Comparison
EmailJS sends an email; WebForms receives the whole submission
EmailJS is an email-sending service for client-side code: your code triggers a template and the message goes out through a mail account you connect. WebForms is a form backend: the form posts to an endpoint, and the submission is stored, filtered and delivered.
EmailJS solves a real problem well. Transactional mail providers need a secret key, and a secret key cannot sit in browser code. EmailJS holds those credentials on its side, so a page can call send() or sendForm() with a public key and a template ID, and the email goes out through whichever service you connected: Gmail, Outlook, an SMTP server, or a provider such as SendGrid, Mailgun or Amazon SES. It has official SDKs for browser JavaScript, Node.js, React Native and Flutter, and a REST API for everything else.
Used for a contact form, the shape of that model shows. The integration is JavaScript you write and maintain: a template whose variables match your field names, and a submit handler that calls the SDK. EmailJS does not keep an inbox of submissions. It keeps an Email History of each send, its variables and whether it succeeded, for 7 days on Free and 30 days on paid plans, and its own FAQ says that history is there to help with testing and debugging. Email is the only destination, and the quota counts requests, so an auto-reply uses a second one.
WebForms starts from the form instead. Set the form's action to your endpoint and it works without any JavaScript, or post to it with fetch if you prefer. Every submission is stored, searchable and exportable, spam is filtered before anything is sent, and on paid plans the same submission can go to email, Slack, Discord, Telegram and webhooks at once, with a log of every delivery attempt.
When to stay with EmailJS
Switching has a real cost. These are the cases where we would not bother.
- You want mail to leave from your own mailbox or provider. EmailJS sends through the Gmail, Outlook, SMTP or transactional account you connect and lets you switch provider from its dashboard; WebForms sends notifications itself, and paid plans can change only the sender name.
- Your code sends email that is not a form submission. EmailJS sends any template your code triggers, such as an order confirmation or a canvas image as an attachment. WebForms only delivers what a form submits.
- You are building a mobile app and want an official SDK. EmailJS ships them for React Native and Flutter as well as browser JavaScript and Node.js; WebForms is a plain HTTP endpoint any client can call, with no mobile SDK.
- You want files attached to the email itself. EmailJS attaches uploads to the message on its paid plans; WebForms keeps uploads with the stored submission instead.
Weighing EmailJS against another service instead? Formspree vs EmailJS.
WebForms vs EmailJS
Capability by capability, then their published prices. Anything we quote for EmailJS was read off their own pricing page on the date shown, but prices change, so check their pricing directly before deciding.
| Capability | WebForms | EmailJS |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A form backend. The form posts to an endpoint, and the submission is stored and delivered. | An email-sending SDK and API. Your code triggers a template, and the email goes out through a service you connect. |
| Setup | Set the form action to your endpoint. Works without JavaScript; fetch works too. | Connect an email service, build a template, load the SDK and call sendForm() or send() from a submit handler. |
| Where email is sent from | WebForms sends it, with the visitor in Reply-To when the form sends a _replyto field. Custom sender name on paid plans. | Your own connected account: Gmail, Outlook, SMTP, or providers such as SendGrid, Mailgun and Amazon SES. |
| Submission storage | Every submission stored, searchable and exportable as CSV or JSON. Kept 30 days on Free, 180 on Pro, 365 on Agency. | No submissions inbox. An Email History of each send and its variables, kept 7 days on Free and 30 on paid plans, and possible to switch off per template. |
| Destinations | Email on Free. Email, Slack, Discord, Telegram, webhooks and Zapier from one submission on paid plans. | Email only. Slack and webhook delivery are not documented features. |
| Routing rules | Route on field values to different destinations, on paid plans. | Not a documented feature. |
| Delivery visibility | Per-destination log of every attempt, with status and response. | Success or error per send in Email History, also readable through its /history API. |
| Spam filtering | Honeypot, time trap, rate limits, domain lock and an AI classifier that reads the message, on every plan. | reCAPTCHA v2 per template, IP-based rate limits, an origin allowlist on paid plans, and SDK options to block headless browsers or listed values. |
| Auto-reply to the visitor | On paid plans. | Set per template. Each auto-reply uses another request from the quota. |
| Files | Uploads on paid plans, kept with the stored submission for 30 days. | Attached to the email, with a size limit that rises by plan. Not on Free. |
| What the quota counts | Submissions. One submission counts once, however many destinations it reaches. | Requests. Every email sent is one, auto-replies included. |
EmailJS pricing
Read from their pricing page on . Prices in USD.
| Plan | Price | Submissions |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 2 templates; send history kept 7 days | 200 requests / month |
| Personal | $11 / month $9 / month billed yearly | 2,000 requests / month |
| Professional | $19 / month $15 / month billed yearly; larger request tiers available | 5,000 requests / month |
| Business | $50 / month $40 / month billed yearly; tiers up to 200,000 requests | 25,000 requests / month |
Moving from EmailJS
Create a form and copy the endpoint
Sign up, add a form and copy its endpoint URL. The free plan needs no card.
