WAITLIST · WORDPRESS

Waitlist for WordPress

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 WordPress

submit.phpphp28 lines

01<?php
02// Drop into a PHP page. Receives a form POST and proxies it to splitforms.com.
03// Useful when you want to add server-side validation or rate limiting.
04 
05if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
06    $allowed = ['email', 'name', 'referral'];
07    $payload = ['access_key' => 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY'];
08    $payload['subject'] = 'New waitlist signup';
09 
10    foreach ($allowed as $f) {
11        if (isset($_POST[$f])) $payload[$f] = $_POST[$f];
12    }
13 
14    $ch = curl_init('https://splitforms.com/api/submit');
15    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
16    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($payload));
17    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
18    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ['Accept: application/json']);
19    $response = curl_exec($ch);
20    $status   = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
21    curl_close($ch);
22 
23    header('Content-Type: application/json');
24    http_response_code($status);
25    echo $response;
26    exit;
27}
28?>

500

submissions / mo, free

fields, ready to ship

code outputs

60s

from copy to inbox

§ 00WordPress + Waitlistplatform-specific integration guide

Why WordPress developers choose splitforms for waitlist

WordPress contact form plugins (Contact Form 7, WPForms, Fluent Forms) work but add database bloat, update fatigue, and a monthly subscription for features like webhook delivery or advanced spam controls. The waitlist on this page drops into a Custom HTML block — no PHP, no plugin activation, no settings page to configure. Every field POSTs to splitforms as standard form data, so your WordPress admin stays clean. You keep using WordPress for content management and page building while splitforms handles the form pipeline.

§ 00Quick answerPHP · marketing

Yes — this is the shortest safe path for WordPress.

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

best implementation

Paste the PHP version, then replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY.

The posted payload contains email, name, how did you hear about us?. Required fields are email.

native wordpress reality

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 × WordPresswhy this combination, in 80 words

Built for WordPress developers who hate operating a backend.

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

Splitforms is the form backend for WordPress 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 codePHP · 28 lines

Drop into any WordPress project.

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

submit.phpphp28 lines

01<?php
02// Drop into a PHP page. Receives a form POST and proxies it to splitforms.com.
03// Useful when you want to add server-side validation or rate limiting.
04 
05if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
06    $allowed = ['email', 'name', 'referral'];
07    $payload = ['access_key' => 'YOUR_ACCESS_KEY'];
08    $payload['subject'] = 'New waitlist signup';
09 
10    foreach ($allowed as $f) {
11        if (isset($_POST[$f])) $payload[$f] = $_POST[$f];
12    }
13 
14    $ch = curl_init('https://splitforms.com/api/submit');
15    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, true);
16    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query($payload));
17    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
18    curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, ['Accept: application/json']);
19    $response = curl_exec($ch);
20    $status   = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
21    curl_close($ch);
22 
23    header('Content-Type: application/json');
24    http_response_code($status);
25    echo $response;
26    exit;
27}
28?>

ALTPrefer plain HTML? View the universal waitlist HTML snippet23 lines

form.htmlHTML

<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
  <input type="hidden" name="subject" value="New waitlist signup">

  <label for="email">Email *</label>
  <input id="email" type="email" name="email" placeholder="you@example.com" required>
  <label for="name">Name</label>
  <input id="name" type="text" name="name" placeholder="Optional">
  <label for="referral">How did you hear about us?</label>
  <select id="referral" name="referral">
    <option value="">Choose…</option>
    <option>Twitter</option>
    <option>Friend</option>
    <option>Search</option>
    <option>Newsletter</option>
    <option>Other</option>
  </select>

  <!-- honeypot — bots fill every field -->
  <input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off">

  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</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 WordPress project

Drop the form snippet into a WordPress 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.

snippetphp

<?php
  …
</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.

§ 03cWordPress production notesnative path · deploy · gotchas

What changes when this waitlist lives in WordPress.

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

without splitforms

WordPress core has no contact-form feature — every contact form on a WP site is either a plugin (Contact Form 7, WPForms, Gravity Forms, Forminator, Fluent Forms, Ninja Forms) or a custom theme template. Plugins add 3-7 database tables, increase TTFB by 50-300ms, and most require a paid SMTP plugin (WP Mail SMTP) on top because shared-host PHP mail() lands in spam. CF7 alone is 1.2MB of JS/CSS loaded on every page. Anti-spam is a separate Akismet subscription ($10/mo for commercial use) or a paid CAPTCHA plugin. Splitforms replaces the plugin: a <form> tag in a Custom HTML block, pointing at our endpoint, with a hidden access_key field. No plugin, no extra DB tables, no SMTP gymnastics.

