Netlify Forms or Web3Forms: what changes when your form stops depending on your host
Netlify Forms stores your submissions and sends email, Slack and webhook notifications, but only while Netlify hosts the site. Web3Forms works on any host with nothing but an access key and keeps submissions too, but email is its only free destination and webhooks sit on paid plans.
The difference that decides it
This comparison usually comes up when someone is leaving Netlify, or planning for the day they might. Netlify detects forms at build time, so the form is tied to Netlify's pipeline. What you get for that coupling is a stored list of submissions per site, email and Slack notifications and outgoing webhooks, without a separate bill on credit-based plans.
Web3Forms has no coupling at all. The form posts to an endpoint with an access key and works identically on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare, Vercel or a server under your desk. The trade is in what happens next. Email is the free destination, webhooks and Google Sheets sit on paid plans, and its docs do not describe Slack notifications, a delivery log or retries. Moving from Netlify to Web3Forms means gaining portability and giving up some of the notification options you had.
Side by side
| Capability | Netlify Forms | Web3Forms |
|---|---|---|
| Works on any host | No, requires Netlify hosting | Yes |
| Setup | A netlify attribute, detected at build time | An access key in a hidden input |
| Stored submissions | Stored per site in the Netlify dashboard | Kept up to three years under its terms |
| Destinations | Email and Slack notifications, outgoing webhooks | Email; webhooks and Google Sheets on paid plans |
| Slack notifications | Yes | Not a documented feature |
| Spam filtering | Honeypot and reCAPTCHA 2 | A honeypot field; reCAPTCHA and Turnstile on paid plans |
| Cost | Part of the Netlify hosting plan | Free tier plus paid plans |
"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 Netlify Forms if
Stay with Netlify Forms when Netlify is where you will host for the foreseeable future, you value the stored submission list, or you use form-triggered functions.
Choose Web3Forms if
Choose Web3Forms when portability matters most, email is the only destination you need, and you want setup to be one hidden input.
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.
Netlify Forms
As listed on , in USD. Current pricing
- Free: $0, Unlimited (Forms are free and unlimited on credit-based plans, per Netlify's own docs; billed against the hosting plan, not separately)
- Personal: $9 / month, Unlimited (Netlify's paid hosting tier; forms are not metered separately from it)
- Pro: $20 / month, Unlimited (Netlify's team hosting tier; forms are not metered separately from it)
Web3Forms
As listed on , in EUR. Current pricing
- Personal: Free, 250 / month
- Starter: EUR 50 / year, 5,000 / month (Yearly only, for students and non-profits)
- Pro: EUR 13 / month, 10,000 / month (Billed yearly at EUR 151)
- Agency & Team: EUR 34 / month, 20,000 / month (Billed yearly at EUR 406)
A third option, honestly assessed
The awkward choice here is portability or notifications. WebForms gives you both: it works on any host, every submission is stored and searchable, and the paid plans send it to email, Slack, Discord, Telegram and webhooks at once, with each delivery logged and retried. The free plan covers 300 submissions a month by email.
WebForms vs Netlify Forms · WebForms vs Web3Forms · Our pricing