Show HN: Typeform was too expensive so I built my own forms

The reason Typeform free tier limits are so strict is likely because they have run the numbers based on real usage data. I am sure those limits are designed to capture just enough free users who are likely to convert, while minimizing the risk of churn. It is tricky.

From my own experience, about two years ago we built an AI form builder tech demo on top of our platform. We open-sourced it (https://github.com/chatbotkit/example-nextjs-ai-forms) to see if there was community interest. Not much. Since it wasn't our core product, we pivoted and turned it into a low-cost Typeform alternative with unlimited forms - formshare.ai was born. And while we have seen some modest commercial success, I wouldn't claim it's anywhere near Typeform's scale.

The takeaway here is that for this project, even though it wasn't our primary focus, leading with open source and undercutting on price didn't prove to be an effective strategy. If anything, charging too little initially will only devalue the product and attract the wrong kind of users - the ones less likely to convert or stick around for the long term.

> An open-source alternative to Typeform and Google Forms

Those two are the two extreme ends of the target audience archetypes. So, decide which is yours.

> I was using Typeform, but as time went by and more people submitted forms, it got more and more expensive.

When people say they build cheaper alternatives, I often assume that the original is becoming better and more successful. Competing on price rarely wins.

I've found https://formbricks.com to be kinda the closest competition to Typeform, and also Open Source.

Disclosure: I used to work at Typeform 2014 - 2016

Taking a look at the demo (https://www.ikiform.com/forms/a2675039-5901-4052-88c0-b60977...), I'm not sure where the comparison to Typeform comes in. Probably the most unique feature of Typeform is the focus on user experience of the forms themselves, everything else is/was mostly built to support the forms, and making it as easy to fill out as possible. Things like the back button always being visible, no validation of fields as you enter data, no progress indication and so all makes it seem like there is a lot of polish left to do.

I guess the form looks OK, which is alright of course, but I'm not sure it actually serves as an alternative to Typeform. It seems to me to sit somewhere in-between the traditional (ugly) form providers, and Typeform, which isn't a bad place to sit at, but maybe people expecting a Typeform-like experience would feel slightly bait-and-switched by the comparison.

There used to be another open source project that replicated the form themselves and the experience (as far as I remember), but seem defunct by now (for the last 6 years...): https://github.com/tellform/tellform Besides that, seems there are some other open source alternatives, but I can't say I've tried them all (at a glance, Quill Forms seems most similar to Typeform): https://github.com/search?q=typeform+archived%3Afalse&type=r...

> Authorize Forms0 > Authorize preetsuthar17 > Authorizing will redirect to https://dodgmiigvrqvlsvwhlqv.supabase.co

I know you are only asking for the Email address but at least, for my benefit, make it look like a real SME or a serious project.

Very important thing missing: a demo form, to understand the user experience.

Especially if you’re comparing yourself with Typeform, which is rather controversial. (I detest its entire approach.)

What is the value proposition for these form libraries? Is it scale? Is it the custom builder? How complex are people's HTML forms these days from a UX perspective?

I was browsing the code, and noticed this forms library was using Supabase, presumably a paid service if this OSS library takes off. I just can't seem to grasp why a custom form building library needs a 3rd party, managed Database included. Scale maybe?

These are genuine questions as I'm woefully unaware of the state of HTML forms / Frontend in 2025

Form builders are a hard business to succeed with. Quite a lot of companies started off as a general “form builder” product and then found success by specializing into specific uses of forms. Examples include Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Open Water, etc. Quite a lot of other companies stick with generic forms and get stuck and stagnate.

The reason is that forms are like dates, time, addresses, names, to-do lists, etc. They are things that many developers need to work with, but are way deeper and more complicated than they seem at first. See the wide variety of feedback and suggestions just in this HN thread.

So I would recommend specializing if you want to gain traction. And expect to do tons of marketing.

Poked around the code a little bit, it doesn't seem that it is intended to be able to drop into another project and then use as a custom form builder for that project. Any plans for something like this? A lot of the infrastructure and framework (next/js) seem heavily built into the codebase. I would have to use supabase?

If you're working towards something that developers can drop in, take a look at https://heyform.net/. If not, then it's still nice to be able to have some freedom on the deployment.

"This deployment is temporarily paused" it seems you spent all your vercel quota.

You would "scale" better with a $5 vps

Looks great! However i'm a bit concerned about these "AI-Powered Analytics", looks like it would leak user-submitted data to Groq.com?

The Google and Microsoft Forms solutions always seem like a fantastic fit until you actually try to seriously use them for clients.

I’ve run into this too.

I had a client that needed to collect HIPAA protected data. Putting their marketing site into scope for HIPAA was not a sane choice. Their EMR vendor didn’t have any options that didn’t require migrating to a new EMR offering in order to create/publish/accept forms. All the other options were clunky and required a lot more work and niche expertise or training in those applications.

So we went with Google Forms. They already used Google Workspace and had executed the HIPAA addendum to the terms.

That lasted less than a year. The physicians and patients were both put off by the fact that it was a Google Form and it looked unprofessional.

They’re back to posting PDFs on their website.

At a first glance it looks great!

However, it looks like "too much" for what we're looking for. It seems to depend on too many external services. Does anyone know such a form creation system that can be self-hosted, has minimal dependencies, and is open source?