Netlify Forms alternative: free, with your own SMTP

Netlify Forms is built into Netlify hosting: add an attribute to your form and Netlify finds it when it builds your site. On Netlify’s credit-based plans, form submissions use no credits. But it only works on sites deployed to Netlify, and email notifications come from formresponses@netlify.com by default.

Netlify Forms not receiving submissions?

Netlify’s docs point to a few usual suspects:

• Form detection is off. Netlify only handles forms after you select Enable form detection under Forms in the Netlify UI, and it finds them by parsing your HTML when the build completes.
• The form is rendered by JavaScript. React, Vue and other client-rendered forms aren’t in the built HTML, so Netlify can’t see them. You need a hidden static copy of the form, or a hidden form-name input.
• You post JSON. AJAX submissions must be URL-encoded; Netlify Forms doesn’t accept JSON form data.
• The site is paused. On credit-based plans, a project that runs out of credits stops receiving form submissions until it has credits again.
• The notification went to spam. Notifications come from formresponses@netlify.com, so look for that sender in your spam folder or filters.

With FormSMTP the form posts straight to a URL, so there’s no build step to detect it, JavaScript-rendered forms and JSON work as they are, and the email comes from your own address. Every submission shows up under Logs, with the SMTP server’s exact error if one fails.

Netlify Forms vs FormSMTP pricing

Why people switch

• Works on any host: GitHub Pages, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages or your own server
• Emails come from your own address and SMTP account
• No build-time form detection: JavaScript-rendered forms and JSON posts just work
• Contacts, templates and scheduled & recurring emails included

When Netlify Forms is the better choice

• Your site already lives on Netlify and you want submissions stored in the Netlify dashboard.
• Your form needs file uploads (Netlify allows up to 8 MB per request).
• You want form submissions with no separate monthly cap: on Netlify’s credit-based plans they use no credits.
• You use its Slack, Zapier or webhook notifications.

Switching takes five minutes

1. Create a free account and connect your SMTP account.
2. Remove data-netlify="true" (or netlify), netlify-honeypot and the hidden form-name input, and set the form’s action to https://app.formsmtp.com/api/v1/form/YOUR_FORM_KEY. Field names stay the same; call your honeypot field _gotcha. FormSMTP doesn’t accept file uploads, so remove any type="file" inputs.
3. Submit a test message and check Logs.

FAQ