WAITLIST · HUGO

Waitlist for Hugo

Pre-launch capture form with optional referral source. Free for 500 submissions per month — no backend, no SDK, no plugin.

Get free access key Copy the code

500/mo free·no card·drop-in for Hugo

form.htmlhtml23 lines

01<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
02  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
03  <input type="hidden" name="subject" value="New waitlist signup">
04 
05  <label for="email">Email *</label>
06  <input id="email" type="email" name="email" placeholder="you@example.com" required>
07  <label for="name">Name</label>
08  <input id="name" type="text" name="name" placeholder="Optional">
09  <label for="referral">How did you hear about us?</label>
10  <select id="referral" name="referral">
11    <option value="">Choose…</option>
12    <option>Twitter</option>
13    <option>Friend</option>
14    <option>Search</option>
15    <option>Newsletter</option>
16    <option>Other</option>
17  </select>
18 
19  <!-- honeypot — bots fill every field -->
20  <input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off">
21 
22  <button type="submit">Send</button>
23</form>

500

submissions / mo, free

fields, ready to ship

code outputs

60s

from copy to inbox

§ 00Hugo + Waitlistplatform-specific integration guide

Why Hugo developers choose splitforms for waitlist

Hugo's build speed is legendary, but Hugo sites are static HTML — there's no built-in mechanism to process form submissions. The traditional workaround is Netlify Forms (100 subs/month free) or a third-party API. The waitlist on this page posts directly from the browser to splitforms with zero Hugo configuration. It works in Hugo themes, shortcodes, and partial templates — just paste the HTML. Because Hugo's output is plain HTML, the form works on any host without a server-side component.

§ 00Quick answerHTML · marketing

Yes — this is the shortest safe path for Hugo.

Use the HTML snippet on this page, keep the waitlist fields visible in your Hugo UI, and let splitforms handle delivery, spam filtering, storage, and webhooks.

best implementation

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.

native hugo reality

Hugo is a static site generator — there's no runtime, no /server/api, no way to handle a form POST without an external service.

use case fit

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.

§ 01Waitlist × Hugowhy this combination, in 80 words

Built for Hugo developers who hate operating a backend.

Splitforms is the form backend for Hugo sites. One POST endpoint, no SDK, no plugin — drop the waitlist into a page and ship.

Splitforms is the form backend for Hugo 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.

✦ what you get on the free plan

✓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)

§ 02Copy-paste codeHTML · 23 lines

Drop into any Hugo project.

Replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY with your splitforms key, paste into a Hugo page, and ship. No build-time integration required.

form.htmlhtml23 lines

01<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
02  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
03  <input type="hidden" name="subject" value="New waitlist signup">
04 
05  <label for="email">Email *</label>
06  <input id="email" type="email" name="email" placeholder="you@example.com" required>
07  <label for="name">Name</label>
08  <input id="name" type="text" name="name" placeholder="Optional">
09  <label for="referral">How did you hear about us?</label>
10  <select id="referral" name="referral">
11    <option value="">Choose…</option>
12    <option>Twitter</option>
13    <option>Friend</option>
14    <option>Search</option>
15    <option>Newsletter</option>
16    <option>Other</option>
17  </select>
18 
19  <!-- honeypot — bots fill every field -->
20  <input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off">
21 
22  <button type="submit">Send</button>
23</form>

§ 03Setup3 steps · 60 seconds · zero config

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.

STEP 01GENERATE

Generate a free splitforms key

Create your form

key=sk_live_••••••••

STEP 02EMBED

Paste the waitlist into your Hugo project

Drop the form snippet into a Hugo 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.

snippethtml

<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
  …
</form>

STEP 03RECEIVE

Receive submissions

Dashboard updates live on Free. Starter adds email delivery, signed webhooks, CSV export, Slack/Discord forwarding, and BCC to your team.

inbox · 1 newjust now

FROM contact@yoursite.com

New waitlist signup

Maya Iyer maya@studio71.co

Loved the demo — quick question about pricing on the 3-year plan. Are usage limits per project or account-wide?

§ 03bWaitlist Signup Form (Pre-Launch Lead Capture)template-specific playbook

The reason this waitlist exists.

Multi-step (Typeform-style) · webhooks into Loops / ConvertKit / Beehiiv.

why it matters

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.

route the submission

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.

§ 03cHugo production notesnative path · deploy · gotchas

What changes when this waitlist lives in Hugo.

