Netlify Forms alternative

Who should switch, and who should not

Formgong team · Updated 2026-10-06

This page is the roundup. The head-to-head of Formgong and Netlify Forms alone is Formgong vs Netlify Forms. Use that page when you already know the two names. Use this page when you are choosing among several backends.

Switch if one of these is true

• The site is leaving Netlify, or it never lived there. Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages and a VPS cannot use Netlify Forms.
• The form is rendered by JavaScript. Netlify detects forms by reading HTML at deploy time. A React-only form needs a hidden static copy and a form-name field. Formgong accepts the POST from fetch with no hidden copy.
• You want the lead in Telegram. Netlify's notification docs list email, Slack and webhooks. They do not list Telegram.
• You want submissions stored in the EU. Formgong stores them in Cloudflare D1 with EU jurisdiction. Netlify's Forms docs do not state a region.
• You want one form that keeps working if you change host. The action points at Formgong, not at the site root.

Stay on Netlify Forms if this is you

Stay if the site remains on Netlify, on a credit-based plan, and email or Slack is enough. Checked on 6 October 2026, those plans include unlimited form submissions, and they no longer cost a credit. Netlify dated that change 14 April 2026. Akismet runs on submissions. The inbox sits next to deploys. That is hard to beat on price, and this page does not pretend otherwise.

Accounts opened before 4 September 2025 are legacy plans. Those plans include 100 submissions per site each month, then a paid level. That cap is real. It is not the reason to switch. If you only need more room, Netlify's own billing docs are the place to start. Switch when you need Telegram, EU storage, or a host that is not Netlify.

On Formgong's free plan, email is a daily digest to one address. It goes out the next morning at 08:00 in your time zone and covers the previous day. Telegram is instant on every plan. Pro and Business email each lead. Paid billing is not open yet. Pro is listed at $9 a month or $86 a year, for 5,000 submissions. Business is $15 a month or $144 a year, for 25,000. Checkout is a waitlist.

1. Formgong

Best for: a static or JavaScript site that wants Telegram now, EU storage, and a form that is not tied to one host.

• Free plan: 300 submissions a month, unlimited forms, one recipient, 30-day retention. Spam does not count toward the limit. At the limit there is a 20% grace, then submissions are held. There is no overage charge.
• Email: a daily digest on Free. Each lead is emailed on Pro and Business.
• Telegram: instant on every plan, including Free. The message does not attach uploaded files.
• Files: PDF, JPEG and PNG, up to 3 files, 5 MiB each and 10 MiB combined. Free storage is 100.0 MiB. Uploads need a verified email and your Turnstile site key.
• Data: Cloudflare D1 with EU jurisdiction. The DPA is part of the terms and is accepted when you create an account.

Watch out: free email is not instant. A young service, with webhooks, email and Telegram rather than a long plugin list. Paid checkout is a waitlist.

2. Formspree

Best for: teams that want many plugins, and a product that has been around longer than Formgong.

• Free plan: $0, 50 submissions a month, a 30-day archive, and 0 GB of file uploads. Checked on the plans page on 6 October 2026.
• Paid plans (as of Oct 2026): Personal $15 a month or $120 a year (200). Professional $30 a month or $240 a year (2,000). Business $90 a month or $720 a year (20,000).
• Telegram: the free column lists Discord, Slack and Telegram as Yes. Airtable is blank in that column and Yes in later columns.
• Files: a note on the same page says up to 10 files of 25 MB each. That is larger than Formgong. The free column still shows 0 GB.
• Data: the privacy policy says data may be processed in the United States and other countries where Formspree operates.

Watch out: the free quota is for testing. Formgong's free plan is larger, but Formspree wins on paid file size and on the plugin list. Full comparison: Formgong vs Formspree.

3. Web3Forms

Best for: one access key, email delivery, and a free plan of 250 submissions a month.

• Free plan: 250 a month, unlimited forms, hCaptcha, a honeypot and a custom redirect. History in the dashboard is 30 days. From llms.txt, fetched 6 October 2026. The file was last modified on 30 September 2026.
• Paid plans (as of Oct 2026): Starter $49 a year (5,000), with no file uploads. Pro $15 a month or $149 a year (10,000), with file uploads, autoresponders and 5 GB. Agency $39 a month or $399 a year (20,000).
• Telegram: the Telegram doc says this is a Pro feature and that you need an active Pro plan. This page does not say Starter.
• Data: llms.txt says infrastructure is on AWS and calls the service GDPR friendly. It does not say the inbox is in the EU.

Watch out: submissions stop at the monthly limit. Telegram is not on Free. Full comparison: Formgong vs Web3Forms.

4. SimpleForm

Best for: a static site that wants an email for every submission on the free plan.

• Free plan: $0, 100 submissions a month, 3 forms, 7-day storage, a honeypot and rate limiting. From the homepage on 6 October 2026.
• Paid plans (as of Oct 2026): Pro $9 a month (5,000, unlimited forms, 90-day storage, webhooks and file uploads). Agency $29 a month (25,000). File uploads are 5 MB per file on Pro and 25 MB on Agency.
• Email: the homepage says “Get emails instantly.” That is the cell Formgong loses. Our free plan is a digest.
• Telegram: not named on the homepage we read.
• Hosts: the FAQ lists any site that can serve HTML, including GitHub Pages, Netlify and Vercel.

Watch out: over the monthly limit, the FAQ says the extra POST returns 402 and is not stored. Seven days of storage is short. There is no Formgong vs SimpleForm page, because we have not written that head-to-head.

5. Forminit

Best for: a free plan that already accepts a file, plus instant email.

• Free plan: $0, 1 form, 100 submissions a month, file upload, 100 MB of storage, and instant email alerts. No card. From the pricing page on 6 October 2026.
• Paid plans (as of Oct 2026): the page title says starting at $19 a month. The yearly view shows Pro as $16 a month and $190 billed yearly, for 5 forms and 5,000 submissions. Forms pause at the limit.
• Telegram: not listed on the pricing page we opened.
• Files: file upload on Free is where Forminit wins. Formgong's free uploads are PDF, JPEG and PNG only, with a 5 MiB cap per file, and they need Turnstile.

Watch out: one form on Free. The pricing page we checked does not state a storage region, so this page does not invent one. Full comparison, under the old name: Formgong vs Getform.

Move a Netlify form to Formgong

1. Download the submissions you already have from the Netlify forms screen. Formgong starts with an empty inbox. This page does not invent a button name for that export.
2. Remove data-netlify, netlify-honeypot and the hidden form-name field. Delete the hidden HTML copy if you added one so Netlify could see a JavaScript form.
3. Point the form action, or the fetch URL, at https://formgong.com/submit. Add the access key. Rename the honeypot to botcheck.
4. Netlify's AJAX path posts URL-encoded fields to /. Formgong takes FormData or JSON. Do not set Content-Type on FormData. For JSON, send Accept: application/json.
5. Send a test. Connect Telegram if you want the instant alert. On Free, email is still the next morning's digest.

The snippet below is the form after the switch. The plain HTML still works if JavaScript is off.

<form action="https://formgong.com/submit" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="fk_your_access_key">
  <input type="hidden" name="_lang" value="en">
  <label>Email <input type="email" name="email" required></label>
  <label>Message <textarea name="message" required></textarea></label>
  <input type="text" name="botcheck" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off" style="position:absolute;left:-9999px" aria-hidden="true">
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>