Formspree alternative: Formlane and Formspree compared

Formlane and Formspree both give a static site a form endpoint: your HTML form posts to a URL, the service stores the submission and notifies you. Below are the facts we could check on Formspree's public pages and in our own plan configuration. Formspree has features Formlane doesn't have yet; they are in the table too.

Step-by-step guide with field mapping and FAQ: Formspree alternative guide

Formspree and Formlane side by side

Formlane prices are in USD, plus applicable taxes. Formspree prices are its USD list prices for monthly billing.

Switch in 60 seconds

For a plain HTML form that posts to Formspree, two changes are enough: the form action and a hidden access_key field. Your field names and the _gotcha honeypot keep working, because Formlane accepts the same form posts (URL-encoded, multipart and JSON).

1. Sign in to Formlane, create a form and copy its access key (fl_…).
2. Change the form's action to https://smallwerk.com/formlane/api/submit.
3. Add a hidden input access_key with your key inside the form.
4. Send a test submission. Keep the Formspree form until the first real submission has arrived in Formlane.

<form action="https://formspree.io/f/YOUR_FORM_ID" method="POST">
  <label for="cf-email">Email</label>
  <input id="cf-email" type="email" name="email" required>
  <label for="cf-message">Message</label>
  <textarea id="cf-message" name="message" required></textarea>
  <input type="text" name="_gotcha" style="display:none" tabindex="-1">
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

<form action="https://smallwerk.com/formlane/api/submit" method="POST">
  <input type="hidden" name="access_key" value="fl_YOUR_ACCESS_KEY">
  <label for="cf-email">Email</label>
  <input id="cf-email" type="email" name="email" required>
  <label for="cf-message">Message</label>
  <textarea id="cf-message" name="message" required></textarea>
  <input type="text" name="_gotcha" style="display:none" tabindex="-1">
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

When more than the action changes

• Thank-you page: a redirect set in Formspree's form settings doesn't move over. Add a hidden redirect field with an absolute URL, or set a default redirect in the Formlane form settings.
• Allowed domains: set them again in the Formlane form settings.
• AJAX / fetch(): keep Accept: application/json, but check success in the JSON response (success: false comes with an error code).
• Legacy field names: Formlane doesn't treat _replyto, _subject or _next specially and stores them as normal fields. Rename them to email, subject and redirect.
• File inputs: Formlane doesn't accept file uploads yet. Files are dropped, the other fields are stored.
• Old submissions: they stay in Formspree. There is no import.