These notes come from the Hugo platform registry and are rendered on this template page so crawlers see the framework-specific answer without opening a separate guide.

without splitforms

Hugo is a static site generator — there's no runtime, no /server/api, no way to handle a form POST without an external service. The native paths are: (a) a Cloudflare Worker / Lambda / Cloud Run service handling POST /contact and emailing you (~4 hours of setup, ongoing operation), (b) Netlify Forms (Hugo-on-Netlify only, 100/mo free), or (c) a third-party form backend like Formspree, Basin, or Web3Forms. Hugo's templating shines for the form's HTML — {{ partial }}, {{ .Site.Params }} for the access key, {{< shortcode >}} for Markdown reuse — but the delivery layer is always external. Splitforms is the simplest external option that doesn't require a Cloud Run service.

deploy notes

Hugo deploys to any static host: Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, S3, Surge, plain Apache/nginx. The form posts cross-origin so the host is irrelevant. Set splitformsKey in hugo.toml under [params] for private repos; for public repos, build with hugo --param splitformsKey=$SPLITFORMS_KEY and read it from CI env. Hugo's local dev server runs on localhost:1313 — add that to splitforms allowed-domains for testing or use a separate dev key. hugo --minify compresses HTML but doesn't touch attribute values — the form works under minification.

Hugo gotcha

Site.Params lookup is case-sensitive in some Hugo versions

If you set splitformsKey in hugo.toml under [params] but reference it as {{ .Site.Params.SplitformsKey }} in the template, recent Hugo versions still resolve it — but Hugo 0.110 and earlier don't. Use the exact case from your config file.

Hugo gotcha

Markdown content stripping eats inline form HTML

If you put a <form> directly in a Markdown content file, Goldmark's HTML sanitizer strips it. Either set markup.goldmark.renderer.unsafe = true in your config, or wrap the form in a shortcode (recommended): {{< contact-form >}}.

Hugo gotcha

absURL filter on the redirect URL adds a trailing slash you don't want

{{ "thanks/" | absURL }} produces https://yoursite.com/thanks/. Hugo's URL filter normalizes trailing slashes per your uglyURLs config — if your /thanks page lives at /thanks.html (uglyURLs=true), the redirect 404s. Hardcode the URL or set relURL consistently.

Hugo gotcha

Hugo modules / theme overrides require partial in your project, not the theme

If you copy contact-form.html into a vendored theme's layouts/partials/, your changes get overwritten on the next theme update. Always put custom partials in your project's own layouts/partials/ — Hugo's lookup chain prefers project over theme automatically.

PATTERN A

Pattern A — partial in `layouts/partials/contact-form.html`

Reusable partial called from any template with {{ partial "contact-form.html" . }}. Pulls the access key from Site.Params.splitformsKey. Project-level partials override theme partials automatically. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.

pattern-a.htmlhtml8 lines

01{{/* layouts/partials/contact-form.html */}}
02<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
03  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="{{ .Site.Params.splitformsKey }}" />
04  <input type="hidden" name="redirect"   value="{{ "thanks/" | absURL }}" />
05  <input name="email" type="email" required />
06  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
07  <button type="submit">Send</button>
08</form>

PATTERN B

Pattern B — shortcode usable from Markdown content

Save as layouts/shortcodes/contact-form.html. Now writers can drop {{< contact-form >}} (with optional redirect="…" arg) directly into any .md file. Eliminates the need to switch to template editing for one-off forms. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.

pattern-b.htmlhtml9 lines

01{{/* layouts/shortcodes/contact-form.html */}}
02{{- $redirect := .Get "redirect" | default "/thanks/" -}}
03<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
04  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="{{ .Site.Params.splitformsKey }}" />
05  <input type="hidden" name="redirect"   value="{{ $redirect | absURL }}" />
06  <input name="email" type="email" required />
07  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
08  <button type="submit">Send</button>
09</form>

§ 04Field-by-field rundown3 fields · names you POST

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.

emailREQUIRED

Email

Reply-to address — splitforms wires this so hitting reply goes back to the sender.

placeholder · you@example.com

name

TEXT

Name

Greeting + dashboard label so submissions don't all read 'anonymous'.

placeholder · Optional

referral

SELECT

How did you hear about us?

Dropdown — keeps responses normalised so you can filter the dashboard.

TwitterFriendSearchNewsletterOther

§ 05Waitlist on other frameworks21 frameworks · same backend

One backend. Every framework.

