters and Nunjucks filters have different names
{{ '/thanks/' | url }} works in Nunjucks (with the eleventy-plugin-url plugin). In Liquid, the filter is | url_for or you skip the filter entirely and write the path literally. Mismatched filter names render nothing — the form's redirect URL becomes empty.
Global data with sensitive values gets committed by accident
If you put your access key in _data/site.json (the obvious place), it ships to your repo. Use _data/site.js and read from process.env.SPLITFORMS_KEY instead — then add .env to gitignore. Eleventy auto-loads .env if you have dotenv installed.
Permalinks: false on the contact page makes the redirect fail
If your contact page has permalink: false (rare but possible), it's not built — and splitforms's redirect target points at a 404. Always ensure both the form page and the /thanks page have valid permalinks.
Pattern A — Nunjucks include from `_includes/partials/`
Save as src/_includes/partials/contact-form.njk. Use from any template with {% include "partials/contact-form.njk" %}. Pulls the key from a global data file that reads process.env.SPLITFORMS_KEY. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.
Pattern B — Eleventy v3 ESM config
Eleventy 3 is ESM-only. Use eleventy.config.mjs and addGlobalData to wire the key from environment. Liquid templates work the same way — just save as .liquid. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.
What every field actually does.
Each field below ships in the waitlist template — rename, remove, or add your own. Splitforms accepts any name you POST.
Reply-to address — splitforms wires this so hitting reply goes back to the sender.
Name
Greeting + dashboard label so submissions don't all read 'anonymous'.
How did you hear about us?
Dropdown — keeps responses normalised so you can filter the dashboard.
One backend. Every framework.
The same waitlist template works on every framework splitforms supports. Pick yours.
Waitlist on Eleventy — FAQ.
Direct answers, no marketing fluff. Missing one? Email hello@splitforms.com.
splitforms vs everything else.
Same drop-in API. More free submissions, Starter signed webhooks, MCP support no other backend has.
Other ready-to-ship Eleventy forms.
Same backend, different qualifying fields. Click through to copy the snippet.
Ship a waitlist on Eleventy in 60 seconds.
500 submissions per month, free forever. No credit card. Copy the snippet above and paste it into your Eleventy project.