§ 01
Short answer: which one should you pick?
If you're building a brand-led survey, a multi-step lead-qualification flow, or anything where the one-question-at-a-time conversational experience is the product, Typeform is genuinely the best in class. Its UX is hard to beat, its branching logic editor is mature, and the polish on rating scales, picture choice, and embedded payments is real. Pay the $25/mo if that's the experience you need.
If your form is a contact form, a waitlist, a job application, a feedback inbox, or any other place where the response is more important than the choreography of asking, splitforms is the right fit. The free tier is 1,000 submissions/month with unlimited forms (vs Typeform's 10 responses/month on free), the Pro plan is $5/mo for 5,000 submissions, and the form lives on your own domain instead of redirecting to a Typeform-hosted page. For developers, the API surface, signed webhooks, and MCP server make integration into the broader stack dramatically easier.
§ 02
Why developers switch from Typeform to splitforms
The most common trigger is the 10-responses-per-month free tier. It's not a free tier in any practical sense — it's a 10-response trial that ends roughly two days into a real launch. For any form that's actually getting traffic, you're forced into the $25/mo Basic plan immediately, and even that caps out at 100 responses per month. splitforms gives you 1,000 submissions/month free, with no card on file, on a plan you can actually ship with.
The second trigger is hosting. Typeform's default flow redirects users to a typeform.com URL, which breaks page-design continuity, leaks attribution data, and adds a "Powered by Typeform" footer on lower tiers. splitforms is just a form action — your HTML, your domain, your styling, no off-site redirect. For anyone who cares about brand consistency or analytics fidelity, this is a real structural difference.
The third trigger is developer experience. Typeform's API is functional but priced and designed around marketing-team integrations. splitforms ships an open REST API on every plan including free, signed webhooks with retries and a dead-letter view, idempotent submission keys, and an MCP server so Claude or Cursor agents can read responses and trigger workflows without a custom integration.
§ 03
Typeform vs splitforms: feature comparison
Free tier: splitforms 1,000 submissions/month with unlimited forms; Typeform 10 responses/month with 1 form. The 50x volume gap is the obvious headline, but the unlimited-forms part matters more for anyone running multiple projects.
Conversational UX: Typeform wins, clearly. One-question-at-a-time, branching logic, animations, and question polish are the product. splitforms is a backend for HTML forms — if you want conversational UX, you'd build it yourself or stay on Typeform.
Hosting model: splitforms forms live on your own domain as standard HTML. Typeform forms live on typeform.com (or embed via iframe), with branded footers on lower tiers.
Spam protection: splitforms uses an AI classifier on top of honeypot — accurate enough to drop CAPTCHA. Typeform uses CAPTCHA and honeypot, which add user friction.
Webhooks: splitforms includes signed webhooks with retries and a dead-letter view on every plan including free. Typeform includes webhooks too but gates them behind paid tiers.
API: splitforms ships an open REST API and MCP server on every plan. Typeform's API is full-featured but tied to higher pricing tiers.
Pricing: splitforms tiers on submission volume only, no per-form caps. Typeform tiers on response volume, user seats, and feature gates simultaneously.
§ 04
Common Typeform issues splitforms solves
"The 10-response free tier ran out before our soft launch did." splitforms gives you 1,000 submissions/month free with no card on file — enough to actually launch and validate before paying anything.
"$25/mo for 100 responses feels steep for a contact form." splitforms is $5/mo for 5,000 submissions on Pro — same job, dramatically different price.
"I don't want my form to redirect users to typeform.com." splitforms is a standard HTML form action. The form lives on your domain, posts to splitforms, redirects back to your thank-you page. No off-site jump.
"AI-generated spam is sliding past Typeform's CAPTCHA." splitforms runs every submission through an AI classifier specifically tuned for modern LLM-written form spam.
"I want signed webhooks with retries on the free tier." splitforms includes them on every plan; Typeform gates webhooks behind paid plans.
"I want to drive form responses from a Claude or Cursor agent." splitforms ships an MCP server natively — no custom integration needed.
§ 05
splitforms advantages at a glance
splitforms isn't trying to replace Typeform's conversational UX — it's the right backend when the form itself is just a form, not a guided experience. Five things make the practical difference.
First, the free tier is real. 1,000 submissions/month, unlimited forms, full dashboard, signed webhooks, file uploads, AI spam filtering — all included. You ship on free, validate, and only upgrade when traffic actually justifies it.