The same waitlist template works on every framework splitforms supports. Pick yours.

§ 06Questions9 answered

Waitlist on Hugo — FAQ.

Direct answers, no marketing fluff. Missing one? Email hello@splitforms.com.

01Does this waitlist work on Hugo?

Yes. The form is plain HTML with a single POST endpoint, so it runs on any Hugo site without server-side code, plugins, or SDKs. Drop the snippet into a Hugo page or component and submissions land in your splitforms dashboard.

02How much does the waitlist cost on Hugo?

Free for 500 submissions per month — no credit card, no trial. Pro is $5/mo for 5,000 submissions, and there's a one-time $59 3-year plan (15,000 submissions/mo for 36 months). The same pricing applies regardless of which framework hosts the form.

03Can I customize the fields?

Yes. The template ships with sensible defaults (email, name, how did you hear about us?…) — add, remove, or rename any of them. Splitforms accepts whatever fields you POST.

04How does spam protection work on the waitlist?

A hidden honeypot field catches dumb bots, and a tuned classifier scores the rest. You only see real submissions in your dashboard. No CAPTCHA, no friction for human users — and it works the same on Hugo as on any other framework.

05Can I send the waitlist submissions to Slack or Discord?

Yes. Webhooks are available on Starter and above, with auto-formatted payloads for Slack, Discord, and WhatsApp (via CallMeBot). Or send raw signed JSON to any URL — Zapier, n8n, your own server. Configure in the splitforms dashboard.

06Will it work on a static Hugo site?

Yes — the form posts directly to splitforms from the browser, so no server is involved. Works on Vercel, Netlify, GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, S3, or any plain Apache host.

07Should I show waitlist position / numbers?

Showing 'you're #347 in line' on the confirmation creates social proof but invites comparison. Showing total waitlist size ('join 2,500 people on the waitlist') without per-person position is the safer middle. Refer-a-friend mechanics that move people up the list (Robinhood-style) drive viral growth but require more eng work.

08How do I trigger launch invites in waves?

Tag waitlist signups by use case in the ESP audience (Loops, ConvertKit). Launch-day, segment by tag and send invite waves over 48-72 hours. Highest-intent / closest-fit goes first; broadest casts go last. Spreads server load and lets you triage onboarding support.

09Can I integrate with Loops / ConvertKit / Beehiiv?

Yes — webhook the JSON. Loops has direct webhook support and is purpose-built for product transactional + waitlist email. ConvertKit and Beehiiv accept via API or Zapier. All three handle the launch-sequence segmentation cleanly.

§ 07Comparisonvs Web3Forms · vs Formspree

splitforms vs everything else.

Same drop-in API. More free submissions, Starter signed webhooks, MCP support no other backend has.

Feature	Web3Forms	Formspree	splitforms
Free monthly submissions	250	50	500
Custom fields beyond contact	Yes	Pro tier	Free
Webhooks (Slack / Discord)	Pro tier	Pro tier	Free, signed
AI / MCP submission inbox	No	No	Yes
Long-term plan (3-year flat)	—	—	$59 every 3 years

§ 08More templates for Hugo5 adjacent patterns

Ship a waitlist on Hugo in 60 seconds.

500 submissions per month, free forever. No credit card. Copy the snippet above and paste it into your Hugo project.

Get free access key →Read the docs

founders pricing locked in · early access open

Waitlist for Hugo

Why Hugo developers choose splitforms for waitlist

Yes — this is the shortest safe path for Hugo.

Paste the HTML version, then replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY.

Built for Hugo developers who hate operating a backend.

Drop into any Hugo project.

Generate, embed, receive.

Generate a free splitforms key

Paste the waitlist into your Hugo project

Receive submissions

The reason this waitlist exists.

Step 1: capture email

Step 2-3: qualify use case

Push to ESP segment

What changes when this waitlist lives in Hugo.

Site.Params lookup is case-sensitive in some Hugo versions

Markdown content stripping eats inline form HTML

absURL filter on the redirect URL adds a trailing slash you don't want

Hugo modules / theme overrides require partial in your project, not the theme

Pattern A — partial in `layouts/partials/contact-form.html`

Pattern B — shortcode usable from Markdown content

What every field actually does.

Email

Name

How did you hear about us?

One backend. Every framework.

Waitlist on Hugo — FAQ.

splitforms vs everything else.

Other ready-to-ship Hugo forms.

Ship a waitlist on Hugo in 60 seconds.