⬡ FormBase

Open-source form backend for developers. Collect form submissions without writing server code.

Drop-in replacement for Formspree, Basin, Getform — but self-hosted, free, and yours.

Features

• 🛡️ Spam Protection — Built-in honeypot fields catch bots silently
• 📧 Email Notifications — Get notified on every submission (SMTP configurable)
• 🔗 Webhooks — Forward submissions to Slack, Discord, Zapier, or any URL
• 📊 CSV Export — One-click download of all submissions
• 🔑 REST API — Full API with JWT auth + API key access
• 👤 Multi-user — User accounts with plan-based limits
• 🎨 Dashboard — Beautiful dark-mode admin panel (no build step!)
• 🐳 Docker Ready — Deploy in one command
• 💾 SQLite — Zero-config database, no external dependencies

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/kszongic/formbase.git
cd formbase
npm install
node src/server.js
# → Running on http://localhost:3000

Docker

docker build -t formbase .
docker run -p 3000:3000 -v formbase-data:/app/data formbase

How It Works

1. Create an account at your FormBase instance
2. Create a form in the dashboard — you get a unique endpoint
3. Point your HTML form at the endpoint:

<form action="https://your-server.com/f/FORM_ID" method="POST">
  <input type="email" name="email" required>
  <textarea name="message"></textarea>
  <!-- Honeypot: invisible to humans, catches bots -->
  <input type="text" name="_gotcha" style="display:none">
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

4. View submissions in the dashboard, get email alerts, or receive webhooks

API Reference

Authentication

# Register
curl -X POST /api/auth/register -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com","password":"secret123"}'

# Login
curl -X POST /api/auth/login -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"you@example.com","password":"secret123"}'
# → { "token": "eyJ...", "user": { ... } }

Forms

# List forms
curl /api/forms -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN'

# Create form
curl -X POST /api/forms -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name":"Contact","notify_email":"me@example.com","webhook_url":"https://hooks.slack.com/..."}'

# Get submissions
curl /api/forms/FORM_ID/submissions -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN'

# Export CSV
curl /api/forms/FORM_ID/export -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' > subs.csv

Form Submission (public endpoint)

# JSON
curl -X POST /f/FORM_ID -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"email":"user@test.com","message":"Hello!"}'

# Form-encoded (standard HTML forms)
curl -X POST /f/FORM_ID -d 'email=user@test.com&message=Hello!'

Configuration

Environment variables (.env or system):

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3000	Server port
JWT_SECRET	dev secret	JWT signing key (change in production!)
DATA_DIR	./data	SQLite database directory
SMTP_HOST	—	SMTP server for email notifications
SMTP_PORT	587	SMTP port
SMTP_USER	—	SMTP username
SMTP_PASS	—	SMTP password
SMTP_FROM	noreply@formbase.dev	From address

Plans & Limits

Feature	Free	Pro	Unlimited
Forms	3	50	∞
Submissions/month	100/form	10,000/form	∞
Webhooks	✅	✅	✅
Email notifications	✅	✅	✅
CSV export	✅	✅	✅
API access	✅	✅	✅

Architecture

formbase/
├── src/
│   ├── server.js          # Express app entry
│   ├── db.js              # SQLite setup & migrations
│   ├── auth.js            # JWT + API key middleware
│   └── routes/
│       ├── users.js       # Auth & profile endpoints
│       ├── forms.js       # CRUD forms + submissions
│       └── submit.js      # Public submission endpoint
├── public/
│   └── index.html         # Single-file dashboard SPA
├── Dockerfile
└── package.json

• Zero build step — Dashboard is a single HTML file with vanilla JS
• SQLite with WAL — Fast, concurrent reads, no database server needed
• Stateless API — JWT auth, deploy multiple instances behind a load balancer

Comparison

	FormBase	Formspree	Basin	Getform
Self-hosted	✅	❌	❌	❌
Open source	✅	❌	❌	❌
Free tier	Unlimited	50/mo	100/mo	50/mo
Webhooks	✅	Paid	Paid	Paid
CSV export	✅	Paid	✅	Paid
Price	$0	$10-40/mo	$8-49/mo	$8-79/mo

Contributing

PRs welcome! This is a solo project but contributions are appreciated.

License

MIT © kszongic