Lead Magnet Download for Gatsby
Email-gated download form for ebooks, PDFs, checklists, and templates. Free for 1,000 submissions per month — no backend, no SDK, no plugin.
Yes — this is the shortest safe path for Gatsby.
Use the React / Next.js snippet on this page, keep the lead magnet download fields visible in your Gatsby UI, and let splitforms handle delivery, spam filtering, storage, and webhooks.
Paste the React / Next.js version, then replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY.
The posted payload contains first name, work email, company, what's your role?. Required fields are first name and work email.
Gatsby builds a static React app, so 'native' means choosing between (a) Netlify Forms (Gatsby-on-Netlify only, 100 free submissions/month, gatsby-plugin-netlify required), (b) Gatsby Functions (deprecated in Gatsby 5 — they were removed when Gatsby Cloud shut down), or (c) a third-party form backend.
Ungated content gets read; gated content builds your list. The lead-magnet form trades the PDF for an email plus 1-2 qualifying questions, so the nurture sequence segments by intent.
Built for Gatsby developers who hate operating a backend.
Splitforms is the form-to-email API for Gatsby sites. One POST endpoint, no SDK, no plugin — drop the lead magnet download into a page and ship.
Splitforms is the form-to-email API for Gatsby sites. One POST endpoint, spam filtering, signed webhooks, file uploads, a real dashboard — drop-in, no server, no PHP. Free for 1,000 submissions per month, $5/mo Pro for 5,000, $59 for 3 years if you hate recurring SaaS bills.
- ✓1,000 form submissions per month
- ✓Unlimited forms — one key, many pages
- ✓Spam protection (honeypot + classifier)
- ✓Webhooks: Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, custom
- ✓CSV export of all submissions
- ✓Email notifications (CC and BCC on Pro)
Drop into any Gatsby project.
Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with your splitforms key, paste into a Gatsby page, and ship. No build-time integration required.
Generate, embed, receive.
Three actions stand between you and your first lead magnet download 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 lead magnet download into your Gatsby project
Drop the form snippet into a Gatsby 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
Email arrives within seconds. Webhook fires in parallel. Dashboard updates live. CSV export, Slack/Discord forwarding, BCC to your team — all included free.
The reason this lead magnet download exists.
Multi-step (Typeform-style) · webhooks into ConvertKit / HubSpot / Mailchimp.
Lead magnets — ebooks, checklists, templates, swipe files, mini-courses — are the workhorse of B2B content marketing. Gated downloads convert at 25-50% of landing-page visitors (vs 1-2% for newsletter signups), but only when the magnet is truly valuable. The form captures email plus 1-2 qualifying questions ('what's your role?', 'what's your team size?') so the nurture sequence segments by intent. Multi-step boosts completion vs a single form. After submit, the user is redirected to the PDF or it's emailed via webhook + auto-responder. Push the email to your ESP segmented by lead-magnet topic — that's how content marketers build audience taxonomies that actually convert downstream.
Step 1: capture email
Single email field — frictionless step 1. Once the email is in, momentum carries through later qualifying questions.
Step 2-3: qualify role / team
One or two questions on role and team size. Optional but most users complete because they're invested. Each answer becomes a tag in the ESP for downstream segmentation.
Deliver the magnet
Auto-respond with the PDF link (or redirect to a thank-you page that auto-downloads). Webhook to ConvertKit / HubSpot / Mailchimp into a 'lead-magnet:[topic]' audience for the nurture sequence.
What changes when this lead magnet download lives in Gatsby.
These notes come from the Gatsby platform registry and are rendered on this template page so crawlers see the framework-specific answer without opening a separate guide.
Gatsby builds a static React app, so 'native' means choosing between (a) Netlify Forms (Gatsby-on-Netlify only, 100 free submissions/month, gatsby-plugin-netlify required), (b) Gatsby Functions (deprecated in Gatsby 5 — they were removed when Gatsby Cloud shut down), or (c) a third-party form backend. Gatsby v4 had Functions running as Lambda-equivalent serverless routes; v5 removed them entirely. Result: every Gatsby contact form today uses an external service. Splitforms is a drop-in replacement — same shape as Netlify Forms (POST to a URL), same shape as Formspree, but with 5× the free monthly submissions and built-in spam filtering.
Gatsby builds static HTML + JS that deploys to any host: Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, AWS Amplify, S3 + CloudFront, Gatsby Cloud (sunset 2024 — migrate). The form posts cross-origin to splitforms regardless of host. Env vars exposed to the browser bundle must be prefixed GATSBY_ — anything else is undefined client-side. The key gets bundled into the JS at build time; lock it to your domain in the splitforms dashboard. For headless Gatsby + WordPress / Contentful setups, the form lives in the React tree, not the CMS — no special CMS wiring required.
GATSBY_ prefix required for env vars exposed at build time
Gatsby's webpack config only exposes process.env.* variables prefixed with GATSBY_. If you write process.env.SPLITFORMS_KEY, you'll get undefined in the browser bundle. Rename to GATSBY_SPLITFORMS_KEY — and accept that it's bundled into the static JS (lock the key to your domain in the splitforms dashboard).
Gatsby's <Link> can't wrap a form's submit handler
Gatsby's <Link> component prevents default navigation. If you wrap your form in <Link to="/thanks"> thinking the redirect will fire, it won't — the form's submit event runs, but the navigation is suppressed. Use a hidden redirect input on the form and let splitforms handle the 302.
SSR + client hydration mismatch on form initial state
If you use useState('idle') in your form and render any state-dependent UI on first paint, Gatsby's static HTML and React's client render can diverge — you'll see a hydration warning. Render the form unconditionally; only render status messages inside the handler-triggered branches.
Gatsby v5 partial hydration changed how forms hydrate
Gatsby 5 introduced partial hydration via React Server Components. If your form is in a Server Component, the onSubmit handler won't bind. Add 'use client' at the top of the file (or use a separate ContactForm.client.jsx).
Pattern A — React component (Gatsby v4/v5)
Standard React function component, useState for status. Drop into src/components/ContactForm.jsx and import on any page. Set GATSBY_SPLITFORMS_KEY in .env.production and .env.development. Use the same wiring for the lead magnet download fields on this page.
Pattern B — partial hydration (Gatsby v5)
Gatsby 5's partial hydration mounts only the components marked client-bound. Add 'use client' at the top of the form file so the onSubmit handler binds at hydration time; the rest of the page stays static. Use the same wiring for the lead magnet download fields on this page.
What every field actually does.
Each field below ships in the lead magnet download template — rename, remove, or add your own. Splitforms accepts any name you POST.
First name
Greeting + dashboard label so submissions don't all read 'anonymous'.
Work email
Reply-to address — splitforms wires this so hitting reply goes back to the sender.
Company
Lets you sort enterprise vs SMB inquiries before you reply.
What's your role?
Buyer-persona signal — IC vs decision-maker changes the follow-up cadence.
One backend. Every framework.
The same lead magnet download template works on every framework splitforms supports. Pick yours.
Lead Magnet Download on Gatsby — FAQ.
Direct answers, no marketing fluff. Missing one? Email hello@splitforms.com.
splitforms vs everything else.
Same drop-in API. More free submissions, real webhooks on the free tier, MCP support no other backend has.
Other ready-to-ship Gatsby forms.
Same backend, different qualifying fields. Click through to copy the snippet.
Ship a lead magnet download on Gatsby in 60 seconds.
1,000 submissions per month, free forever. No credit card. Copy the snippet above and paste it into your Gatsby project.