Would you be willing to open source this? That way it can stay free forever (at least basic functionality) and you'll likely increase the adoption by other folks.
Nothing free lasts forever, but that's how a lot of people gage interest anyway. Having said that... this is a good solution for small site's contact form which you wouldn't care much about privacy or if it went away in a couple of years.
Nice job offering something for free. I'm not as skeptical as some here; looks like you just wanted to build something useful for people and it's not going to cost too much to provide it. At the very least, it's a great project to have under your belt, with real customers, etc. Could help landing jobs, for sure!
I had to figure out how to handle my contact form on my static blog recently, and I decided to simply write a form handler with Go and deploy it on Google's Cloud Functions. It's free for now (and probably always will be considering the fact that I'll probably never receive more than ~10 form submissions per month anyways). The function takes awhile to spin up cold, but it doesn't matter too much. I like it because the code is simple and I "own" the service.
Curious to hear what other static site admins have decided to use for their forms.
Thanks for the thoughts! It's still a young service, and honestly there are a ton more users than I expected so early
GO is super interesting, and I like that you wanted total control over your process. I've never used Google Cloud Functions but that's similar to Azure Functions or AWS Lambda, yea?
I might be in the market for a forms service, and have been researching them a bit over the past few weeks. As a potential customer, here is the single biggest thing that made me instantly say no: free. Even worse it's unlimited free, not even freemium.
That means either the service will sell my information, or the information of my customers (if not now, eventually), or that it's going to die shortly. And I don't want to put in the effort of migrating my sites to your service in either of those cases.
I didn't quite have this harsh of an outlook, but I also immediately scrolled to see what "paid" versions there were as a "seriousness" check. That's interesting.
This is good feedback, and quite honestly something I haven't quite figured out how to communicate to future potentially skeptical users. Basically it's just a personal project, that I host on my personal AWS account.
I literally just made it because I didn't want to pay for a service anymore for my static sites that need to collect information.
Maybe solidifying some of the verbiage on the website, and giving it time to not be so new are the two biggest things I can do to solve this?
To make matters worse, the site is using third party trackers, so your data is already being abused the second you open with the site. Its also closed source. I may sound paranoid, but I won't be using the service.
There's a donation button at the top of the page. Also, perhaps it's going to gauge volume and costs before developing a premium model. Looks like an early adopter model. Also, providing a service like this with the trade off being able to use and learn from the data for improving the product isn't uncommon (google forms, google mail...).
One thought I had that could avoid the harvesting data aspect would be to encrypt the data with a public key and then allowing the host to decrypt it locally with a private key. I think that's how products like Lastpass work.
On the other side, I'd love an indie-accessible service where I wouldn't pay more than a total cost of a cheap VPS and a domain for a single SaaS which forms like a 5 % of user experience.
It seems that everything is either pay-with-privacy, or $100/year, with no middle ground, and that's sad for me as an indie.
Second the opinions above, but I was also looking for some sort of explanation of why is it free (maybe some innovative idea allowed to reduce costs for long-term support or smth like that)
I'm kind of the same. Write something about what the business model is.
There exist free services that I kind of trust because it doesn't matter (irc-style technical discussions or postcard-level greetings on Telegram) or because it is freemium and they seem to have a grasp on the problem of free (free matrix accounts: they sell hosted servers, mewe: limited free storage)
The thing is, this is right next to "I wrote a SaaS product because the internet made me believe it'd make me rich" on the HN front page ...
(Realistically your best bet is to be Pinboard: not rich, but a comfortable living, built up over long years, and by picking up several waves of refugees from collapsing VC-funded competitors)
As a small business owner in Europe I have the same perspective. Maybe it's even just a gut feel of "if I pay money it's a more serious business relationship and I can depend on some rules", e.g. SLAs and data handling.
The thing I immediately look for as well is GDPR information.
Besides all that:
it looks like a great solution! :-)
Yes, please start charging. Aside from the effect it has on perceived trustworthiness, longevity, etc., giving away your work for free undermines others' ability to make a living selling theirs.
