Web3Forms review: free plan, pricing, limits and safety

How Web3Forms works

You create an access key on web3forms.com by entering the email address that should receive submissions, and the key is emailed to you. You then point your form's action at https://api.web3forms.com/submit, add the key as a hidden access_key field, and make sure every input has a name attribute. The docs say that is the whole setup.

The access key is public by design. Web3Forms describes it as an alias for your email address: anyone who copies it can only send mail to you, not read your data. The same endpoint accepts a normal HTML post, which redirects to a success page, or a JavaScript fetch with JSON or FormData, which returns JSON. The troubleshooting guide warns against mixing the two, since a redirect inside a fetch call shows up as a CORS error.

Optional hidden fields control the email: subject, from_name, replyto and redirect work on Free, while ccemail, webhook and attachment are paid. A logged-in dashboard holds per-form settings such as captcha choice, integrations and retention.

• Endpoint: POST https://api.web3forms.com/submit, or /submit/YOUR_FORM_ID without the hidden field
• Required: access_key plus a name attribute on every field
• Guides cover plain HTML, React, Next.js, Vue, Svelte, Astro, Hugo, Webflow, Framer, Wix, Squarespace and WordPress

Is Web3Forms free? The free plan and its limits

Yes. The Free plan has no time limit and needs no card. It allows 250 submissions a month across unlimited forms and domains, with hCaptcha, honeypot, custom redirects, CSV export and 30 days of dashboard history. Web3Forms' FAQ adds that it may suspend free accounts it finds abusing the service.

When you reach the monthly allowance, Web3Forms emails a warning at 90% and again at 100%. After that it stops accepting new submissions until the next month unless you upgrade. That is the limit to plan around: a spam wave or a busy month can use up the 250.

Other Free-plan limits from the pricing table: one email recipient (two more addresses can be linked to the account), three email templates, and no CC, autoresponders, webhooks, integrations or file uploads. The API reference says posting from a server instead of a browser needs a paid plan and IP whitelisting.

Pricing is shown in the visitor's local currency. In US dollars, Pro is $15 a month or $149 a year and Agency & Team is $39 a month or $399 a year, with tax added at checkout. A $49-a-year discounted plan for students, early startups and nonprofits is granted on application. Paid add-ons include extra linked emails ($5 per 25 a month), extra storage ($3 per 10 GB a month), extra seats ($5 a month each) and branding removal ($9 a month).

Spam protection

Web3Forms says it runs a server-side spam check on every submission, whatever the plan. Its privacy policy says that check may send the submitter's IP address and email to CleanTalk and Akismet.

On top of that you add a captcha. hCaptcha is free and needs no keys: add one div and the Web3Forms script, then switch it on for the form in the dashboard. The docs admit hCaptcha puzzles can feel hard for visitors and point to reCAPTCHA v3 or Cloudflare Turnstile, which are paid. The botcheck honeypot field is listed on every plan, but the docs mark it deprecated. Restricting a form to your own domains is also a paid feature.

File uploads and attachments

File uploads are not on the Free plan or the discounted plan. On Pro and Agency & Team, the basic method is an input type="file" with enctype="multipart/form-data" on the form. The docs say this default uploader takes a single file up to 5 MB.

For several files or larger ones, Web3Forms offers an Advanced File Uploader: a drag-and-drop widget loaded from its script, with settings for the number of files, a per-file size limit and accepted file types. Pro includes 5 GB of file storage and Agency & Team 10 GB, with more sold in 10 GB packs.

Dashboard, data storage and retention

Web3Forms stores submissions as well as emailing them. The privacy policy (updated July 13, 2026) says submission data is kept for at most three years and then deleted, in a database on AWS that is encrypted at rest. The homepage FAQ adds that you can set a shorter per-form retention, as little as seven days, or keep submissions indefinitely on Pro and Agency & Team.

How much of that you can see depends on the plan: the dashboard shows 30 days of history on Free, three months on the discounted plan and one year on Pro and Agency & Team. CSV export works on every plan. The Submissions API, a REST API for reading submissions, is Pro and Agency only.

One inconsistency to know about: the FAQ in the Web3Forms docs still says Web3Forms does not store form submissions. The newer privacy policy, terms and homepage all describe stored submissions, so treat the docs FAQ as out of date. For account access, the site's Login / Sign up link goes to web3forms.com/login, and the docs point to the dashboard at app.web3forms.com.

Email delivery

Notification emails are sent through Amazon SES, per the privacy policy, from a notify+ address on web3forms.com. The troubleshooting guide says emails usually arrive within seconds and sometimes take a minute or two. If they don't show up, it suggests checking Gmail's Promotions tab and the spam folder, adding [email protected] to your contacts, and confirming your domain has MX records.

It also documents one failure worth knowing in advance: if an email bounces, for example because the access key was created before the mailbox existed, the address goes on a suppression list and later submissions to it fail until support removes it.

Support and documentation

The help page offers three routes: the docs at docs.web3forms.com, a Discord server for chat, and a contact form for account issues. Privacy questions go to [email protected]. The pricing table lists dedicated support only on Agency & Team. Web3Forms runs a public status page at status.web3forms.com and a feedback board. The docs are a strength, with examples for most frameworks, site builders and hosts.

Web3Forms compared with splitforms

splitforms, which publishes this review, is also a form backend, so here are the differences that matter. Web3Forms Free gives 250 submissions every month, which beats splitforms Free (500 submissions in total, one-time) for a form that runs steadily for years. On paid plans, splitforms Pro is $5/month for 5,000 submissions a month and its Annual plan is $49/year for 15,000 a month, compared with Web3Forms Pro at $15/month or $149/year for 10,000 a month.

The other differences are in the details. splitforms keeps submissions in a searchable dashboard with no automatic expiry, even on Free. Notification emails are free on every splitforms plan. Spam filtering there is rule-based with no CAPTCHA required. File uploads (5 files of 5 MB each per submission) and HMAC-signed webhooks come with any paid plan. Web3Forms has free hCaptcha, CSV export on Free and a larger top tier (20,000 submissions a month on Agency & Team).