> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.crunchforms.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# HTML contact form without a backend

> Add a working contact form to any static HTML site — no server, no JavaScript, no build step. Submissions, spam filtering, and notifications handled by Crunchforms.

A plain HTML page can't process a form submission — there's no server behind it. Pointing the form's `action` at a Crunchforms endpoint fixes that with zero code: the endpoint receives the POST, filters spam, stores the submission, emails you, and redirects the visitor to your thank-you page.

## Before you start: create your endpoint

Every guide on this page needs a Crunchforms form ID. Getting one takes about two minutes:

1. [Sign up free](https://crunchforms.com/auth/signup) — 1,000 submissions a month included, no credit card required.
2. In your [dashboard](https://crunchforms.com/dashboard), click **New Form**, give it a name, and pick a response type: **Redirect** for classic form posts (the visitor lands on your thank-you page), or **JSON** if you'll submit with JavaScript and handle the response yourself.
3. Your endpoint is `https://crunchforms.com/form/{formID}` — copy it with the **Copy Action URL** button, or use the dashboard's snippet generator.

The [quickstart](/quickstart) covers this in more detail.

## The form

This is a complete, working contact form. The only Crunchforms-specific part is the `action` URL:

```html contact.html theme={null}
<form action="https://crunchforms.com/form/{formID}" method="post">
  <label for="name">Name</label>
  <input name="name" type="text" id="name" required />

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

  <label for="message">Message</label>
  <textarea name="message" id="message" rows="5" required></textarea>

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

Use any field names you like — every submitted field is captured and shown in your dashboard. Style it however your site is styled; Crunchforms never touches your markup.

## The thank-you page

With the form's response type set to **Redirect**, the visitor lands on your success URL after submitting. Create a simple `/thanks.html` page and set it as the success URL in your form settings. Set a failure URL too (a page that says "something went wrong — email us instead").

## Stop the spam before it starts

Every public form gets found by bots eventually. Crunchforms filters submissions server-side on **every plan, including Free**:

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Honeypot" icon="honey-pot" href="/advanced/honeypot">
    A hidden field humans never see — if it's filled, the submission is rejected. Zero friction for real visitors.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Cloudflare Turnstile" icon="cloudflare" href="/advanced/turnstile">
    Invisible bot detection. Add the widget to your form and Crunchforms validates the token server-side.
  </Card>

  <Card title="reCAPTCHA v3" icon="google" href="/advanced/recaptcha">
    Score-based validation with a threshold you control per form.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

The honeypot alone stops most drive-by spam and takes one extra line of markup — enable it in your form's settings, then include the hidden field in your form.

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The form posts, but nothing shows in my dashboard" icon="magnifying-glass">
    * Check the form is set to **Active** in your dashboard.
    * If you've enabled Turnstile or reCAPTCHA on the form, submissions without a valid token are rejected — including your own tests.
    * Check you haven't exceeded your plan's monthly submission quota.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The visitor isn't redirected after submitting" icon="arrow-right">
    Set the form's response type to **Redirect** and provide a success URL (and a failure URL) in the form settings. If you're submitting with JavaScript, use the **JSON** response type instead and navigate in your code.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Submitting with fetch/XHR fails" icon="code">
    The endpoint accepts cross-origin requests, JSON bodies (`Content-Type: application/json`), and classic URL-encoded form bodies. Set the form's response type to **JSON** so your code gets `{ "success": true }` back instead of a redirect.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I want to test without deploying my site" icon="flask">
    Use the **Send Test Submission** action next to your form in the dashboard — it posts a sample submission to your live endpoint so you can see the pipeline working end to end.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Form configuration" icon="sliders" href="/form-config">
    Response types, notification emails, daily summaries, and more
  </Card>

  <Card title="Free HTML form templates" icon="file-code" href="https://crunchforms.com/templates">
    Contact, feedback, RSVP, job application, and quote-request forms ready to paste
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Need help?

<Card title="Get Support" icon="envelope" horizontal href="https://crunchforms.com/support">
  Send us a note — we read everything.
</Card>