The one question that routes this whole page
Before comparing form builders, a single technical question decides which product — or which page — you actually need.
Does the respondent get a different ending depending on their answers?
A scored assessment, a quiz that routes to one of several result screens, a funnel that computes an outcome from the choices made — those are branching experiences. Those belong on a different page; see Branchly for that job.
If the respondent reaches one thank-you screen and you receive a clean row of data, that is a form. Read on.
Formlet is a form and survey builder sold once as source code. You deploy it under your own brand and run it as a multi-tenant SaaS for your own clients or subscribers — you set the tiers, the domain, and the price. This page compares two real alternatives for that job: HeyForm, which is free to self-host under AGPL-3.0 and covers the same feature terrain, and the approach of subscribing to a metered incumbent like Jotform instead of owning the platform.
Decision guide
Use HeyForm self-hosted if forms are for your own organisation and you need drop-off analytics or native Zapier integration from day one. It is free, it is actively maintained, and Formlet is not the right answer for that job.
Use Jotform if you need the broadest template library and a form brand your respondents may already recognise before they arrive at your form. Jotform claims 35+ million users (their own claim, jotform.com, 2026) — that breadth of templates and brand recognition is something a new Formlet operator builds from zero. If that matters more than ownership, Jotform is the honest choice.
Use Typeform if the reference-quality conversational player, hosted and maintained by its maker, is the requirement and response metering fits your volume.
Use Formbricks (self-host free; cloud from $74/mo, formbricks.com/pricing, 2026) if you need in-product survey targeting — NPS widgets, event-triggered in-app surveys, experience management. Formlet collects from a shared link or an embed. It does not do targeting inside another application.
Use Form.io (from $330/mo per environment, form.io/pricing, 2026) if the job is embedding a form runtime inside an application you are building for enterprise clients. Formlet is a deployable SaaS, not a developer SDK.
Commission a custom build if your requirements are highly specific, you have the runway for a 3–18-month project, and budget is not the constraint.
Use Formlet if your plan is to run a multi-tenant form platform for your clients or subscribers — charge your own plan prices, own the code, set your own storage and feature gates — and a $39–$129/mo per-operator subscription to someone else's billing schedule is not the economics you want to build a business on.
Try the live demo → · Purchase → · $149 one-time.
How Formlet and HeyForm compare
| HeyForm (AGPL-3.0) | Formlet | |
|---|---|---|
| Self-host cost | $0 | $149 one-time |
| Licence for multi-tenant SaaS resale | AGPL — read the network-service clause | Commercial — operator deployment and resale permitted |
| Conversational form player | Yes | Yes |
| Conditional logic | Yes | Yes |
| CSV export | Yes | Yes |
| Drop-off analytics | Yes | Not in v1 (roadmap) |
| Native Zapier / Make app | Yes | Not in v1 (roadmap) |
| In-form payment to tenants' own accounts, zero-custody | Not documented in research | Yes — Stripe Connect Standard |
| Multi-tenant billing and plan management | No (single-product) | Yes |
| Admin panel for cross-org oversight | No | Yes |
| Embed widget with postMessage resize | — | Yes |
| Atomic quota closing (no race at the boundary) | — | Yes |
| Form version snapshots (editing live forms safely) | — | Yes |
| Duplicate-submission prevention | — | Yes |
| What HeyForm does that Formlet does not | Drop-off analytics · native Zapier/Make · free self-host · active company + community | — |
The category landscape
The form-builder market splits on two axes.
The first is metering. Jotform charges $39/mo for 1,000 responses a month; at 10,000 responses the plan is $129/mo (jotform.com/pricing, as of 2026). Typeform meters responses the same way — $50/mo annual for 1,000, $83/mo annual for 10,000 (typeform.com/pricing, as of 2026). Those are monthly recurring costs that compound as your users grow. Free challengers like Tally and Youform charge neither for forms nor for responses, but they are rentals — your operator business sits inside their platform.
The second split is ownership. A subscription gives you a tool. A self-hosted AGPL codebase gives you the code, with a licence you need to read. Buying a commercial codebase gives you the code and a licence for the use you intend. All three are the same purchase level — someone who wants to operate a form platform — and that is the comparison this page works through.
Formlet vs HeyForm
What each actually is
HeyForm (github.com/heyform/heyform) is an actively maintained open-source form builder under AGPL-3.0. As of 2026-08-07: 8,920 stars, 688 forks, last commit pushed the same day the research for this page was done, not archived. Its own README describes it as a product that "simplifies the creation of conversational forms," with conditional logic, CSV export, file uploads, drop-off and completion analytics, native Zapier and Make integration, and custom CSS themes. Self-hosting is free via Docker or one-click cloud deploys. Cloud plans start at $15/mo (seven-day trial; no permanent free cloud tier, heyform.net/pricing, as of 2026).
