How to receive form submissions by email — no backend needed

You have a website and you need a contact form. The HTML part is easy — a few input fields and a submit button. The hard part is what happens when someone clicks "Send." Without a backend, the form data has nowhere to go.

You could build a server, set up email sending, handle validation, store submissions, and deal with spam. Or you could point your form at FormBlade and get submissions in your inbox in under a minute.

The problem with HTML forms

HTML forms have a built-in action attribute that tells the browser where to send the data. But that destination needs to be a server that can receive the POST request, parse the fields, and do something with them. Static hosting platforms like GitHub Pages, Netlify, Vercel, and traditional shared hosting do not process form submissions — they only serve files.

This means every website with a contact form needs one of the following: a custom backend, a serverless function, a CMS with form handling, or a third-party form endpoint. FormBlade is that third-party endpoint, and it works with any website regardless of how it is hosted.

Step 1: Sign up and create a form

Go to formblade.com/app/register and create a free account. Once logged in, click New form in the dashboard. Give it a name — something like "Contact form" or "Website inquiry" — and set the notification email address where you want to receive submissions.

You will get a unique endpoint URL:

https://formblade.com/f/contact

This is the URL you will use as your form's action.

Step 2: Add the HTML to your website

Paste this form into any HTML page. Replace the action URL with your own endpoint:

<form action="https://formblade.com/f/contact"
      method="POST">

  <label>Name</label>
  <input type="text" name="name" required>

  <label>Email</label>
  <input type="email" name="email" required>

  <label>Message</label>
  <textarea name="message" required></textarea>

  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

Every field with a name attribute will appear in your email notification and in the FormBlade dashboard. You can add as many fields as you need — phone numbers, dropdowns, checkboxes, file uploads — and they will all be captured.

This works on any platform: static HTML sites, WordPress (use a Custom HTML block), Wix (embed code widget), Squarespace, Webflow, React, Next.js, or any other framework that renders HTML.

Step 3: Get submissions by email

When someone submits the form, two things happen:

• The submission is stored in your FormBlade dashboard, where you can view, search, export, and manage it.
• An email notification is sent to the address you configured, containing all the submitted fields.

By default, the user sees a FormBlade-hosted thank-you page after submitting. You can change this by setting a custom redirect URL in the form settings to send users to your own confirmation page instead.

Customizing your notification emails

On the Free plan, notification emails include a small "Sent via FormBlade" footer. On Pro, this branding is removed and you get additional customization:

• Custom from name — notifications appear from "Your Company" instead of "FormBlade".
• Template editor — customize the email layout, colors, header, and footer text using the template editor in the dashboard.
• Multiple notification addresses — send submissions to more than one inbox.

The template editor supports four built-in collections — Clean, Modern, Corporate, and Bold — and lets you customize individual blocks like headers, field layouts, dividers, and footers.

Using your own email provider

FormBlade lets you connect your own email provider on every plan, including Free. This is useful if you want notifications sent from your own domain (e.g., forms@yourdomain.com) for better deliverability and brand consistency.

You can connect any SMTP server — Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, or your company mail server. On Pro, you can also use API-based providers: SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Brevo, or SparkPost. Configure your provider in the form settings under Email provider. See the email setup guide for step-by-step instructions.

On the Free plan, emails sent through your own SMTP include a small FormBlade footer. On Pro, the footer is removed entirely.

Auto-responders: confirm receipt to the submitter

When someone fills out your form, they often want to know their message was received. With auto-responders (available on Pro), FormBlade automatically sends a confirmation email to the person who submitted the form.

To enable this, go to your form settings and turn on Auto-responder. Set the subject line, reply-to address, and message body. You can include the submitter's name and other fields using template variables. The auto-responder is sent immediately after submission, so users get instant confirmation.

This is particularly useful for:

• Contact forms — "Thanks for reaching out, we'll reply within 24 hours."
• Application forms — "We received your application and will review it shortly."
• Order forms — "Your order has been submitted. Here's a summary of what you requested."

Email template customization

FormBlade's template editor gives you control over how notification emails and auto-responders look. On the Free plan, you can edit text content within the default template. On Pro, you get full customization:

• Choose from four template collections with distinct visual styles.
• Rearrange, add, and remove content blocks (headers, text, field tables, dividers, footers).
• Set a global template that applies to all forms, or override it on a per-form basis.
• Customize colors, fonts, and branding to match your website.

Templates apply to both notification emails (sent to you) and auto-responder emails (sent to the submitter), so your brand stays consistent across all communications.

What about spam?

FormBlade includes built-in spam protection on every plan. Honeypot detection and timing analysis filter out most automated spam without any visible challenge to your users. If you need stronger protection, Pro supports reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, and Cloudflare Turnstile. Read more in our guide on stopping form spam without CAPTCHA.