deploy notes

WordPress runs on shared hosts (Bluehost, Hostinger), managed WP hosts (Kinsta, WP Engine, Pressable), or self-hosted Apache/nginx. The form's POST is cross-origin to splitforms.com, so the host doesn't matter for delivery. Caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, LiteSpeed Cache) cache the page that hosts the form — that's fine, the form action URL is static. Don't proxy through WP's admin-ajax.php or wp_remote_post — adds latency and re-introduces the SMTP problem. For Multisite, use one access key per site or a shared key with form-name to disambiguate. Headless WP (Next.js/Astro front) doesn't involve PHP at all — use the matching framework's snippet.

WordPress gotcha

WordPress wpautop() mangles your form HTML in posts

If you paste a <form> directly into a Classic Editor post, WordPress's wpautop filter wraps random <p> tags around your inputs and breaks the markup. Use a Custom HTML block (block editor) or a theme template file instead — wpautop doesn't touch those.

WordPress gotcha

Caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) cache the form page itself

Page caching is fine — your form posts to splitforms.com directly, not a WordPress endpoint, so the cached HTML still works. But if you ever switch to a WP-side handler (e.g. wp_ajax), exclude /contact/ from the page cache or submissions will hit a stale page.

WordPress gotcha

Theme-injected JavaScript can hijack form submission

Some themes (Astra, OceanWP, GeneratePress 'Premium') auto-attach AJAX handlers to every form on the page. Add data-no-ajax="true" or a custom class your theme excludes — or use a Custom HTML block which most themes leave alone.

WordPress gotcha

Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode blocks splitforms responses

If you proxy your WP site through Cloudflare with Bot Fight Mode on, the redirect from splitforms.com → /thanks may be flagged. Whitelist your domain in splitforms's allowed-domains list AND ensure /thanks is reachable without a Cloudflare challenge.

PATTERN A

Pattern A — Custom HTML block (Block Editor / Gutenberg)

Drop a Custom HTML block on any page or post. Survives theme switches and plugin updates. No PHP required, no theme file editing. Reusable Patterns let you save the form once and drop it on every page. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.

pattern-a.phpphp9 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="redirect" value="/thanks/" />
04  <p><label>Name <input name="name" required /></label></p>
05  <p><label>Email <input name="email" type="email" required /></label></p>
06  <p><label>Message <textarea name="message" required></textarea></label></p>
07  <input type="checkbox" name="botcheck" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" />
08  <p><button type="submit">Send</button></p>
09</form>

PATTERN B

Pattern B — theme template with key from wp-config constant

For developer-managed themes (Bedrock/Sage/classic), define SPLITFORMS_KEY as a constant in wp-config.php and echo it via esc_attr(). Keeps the key out of the theme repo, lets staging and production read different keys via environment. Use the same wiring for the waitlist fields on this page.

pattern-b.phpphp8 lines

01<?php // page-contact.php in your theme ?>
02<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
03  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="<?php echo esc_attr( SPLITFORMS_KEY ); ?>" />
04  <input type="hidden" name="redirect"   value="<?php echo esc_url( home_url('/thanks') ); ?>" />
05  <input name="email" type="email" required />
06  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
07  <button type="submit">Send</button>
08</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 WordPress — FAQ.

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

01Does this waitlist work on WordPress?

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

02How much does the waitlist cost on WordPress?

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 WordPress 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 WordPress 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 WordPress5 adjacent patterns

Ship a waitlist on WordPress in 60 seconds.

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

Get free access key →Read the docs

founders pricing locked in · early access open

Waitlist for WordPress

Why WordPress developers choose splitforms for waitlist

Yes — this is the shortest safe path for WordPress.

Paste the PHP version, then replace YOUR_ACCESS_KEY.

Built for WordPress developers who hate operating a backend.

Drop into any WordPress project.

Generate, embed, receive.

Generate a free splitforms key

Paste the waitlist into your WordPress 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 WordPress.

WordPress wpautop() mangles your form HTML in posts

Caching plugins (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) cache the form page itself

Theme-injected JavaScript can hijack form submission

Cloudflare Bot Fight Mode blocks splitforms responses

Pattern A — Custom HTML block (Block Editor / Gutenberg)

Pattern B — theme template with key from wp-config constant

What every field actually does.

Email

Name

How did you hear about us?

One backend. Every framework.

Waitlist on WordPress — FAQ.

splitforms vs everything else.

Other ready-to-ship WordPress forms.

Ship a waitlist on WordPress in 60 seconds.