Static site form processors

Third party Apps & plugins related to Pinegrow
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I stayed up way too late researching static site form processors and, for anyone interested, here are the top 3 that I actually tested out. These aren’t reviews or affiliates or anything, just my thoughts…

TL;DR: I decided to go with Formspark.

All of these services let you take a plain HTML form and add an action that allows it to get processed through the service API, which sends you a notification email and stores the submission in the service dashboard.

  1. Formspree
    This was the first one I tried and was really impressed by it, but in order to customize the email notification and redirect options the way I want (more white-labeled), I would have to upgrade to the $60/mo plan, which is just too much for the amount I would actually need to use this based on my current needs.

  2. Basin
    Next, I searched for Formspree alternatives and ran across this one that seemed very similar, but that had more of the options I would want for only $10/mo, or $30/mo if I wanted pretty much all of the options. Again, with my current needs, I was on the fence on whether I’d even want to spend $10/mo.

  3. Formspark
    Lastly, I ran across Formspark, which has much more generous free plan, with all of the options unlocked as far as I could tell. The pricing model is what really stood out because you can pay one off fees to unlock more “submissions” (currently $25 for every 50k submissions after your initial free 250 submissions per month). I don’t need anymore than what the free plan offers currently, but I like the “pay as you go” style pricing. I was also able to customize the redirect, email notification template, spam controls, and everything to my liking. It’s not the most robust customizations, but enough to get it to do what I wanted (mostly via hidden form elements).

Like I mentioned in the “TL;DR”, I decided to go with Formspark because it has everything I would want at a price that scales with its use. For integrations with other things, it offers the usual integrations with automation tools like Zapier and Make. It also provides webhook options that make it easy to connect to any other automation service (I currently use SureTriggers for WP sites that need to connect to more things, while most static sites I really only need email notifications).

So that’s it, and if anyone’s interested in this type of service, I’d definitely check these 3 out. I love that I can create my own form in Pinegrow and style it EXACTLY how I want to match my design perfectly, which is something I usually have to fight with when using WP form plugins. In fact, I like Formspark (and really all of these) so much that I’m considering using this kind of form option for all future website whether WP or static just for the ease of styling and integration alone. I’ll test more over the coming weeks, of course, but I love how they keep everything clean and simple.

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