Forms
Etch Studio builds a static site, and forms fit right in: a service built for forms receives the submissions, so there's no backend for you to write, host or maintain.
Start from what you need the form to do.
What do you need?
| I want… | Use | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| A working form in minutes, with answers by email | A free embedded form, such as Tally or Google Forms | Embedding a form |
| Leads in my CRM, and an alert to the sales team | My CRM's own form, such as HubSpot Forms | HubSpot Forms |
| A form that matches my design, with answers by email | My own form + a form backend | Form backends |
| A form that matches my design, sending data to other apps | My own form + Make | Make |
Not sure? Start with an embedded form. You can always move to your own form later.
The three ways to add a form
1. Embed a provider's form
A form service hosts the form. You copy its embed code into the HTML panel, and it handles fields, validation, storage, spam and notifications.
- Effort: copy and paste.
- Design: styled in the provider's own editor.
- Guides: Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Tally, Fillout, HubSpot Forms, Jotform and Typeform, all in Embedding a form.
2. Your own form + a form backend
You write the form in the HTML and CSS panels, and it posts to a form backend such as Web3Forms, which emails each submission to you.
- Effort: a few attributes and hidden fields, or a short script.
- Design: entirely yours.
- Guide: Form backends.
3. Your own form + an automation platform
You write the form, and it posts to a webhook on an automation platform. A workflow you build sends each submission on: to your CRM, Slack, Google Sheets, email, or all of them.
- Effort: a workflow on the platform, and a script in the Javascript panel.
- Design: entirely yours, including your own error messages.
- Guides: Make, the recommended starting point, and Other automation platforms for Zapier, Pipedream and n8n.
Routes 2 and 3 are compared side by side in Building your own form.
Good to know
Submissions are sent from the visitor's browser when they submit, not when the site is built. This is the same build-time-versus-runtime split described in Deploying. Two things follow:
- The receiving service must accept requests from your site (CORS). Form services and automation webhooks do this already.
- Anything in the page is public. A form endpoint or webhook address is readable by anyone who views the source, which is how these services are designed to work. Never put a secret, such as a private API key, in a form.