I kind of hate the profanity being part of the branding, or anywhere else that I’m going to use professionally. It’s pretty useless since it’s not actually describing the service (what exactly does “no bullshit” mean for forms?), and just detracts it and the team or developer who made it.
Keep in mind that the concept of profanity varies greatly from region to region (and audience to audience). For example, where I live, "fk" and "ct" are fairly common words to say. But ironically, expletives including "god" are shocking.
Yea, this is a tough one. Security is a super tricky component of any application, especially when you are storing data that belongs to other people.
In the case of Form King, all transport is over TLS, with the RDS instances being encrypted at rest. When a form is submitted, the data is encrypted and uses the AES-256-CBC cipher prior to storage. I just didn't want to store other people's data in plain text. Form could include names, and emails, and addresses. It's also signed with a MAC to ensure the data isn't modified.
This is probably some information I should include on the website as well (It's a personal project that I just work on in the evenings and weekends, so I had to prioritize stuff and the marketing website was one of the lowest :) )
Now, keeping in mind that I'm no security expert beyond what's standard for production applications, this is the area of any service that worries me the most and it'll remain a top priority to continue enhancing the security of the app.
Cool stuff. If you are interested in doing multipage forms and need something that already has a form editor UI, check out the open source <tangy-form> and <tangy-form-editor> web components. Disclaimer, I'm a contributor to those projects.
Thanks for the feedback! It's still a super young service that I built and work on in my spare time. I was already working on some blog posts, but the video idea is perfect!
A live form, of course. People want to see how it works and play with it. I'll get these put together and up soon! Thanks again for taking a look :)
It's not free because I want it to be sustainable, but also because it does more than just capture form data and send you an email. You might not need more than that, but if you do then it's probably even more important that it's a sustainable business.
We are running https://formlets.com, wishing them the best, i can tell one thing from experience, we have a free offering too, 100% free is not sustainable,you will need payed accounts to get a sustainable business, within weeks to months (depending on the popularity) the phishing people will find your service and you will need a full time person to track them and remove the forms or your reputation will be toast.
Its a brutal market to be in.
I think one of the challenging parts of selling a form builder is trying to figure out where you draw the line of free to paid. Do you limit the number of submissions? Per month or forever? The number of forms? The number of inputs per form? Access to the API? Integration?
Thanks for sharing! Do you mind me asking what admin template you used for the app? I'm searching for a decent admin template right now with a similar color scheme.
[+] [-] nkron|5 years ago|reply
I ended up switching to using a Google script which I've been happy with so far: https://github.com/dwyl/learn-to-send-email-via-google-scrip...
[+] [-] 135792468|5 years ago|reply
I’ll try your google solution, thanks
[+] [-] aioprisan|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agustif|5 years ago|reply
Free https://www.staticforms.xyz/ https://formsubmit.co/
Paid https://formbucket.com/ https://formspree.io/
You can also check out Netlify Forms
[+] [-] notwhereyouare|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Zaheer|5 years ago|reply
Here's how to post to a Google Form: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18073971/http-post-to-a-...
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
This was just a personal project that I made available in case anyone else had a need for it :)
[+] [-] ibdf|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] st-isidore|5 years ago|reply
I had to figure out how to handle my contact form on my static blog recently, and I decided to simply write a form handler with Go and deploy it on Google's Cloud Functions. It's free for now (and probably always will be considering the fact that I'll probably never receive more than ~10 form submissions per month anyways). The function takes awhile to spin up cold, but it doesn't matter too much. I like it because the code is simple and I "own" the service.
Curious to hear what other static site admins have decided to use for their forms.
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
GO is super interesting, and I like that you wanted total control over your process. I've never used Google Cloud Functions but that's similar to Azure Functions or AWS Lambda, yea?
