Form backend with a serious spam and validation stack
Free + from $12.50/mo
- Hosted service
Capture surface - Form backends
Best Form Backends (2026)
A form backend is the other half of a save: you write the HTML form, it catches the submission and routes it somewhere useful - an inbox, a spreadsheet, a Notion database, a webhook. No form builder, no embedded iframe, no styling you have to fight. The capture surface is your own site, which is what separates these from everything else in the directory: the person filling the form is your visitor, not you. They differ most on pricing shape (Formspark charges once, the rest charge monthly), on which destinations are gated behind a paid tier, and on how much spam protection you get for nothing.
saveto.app is building a product in this category. Nothing on this page is paid placem-nt, and nothing is ranked by it - the ordering rule is the same one every ot-er list here uses.
How they compare
| Tool | Price | Free tier | Type | Saves to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basin | Free + from $12.50/mo | Yes | Hosted service | Email · Google Sheets · Slack · Webhooks · Zapier |
| Formcarry | Free + from $5/mo | Yes | Hosted service | Email · Google Sheets · Airtable · Notion · Slack |
| Forminit | Free + from $19/mo | Yes | Hosted service | Email · Google Sheets · Slack · Webhooks · Zapier |
| Formspark | Free + $25 one-time | Yes | Hosted service | Email · Google Sheets · Notion · Slack · Webhooks |
| Formspree | Free + from $15/mo | Yes | Hosted service | |
| Web3Forms | Free + from $12/mo | Yes | Hosted service | Email · Google Sheets · Notion · Slack · Webhooks |
All 6 tools
Cheap paid tiers and integrations on every plan
Free + from $5/mo
- Hosted service
Getform, renamed - form backend with tight retention controls
Free + from $19/mo
- Hosted service
Form backend you buy once, not every month
Free + $25 one-time
- Hosted service
The long-running form backend, now with a rules engine
Free + from $15/mo
- Hosted service
Access-key form backend with a real free tier
Free + from $12/mo
- Hosted service
FAQ
What is a form backend?
A hosted endpoint your HTML form posts to. It handles the server side of a form submission - storing it, filtering spam, emailing you, and forwarding it to other tools - so a static site with no backend can still collect data.
Which form backend is cheapest?
Formspark, by a distance, if your volume is bursty: $25 once buys 50,000 submissions that never expire, against $12–30 a month elsewhere. For steady high volume, compare the monthly plans on submissions per dollar instead.
Can a form backend save to Notion or Google Sheets?
Several can. Formspark, Web3Forms and Formcarry all route submissions into Notion, and every tool here except Formspree lists a Google Sheets integration - though Basin and Forminit gate it behind a paid tier.