A FormSubmit alternative: CatchForm vs FormSubmit

FormSubmit is the simplest way to get a form into your mailbox: no account, no dashboard, no bill. CatchForm asks you to sign up and in return keeps your submissions somewhere other than your email.

The short version

FormSubmit is free with no registration. Submissions go to your email; the archive is kept for 30 days and read through an API limited to 5 calls a day.
CatchForm needs an account. Every submission lands in a web inbox, stays there until you delete it, and exports to CSV.
For your visitors the difference is the CAPTCHA: FormSubmit shows reCAPTCHA by default, CatchForm filters bots with a hidden field and never interrupts people.

Side by side

	CatchForm	FormSubmit
Account	Required	Not required
Price	Free, then $12/mo	Free
Free submissions / month	100	No limit published
Where submissions are kept	Web inbox, until you delete them	Your email; 30-day archive via API
CSV export	Yes, every plan	Not offered
What the visitor sees	Your form, then your page	reCAPTCHA by default (can be turned off)
Your email address in the page	Never — the endpoint is a token	Yes, unless you swap it for their alias
File uploads	Pro plan	Yes, up to 10 MB in total
Webhooks	Pro plan, optional HMAC signature	Yes
Autoresponse to the sender	No	Yes

FormSubmit figures were taken from their own published pages in September 2026. Prices and limits change — check there before deciding. If something here is out of date, write to hello@catchform.dev and we will fix it.

When FormSubmit is the better choice

You want zero setup and zero cost, and email is the only place you need submissions to end up.
You need file uploads or an automatic reply to the sender without paying anything.
You like having a CAPTCHA in front of your form.

When CatchForm is the better choice

You do not want a mailbox to be the only copy of your leads. An email that lands in spam or gets deleted is gone; a CatchForm submission is still in the inbox.
You want a list you can search, export to CSV and hand to someone else.
You do not want visitors to solve a CAPTCHA before their message goes through.
You want a service with a paid plan behind it, run by people you can email, with data stored in Germany.

Switching from FormSubmit

<!-- before -->
<form action="https://formsubmit.co/you@example.com" method="POST">

<!-- after -->
<form action="https://catchform.dev/f/your-token" method="POST">

Create a form in CatchForm and confirm the address notifications should go to.
Replace the action URL with your CatchForm endpoint.
FormSubmit's hidden fields (_next, _captcha, _subject and so on) can stay or go: CatchForm ignores fields that start with an underscore. The one it reads is _replyto, and it means the same thing as on FormSubmit. Set your thank-you page as the redirect URL in the form settings.
Send one test submission and check your inbox.

More detail in the docs and the HTML form to email guide.

Try CatchForm on your own form

100 submissions a month free, no credit card. Switching is one change: the action attribute of your form.