[+] [-] kurzawa7|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevincox|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bgdam|5 years ago|reply
That means either the service will sell my information, or the information of my customers (if not now, eventually), or that it's going to die shortly. And I don't want to put in the effort of migrating my sites to your service in either of those cases.
So my advice to you is to start charging.
[+] [-] 27182818284|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
I literally just made it because I didn't want to pay for a service anymore for my static sites that need to collect information.
Maybe solidifying some of the verbiage on the website, and giving it time to not be so new are the two biggest things I can do to solve this?
[+] [-] freddyym|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lasagna_coder|5 years ago|reply
One thought I had that could avoid the harvesting data aspect would be to encrypt the data with a public key and then allowing the host to decrypt it locally with a private key. I think that's how products like Lastpass work.
[+] [-] tomaskafka|5 years ago|reply
It seems that everything is either pay-with-privacy, or $100/year, with no middle ground, and that's sad for me as an indie.
(Btw, I am trying to fit into this gap with a $1/mo subscription for a commercial-quality weather forecast complication for Apple Watch: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weathergraph-weather-forecast/... )
[+] [-] divan|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eitland|5 years ago|reply
There exist free services that I kind of trust because it doesn't matter (irc-style technical discussions or postcard-level greetings on Telegram) or because it is freemium and they seem to have a grasp on the problem of free (free matrix accounts: they sell hosted servers, mewe: limited free storage)
[+] [-] pjc50|5 years ago|reply
(Realistically your best bet is to be Pinboard: not rich, but a comfortable living, built up over long years, and by picking up several waves of refugees from collapsing VC-funded competitors)
[+] [-] florg|5 years ago|reply
The thing I immediately look for as well is GDPR information.
Besides all that: it looks like a great solution! :-)
[+] [-] 7ewis|5 years ago|reply
Maybe if they just offered a paid support plan, but kept the actual service itself free?
[+] [-] quickthrower2|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] radmin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ixxivvix|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oftenwrong|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blunte|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattbee|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Normal_gaussian|5 years ago|reply
I think you are being quite the prude!
[+] [-] redis_mlc|5 years ago|reply
If anybody knows if .io mgmt. is professionally managed now, let me know.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/10/io_hijacking_in_tra...
[+] [-] specialist|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TomGullen|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
In the case of Form King, all transport is over TLS, with the RDS instances being encrypted at rest. When a form is submitted, the data is encrypted and uses the AES-256-CBC cipher prior to storage. I just didn't want to store other people's data in plain text. Form could include names, and emails, and addresses. It's also signed with a MAC to ensure the data isn't modified.
This is probably some information I should include on the website as well (It's a personal project that I just work on in the evenings and weekends, so I had to prioritize stuff and the marketing website was one of the lowest :) )
Now, keeping in mind that I'm no security expert beyond what's standard for production applications, this is the area of any service that worries me the most and it'll remain a top priority to continue enhancing the security of the app.
[+] [-] hadtodoit|5 years ago|reply
https://www.yupitszac.com/life-of-a-contractor/
[+] [-] petargyurov|5 years ago|reply
Lots of questions surrounding this.
[+] [-] staticvar|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swiley|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harrisreynolds|5 years ago|reply
First... put a live form on the home page.
Second... include a screenshot of the a live form, not just the backend of form submissions.
Third, for extra credit... create a simple video of using the tool end to end.
Best of luck!
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
A live form, of course. People want to see how it works and play with it. I'll get these put together and up soon! Thanks again for taking a look :)
[+] [-] AussieCoder|5 years ago|reply
It's not free because I want it to be sustainable, but also because it does more than just capture form data and send you an email. You might not need more than that, but if you do then it's probably even more important that it's a sustainable business.
[+] [-] filvdg|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harrisreynolds|5 years ago|reply
I've built a similar service but it also includes a website builder if anyone here is interested. Check it out at https://www.webase.com
[+] [-] padseeker|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jlelse|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] agentultra|5 years ago|reply
Spelling mistake there.
Nice looking site!
[+] [-] yupitszac|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snake117|5 years ago|reply