Second, your domain stays your domain. The form is an HTML element on your site that POSTs to splitforms. There's no "Powered by" footer, no off-site redirect, no analytics break across the funnel.
Third, the API surface is open on every plan. Fetch submissions, list forms, manage webhooks, drive an AI agent via MCP — all without an enterprise contract.
Fourth, deliverability uses dedicated SMTP with proper SPF/DKIM, not a shared sending pool. Notification emails actually land in the inbox.
Fifth, the price compounds. $5/mo Pro covers 5,000 submissions; $59 once on the 4-Year plan covers 15,000/month for 48 months. Compared to Typeform's $25-$83/mo recurring tiers, the long-run difference is thousands of dollars per project.
§ 06
Migrating from Typeform to splitforms in 3 steps
Step 1: sign up at splitforms.com for a free access key — no credit card required. Step 2: build your form as standard HTML on your own page. If you were using Typeform's hosted flow, this means writing a normal `<form action="https://splitforms.com/api/submit/YOUR_KEY" method="POST">` with `<input>` fields for each Typeform question. Step 3: copy any logic you need from Typeform's branching editor into client-side JavaScript (show/hide fields based on previous answers), submit a test entry, and confirm it lands in the splitforms dashboard.
If you were embedding Typeform via iframe (`<div data-tf-widget="...">`), the migration is to remove the embed and replace it with a real HTML form on the page. This usually takes longer than swapping a form action — you're replacing a hosted experience with markup you own — but it's a one-time cost and you end up with a faster page that doesn't load Typeform's runtime.
If you specifically want the conversational, one-question-at-a-time UX without Typeform, the splitforms backend pairs cleanly with any client-side multi-step form library — drive the steps in JavaScript, POST the final payload to splitforms. You keep the conversational experience and gain the better backend, dashboard, and pricing.
§ 07
Pricing comparison: Typeform vs splitforms
Typeform Free: 10 responses/month. splitforms Free: 1,000 submissions/month. The 50x gap is the most extreme on this market — Typeform's free tier is functionally a demo.
Typeform Basic ($25/mo): 100 responses/month. splitforms Pro ($5/mo): 5,000 submissions/month. For a contact-form-equivalent workload, splitforms is roughly 250x cheaper per submission.
Typeform Plus ($50/mo): 1,000 responses/month, 3 users. splitforms Pro ($5/mo): 5,000 submissions, no per-user pricing.
Typeform Business ($83/mo): 10,000 responses/month, 5 users. splitforms 4-Year ($59 once): 15,000 submissions/month for 48 months. Over four years, that's $59 vs roughly $4,000 of Typeform Business.
The honest caveat: Typeform's Plus and Business tiers include features splitforms doesn't try to replicate — branding-removal toggles, hidden fields, calculator logic, custom subdomains, redirect-on-completion-with-variables. If you need those Typeform-specific features, the price is for them, not the response volume. If you don't, you're paying $25-$83/mo for a backend you can replace for $5/mo or $59 once.
§ 08
FAQ: Typeform vs splitforms
Is splitforms a true Typeform alternative? For the backend layer — POST endpoint, response storage, dashboard, webhooks, spam filtering, file uploads, notifications — yes, with a 50x larger free tier and roughly 5x cheaper paid plans. For the conversational UI layer, splitforms isn't trying to replicate that; you'd pair the splitforms backend with a multi-step form library on the client side.
Will my Typeform-style branching logic work on splitforms? Branching logic lives on the client side in this model — you write JavaScript that shows or hides fields based on prior answers, then POSTs the final state to splitforms. It's slightly more code than Typeform's visual editor and gives you full control over the flow.
Can I keep the one-question-at-a-time experience? Yes, by using a multi-step form library (or your own JavaScript) on the client and POSTing the assembled payload to splitforms. The backend doesn't care whether the user saw one question or ten on a single page.
What about file uploads, payments, and rating scales? splitforms supports file uploads on every plan via standard `multipart/form-data`. Payments and polished rating-scale UI are client-side concerns — Stripe Elements for payments, any rating-scale component for ratings — with the result POSTed to splitforms.
Does splitforms have a Typeform-equivalent embed snippet? splitforms doesn't ship an embed widget; the form is your HTML, on your page. If you want a portable embed, wrap your form in an iframe yourself.
Is there a per-form limit? No. Unlimited forms on every plan, including free.
Does splitforms have a one-time payment plan? Yes — $59 for the 4-Year plan at 15,000 submissions/month for 48 months. Compared to Typeform's recurring $25-$83/mo, the long-run difference compounds quickly.