Replace the SDK call with the endpoint
Set the form's action to your endpoint and its method to POST, then remove the EmailJS script and the sendForm() handler. To stay on the page instead, keep a handler and POST the form with fetch and an Accept: application/json header.
Keep your field names
The names your template used as variables can stay as they are, since every field is captured. To have Reply go to your visitor, send their address in a field named _replyto, and add a hidden _subject if your template set the subject line.
Add destinations and submit once
Add an email destination for the address your template sent to, and Slack, Discord, Telegram or a webhook on a paid plan. Send one real submission and check the dashboard and delivery log before you disconnect the EmailJS service.
Try it without deciding anything
The free plan includes 300 submissions a month, unlimited forms, email delivery, stored submissions and spam filtering, with no card required and no expiry. Point one form at it and keep EmailJS running on the others until you are convinced.
Questions
For a contact form, yes: it receives the form directly, stores the submission and delivers it, with no SDK or template. For sending other email from your code, such as order confirmations to your users, no. EmailJS is an email-sending service, and WebForms only delivers what a form submits.
Yes. The WebForms free plan includes 300 submissions a month with email delivery, stored submissions and spam filtering, with no card required and no expiry. Free delivers to one email destination; Slack, Discord, Telegram and webhooks are on paid plans.
They do different jobs. Formspree is a form backend: the form posts to it, and submissions are stored, searchable and sent on through plugins. EmailJS sends an email through your own mail account from your code and keeps only a short send history. If you want a record of every submission, a form backend such as Formspree or WebForms is the closer fit, and our Formspree vs EmailJS comparison goes through the rest.
No. A plain HTML form with its action set to your endpoint works with JavaScript turned off. If you prefer to submit with fetch, send the same POST with an Accept: application/json header and read the JSON response.
Yes. It can only submit, not read. Lock the form to your own domains and submissions posted from anywhere else are refused, on every plan.
No. WebForms sends notifications itself, so there is no mail account to connect, and a _replyto field makes Reply go to your visitor. Paid plans can set the sender name. If the email must leave from your own mailbox or provider, EmailJS does that and we do not.
Other comparisons
- Web3Forms alternativeKeep the access-key simplicity. Add routing, more destinations and a delivery log.
- Formspree alternativeThe same no-backend model, with delivery you can actually inspect.
- Formspark alternativeA monthly plan instead of a submission bundle you have to keep buying.
- Basin alternativeThe same no-code form backend, minus the AI-site upsell you may not want.
- Formkeep alternativeOne plan, unlimited forms, no per-form add-on fee.
- Formcarry alternativeUnlimited forms and multi-destination fan-out, with a delivery log to check.
- KwesForms alternativeSkip the validation framework. Get routing and a delivery log instead.
- Slapform alternativeA flat quota, not a per-submission meter once you are past it.
- FormBackend alternativeThe same endpoint model, with routing and more places to notify at once.
- FormBucket alternativeTiered plans and more destinations, instead of one flat unlimited price.
- FormSubmit alternativeKeep the zero-signup simplicity for a quick form. Add a dashboard when you outgrow it.
- Netlify Forms alternativeThe convenience of built-in forms, without tying your form backend to your host.
- Typeform alternativeKeep Typeform for the interface. Get more destinations and a delivery log for what it collects.
- Jotform alternativeKeep the builder if you want it. Get more destinations and a delivery log for what it collects.
- SurveyMonkey alternativeA survey tool with research-grade analysis, versus a lightweight backend for a form you already built.
- Wufoo alternativeOne of the oldest form builders, with pricing to match. A lighter backend for a form you already have.
- Paperform alternativeA document-style builder with e-commerce built in, versus a backend for a form you already have.
- Tally alternativeUnlimited free forms is hard to beat. A delivery log and routing rules are what it doesn't have.
- Cognito Forms alternativeWorkflow and approvals are real Cognito Forms features. Routing to five destinations at once is ours.
- Zoho Forms alternativeDeep CRM and Zoho-suite integration, versus a standalone backend that isn't tied to a bigger platform.
- Google Forms alternativeFree is hard to beat. Routing to more than a spreadsheet is what it doesn't do.
- Microsoft Forms alternativeBundled free into Microsoft 365. Routing and a delivery log are what it doesn't do.
- Getform alternativeForm endpoints with routing rules and a delivery log on every send.
- splitforms alternativeA free tier that resets monthly, an AI spam classifier, and a log of every delivery attempt.
- Contact Form 7 alternativeFor WordPress sites where the form should not depend on PHP mail or another plugin.
- WPForms alternativeFor a form that does not need to be built inside WordPress, or a yearly licence per site.