Formlet covers the same core terrain — drag-and-drop builder, conversational one-question-per-screen player, conditional logic, CSV export — and adds a multi-tenant billing layer, a cross-org admin panel, in-form payment collection that settles directly into your tenants' own Stripe accounts, and a commercial licence. The sale is one purchase; the operator activity it licences is running the platform for other people.
When HeyForm is the right call
Three honest cases where HeyForm is the better answer, before anything else:
- Forms for your own organisation, no resale intention. HeyForm self-hosted is free and actively maintained. Formlet is not cheaper than free, and there is no version of this page that would tell a solo operator otherwise.
- Drop-off analytics matter in version one. HeyForm ships completion and drop-off tracking. Formlet does not — abandonment tracking is roadmap, not in v1.
- Native Zapier or Make integration is a day-one requirement. HeyForm includes it. Formlet does not ship a native Zapier or Make app in v1.
When Formlet is the right call
If your plan is to deploy a multi-tenant form platform, brand it as your own product, set your own plan tiers, and offer it to clients as a service — the AGPL-3.0 licence has terms worth reading before you build on HeyForm.
AGPL-3.0 adds a network-service clause to standard GPL copyleft: if you deploy a modified version of an AGPL-3.0 work as a network service, you must make the source of those modifications available to the users of that service. HeyForm's licence is at github.com/heyform/heyform/blob/main/LICENSE. This is a description of the licence's own terms, not legal advice — consult appropriate counsel for your specific deployment scenario.
Formlet ships under a commercial licence that permits the operator to deploy it as a branded multi-tenant SaaS, modify the code, and keep those modifications private.
The money
| HeyForm self-host | HeyForm cloud | Jotform | Typeform | Formlet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $149 one-time |
| Ongoing platform fee to vendor | None | $15–$40/mo annual (heyform.net/pricing, 2026) | $39–$129/mo at 1,000–10,000 responses (jotform.com/pricing, 2026) | $50–$83/mo annual at 1,000–10,000 responses (typeform.com/pricing, 2026) | None |
| Per-response billing | No | Capped by tier | Yes — tier steps at 100, 1k, 2.5k, 10k | Yes — tier steps at 100, 1k, 10k | No |
| Commercial operator licence | AGPL — network-service clause applies to modifications | Subscription, not an operator licence | Subscription, not an operator licence | Subscription, not an operator licence | Included |
One note on "no per-response billing" in Formlet's column: your Postgres plan and Node host are real costs that scale with data volume. They sit orders of magnitude below $0.039/response at realistic volumes, and they are yours to negotiate directly — but they are not zero.
What HeyForm does that Formlet does not
- Free self-hosting under an open-source licence
- Drop-off and completion analytics in v1
- Native Zapier and Make integration in v1
- A funded company and community behind its maintenance
- A lower cloud entry point for teams who want hosting without running infrastructure
Four ways to acquire a form platform
The comparison is not only Formlet versus a specific product. It is a question about the transaction: how do you end up with a form platform you operate?
Subscribe to a metered incumbent. Jotform or Typeform — both verified and priced above. You get a mature product, a large template library, and a vendor that maintains it. The cost is monthly, it recurs, and the ceiling is their billing schedule, not yours.
Self-host under an open-source licence. HeyForm (AGPL-3.0) or Formbricks (AGPL core) — both alive and actively pushed as of 2026-08-07. Self-hosting costs $0. The maintenance is yours. The question of what the licence permits for commercial resale is yours to resolve before you ship.
Commission a custom build. A senior developer building a multi-tenant form SaaS from scratch is a multi-month project; current custom-development rates put that scope in the $20,000–$60,000+ range (estimated, 2026 market rates). You get full ownership and full commercial freedom. Domain-specific logic — form versioning so that editing a live form never corrupts existing response mappings, atomic quota closing without a race condition at the boundary, per-tenant Stripe Connect OAuth — is scope you write and specify yourself.
