Simple HTML Form — The Smallest Working Contact Form

<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit" method="POST">
  <input name="access_key" type="hidden" value="YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" />
  <input name="name" required placeholder="Name" />
  <input name="email" type="email" required placeholder="Email" />
  <textarea name="message" required placeholder="Message"></textarea>
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

Most HTML form tutorials are 80% styling and 15% padding. The actual form is six lines. This page is the actual form — no CSS framework, no JavaScript intercept, no clever validation library. Just the HTML you need.

Three inputs (name, email, message), a hidden access key, a submit button. The form POSTs to splitforms, splitforms emails you the submission, the user sees a default confirmation page. Add styling later. Add JavaScript later. The bare HTML works first.

The trick that makes this simple version actually usable in production is the backend. Without a service like splitforms, even a 'simple' form needs a PHP runtime, an SMTP config, and spam filtering. With splitforms, the simple version is also the complete version: the POST handles email, storage, spam classification, and webhook fan-out, automatically.

Once the bare version is working, layer on whatever you need: CSS for styling, JS for inline feedback, validation library for complex rules, redirect URL for a custom thank-you page. The form HTML stays unchanged; everything else is additive.

Six lines of HTML. Zero compromises.