FormSubmit and Netlify Forms both help you collect form submissions without building your own backend, but they take different approaches. Netlify Forms is the form handling built into Netlify hosting. FormSubmit is a headless form backend: you keep full control of your form's HTML and design, and every plan — including Free — includes spam protection, file uploads, webhooks and all integrations.
At a glance
| FormSubmit | Netlify Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Headless endpoint + optional builder & hosted pages | Built into Netlify hosting |
| Works with any host | Yes | Netlify sites only |
| Your own HTML & design | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | 1 form, 50 submissions/month, 100 MB storage | Submissions free and unlimited on credit-based plans |
| Integrations | All (webhooks, Slack, Discord, Sheets, Airtable, Mailchimp, Kit) | Email, Slack, webhooks |
| Spam protection | Honeypot, time trap, heuristics, rate limit, reCAPTCHA/hCaptcha/Turnstile | Akismet, optional honeypot and reCAPTCHA 2 |
| File uploads | 10 MB per file (25 MB on Pro and Business) | 8 MB max request, one file per field |
About Netlify Forms
Netlify Forms detects forms at build time on sites deployed to Netlify and collects submissions without extra services.
What FormSubmit does differently
- Host-independent: the same form works on Netlify, Vercel, Cloudflare Pages, GitHub Pages, WordPress or anywhere else.
- No build-time form detection — works with forms rendered by JavaScript frameworks without hidden HTML copies.
- Built-in Slack, Discord, Google Sheets, Airtable, Mailchimp and Kit integrations plus signed webhooks.
- Autoresponders, digests and custom email templates.
Pricing and free plan
Prices checked October 2026. Netlify figures come from netlify.com/pricing and the credit-based billing FAQ. FormSubmit figures come from our pricing page.
| FormSubmit | Netlify Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per account, by forms and monthly submissions | Included with Netlify hosting |
| Free | $0: 1 form, 50 submissions/mo, 100 MB | Netlify Free ($0, 300 credits/mo); form submissions don't use credits |
| Paid | Starter $10/mo (500/mo), Pro $25/mo (2,500/mo), Business $50/mo (10,000/mo) | Netlify Personal $9/mo (1,000 credits), Pro $20/mo (3,000 credits) |
| Works on other hosts | Yes | No |
On credit-based plans, Netlify says forms are "free and unlimited" with no submission tiers. Teams on legacy plans (accounts created before September 4, 2025) are metered per site; see Netlify's legacy pricing docs.
Limits
- Netlify Forms:
- Requests are capped at 8 MB, and uploads time out after 30 seconds.
- Each file field takes one file.
- Forms must exist in the deployed HTML so Netlify can detect them at build time.
- If a team runs out of credits, its projects are paused and stop receiving form submissions.
- See Netlify Forms not working for common fixes.
- FormSubmit:
- Files can be up to 10 MB each (25 MB on Pro and Business).
- Spam doesn't count toward the quota.
- Over-limit submissions are stored but locked until you upgrade or the month resets.
When to choose Netlify Forms
Your site will always be hosted on Netlify and your needs are covered by its built-in notifications and integrations.
When to choose FormSubmit
- You want your form to look exactly like the rest of your site.
- You want integrations, captcha and spam protection without upgrading.
- You care about privacy details: hashed IPs, encrypted secrets, private files, minimal Google permissions and configurable retention.
- You build many sites (agency, freelancer) and want one dashboard for all of them.
How to switch
- Create a FormSubmit form.
- Replace the form's
actionURL (or yourfetchURL) with your FormSubmit endpoint. - Keep your field names — emails and exports will look the same.
- Recreate integrations in the form's Integrations tab and send a test.
Need help? The docs and guides cover every framework. Comparing other options? See FormSubmit vs Formspree, FormSubmit vs Web3Forms and our Formspree alternatives roundup, which includes Netlify Forms.