Buy this codebase. Formlet is sold once at $149. The domain logic is included. You deploy on your own infrastructure and the ceiling is your database plan.
| Subscribe (Jotform / Typeform) | Self-host AGPL (HeyForm) | Commission custom dev | Buy Formlet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | $0 | $0 | $20k–$60k+ (est.) | $149 |
| Ongoing platform fee | $39–$129/mo (Jotform) / $50–$83/mo annual (Typeform) | Hosting only | Hosting only | Hosting only |
| Per-response metering | Yes | No | No | No |
| Operator licence (multi-tenant SaaS) | No — subscription only | AGPL — read the network-service clause | Yes (you own the result) | Yes (commercial licence) |
| Domain logic built | Hosted + maintained for you | Community maintained | Scope and build it | Included |
| Template and integration ecosystem | Broad (Jotform: 35M+ users, vendor claim, jotform.com 2026; Typeform: mature) | Growing community | Yours to build | Start from zero |
| Maintenance responsibility | Vendor | Yours | Yours | Yours |
Common questions
What does AGPL-3.0 mean if I want to run a form builder as my own SaaS?
AGPL-3.0 adds a network-service clause to standard GPL copyleft. Under regular GPL, the obligation to release your modifications under the same licence is triggered by distributing the software. AGPL extends that trigger: if you deploy a modified version as a network service, you must make the source of your modifications available to users of that service. For an operator planning to modify a form builder and charge clients to use the hosted version, this clause is the one to read before choosing a codebase. HeyForm's licence is at github.com/heyform/heyform/blob/main/LICENSE. This is not legal advice — consult appropriate counsel for your specific situation. Formlet ships under a commercial licence that does not carry this clause.
What is the difference between open source and owning the code?
Open source means the source code is public and the licence grants specific freedoms — but those freedoms vary sharply between licences. AGPL-3.0, GPL, MIT, and Apache 2.0 are all open source; each permits different things for commercial deployment and resale. "Owning the code" in Formlet's context means receiving the codebase under a commercial licence that permits running it as a branded multi-tenant SaaS, modifying it, and keeping those modifications private. The distinction matters precisely when the plan is to build a product on top of the code rather than using the product for your own work.
If I buy Formlet, can I rebrand it and offer it to my clients?
Yes — that is the operator activity the commercial licence permits. You deploy under your own domain and brand, set your own plan tiers, and charge your clients to use the platform. Your clients are your tenants. For in-form payment collection, each tenant connects their own Stripe account through Stripe Connect Standard; the money settles in their balance, not yours or Formlet's. The demo at https://formlet.saascode.ai shows the product as a deployed multi-tenant instance.
What happens when a Jotform account reaches its monthly submission limit?
Jotform stops accepting form submissions for that account until the limit resets at the start of the next billing month. The Starter plan allows 100 submissions per month; Bronze ($39/mo) allows 1,000; Gold ($129/mo) allows 10,000 — as of 2026, jotform.com/pricing. On a Formlet deployment, a form's 10,001st submission in a month is a database write. No vendor billing event occurs. The operator's infrastructure costs — Supabase plan and Node host — are what scale, and they do so with actual storage consumed rather than against a response tier.
Is there a form builder you pay for once instead of subscribing monthly?
Formlet is one: $149 one time, no recurring platform fee from the seller. HeyForm self-hosted is another, at $0, under AGPL-3.0 with the terms described above. Formbricks and Form.io also have self-hosted paths under their own licence terms. Every self-hosted option transfers maintenance to you; OhMyForm — once a self-hosted form builder with nearly 3,000 GitHub stars — was archived in October 2024. The one-time purchase price is real. The maintenance cost across the years after it is also real, and worth factoring before the comparison stops at the upfront number.
Which self-hosted form builders are actively maintained in 2026?
As of 2026-08-07, verified via the GitHub REST API: HeyForm (8,920 stars, last push 2026-08-07, not archived, AGPL-3.0); Formbricks (12,735 stars, last push 2026-08-07, not archived, AGPL core with a separate enterprise licence for advanced features); Form.io (2,308 stars, last push 2026-07-23, not archived, OSL-3.0). OhMyForm (2,893 stars) was archived 2024-10-31 and is not a live alternative. Formlet is commercial source code without a public repository; the buyer receives the codebase at purchase.
Does Formlet cost more than HeyForm to self-host?
Yes. HeyForm self-hosting costs $0; Formlet costs $149 one-time. Both run on infrastructure you control, so ongoing server and database costs are comparable. The difference is the commercial licence: Formlet permits operating the codebase as a multi-tenant SaaS for paying clients and keeping your modifications private; HeyForm's AGPL-3.0 has terms about network deployment of modifications that the same operator should read carefully. The upfront cost comparison is accurate. It is not the whole comparison for the buyer this page is written for.