FormBackend or Formcarry: rules and projects, or sending on your own terms
Both are endpoint services aimed at developers with low entry prices. FormBackend is stronger on organisation and logic: a rules engine for routing email, projects to group forms, and a free hosted form builder. Formcarry is stronger on sending: your own SMTP server and white-label notifications from its first paid tier.
The difference that decides it
FormBackend's rules engine and custom email routing arrive at its Freelancer tier, one step above entry, which is earlier than most services offer routing at all. It groups forms under projects with project-specific integrations, and its free plan includes a hosted builder if you do not want to write the form yourself. White-label sending, though, is held back for its top Business tier.
Formcarry reverses that. White-labelled notifications and your own SMTP server come with Starter, its cheapest paid plan, billed annually only. Forms are unlimited from Starter up. Integrations are counted as integration calls per month rather than per destination, which is worth checking against how many tools one submission reaches.
Side by side
| Capability | FormBackend | Formcarry |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Endpoint per form, plus an optional hosted builder | Endpoint per form |
| Routing | Rules engine and email routing from Freelancer | Not a documented core feature |
| Organisation | Projects with their own integrations | Unlimited forms from Starter |
| Destinations | Webhooks and Zapier from Simple; Slack and Sheets on Business | Built-in integrations, metered as integration calls |
| Own SMTP server | Not a documented feature | From Starter |
| White-label sending | Business tier only | From Starter |
| API | From Freelancer | Not a documented feature |
"Not a documented feature" means it is not in their published documentation as we read it, not that it can never be done. Check with them before ruling something out.
Which to choose
Choose FormBackend if
Choose FormBackend when you need email routing rules on a budget, want forms organised into projects, or want a hosted builder.
Choose Formcarry if
Choose Formcarry when mail must come from your own server or domain, or when white-labelling matters and the top tier of another service is out of budget.
Pricing, as each lists it
Copied from each pricing page on the date shown. Prices change without notice, so check the current figure before deciding.
FormBackend
As listed on , in USD. Current pricing
- Free: $0, 50 / month (1 form, plus a separate free hosted-builder plan with unlimited submissions)
- Simple: $5 / month, 1,000 / month ($4.17 / month billed yearly)
- Freelancer: $14 / month, 5,000 / month (2 months free billed yearly)
- Business: $50 / month, 10,000 / month (2 months free billed yearly)
Formcarry
As listed on , in USD. Current pricing
- Baby: $0, 50 / month (1 form, 1 team member)
- Starter: $5 / month, 500 / month (Billed annually only; no monthly option for this tier)
- Basic: $19 / month, 2,000 / month ($15 / month billed yearly)
- Premium: $99 / month, 30,000 / month ($80 / month billed yearly)
A third option, honestly assessed
FormBackend routes email; on its paid plans WebForms routes each submission to any destination, email, Slack, Discord, Telegram or a webhook, based on what was entered, and logs every attempt per destination. If own-SMTP sending is the requirement, Formcarry does that and we do not.
WebForms vs FormBackend · WebForms vs Formcarry · Our pricing