One hack closer to free web form back ends

My weekend project, FormZero, a free form backend that is easier to self host than to sign up for a paid service, just got an update. Users can now receive email notifications when people submit their forms - wait lists, newsletter signups, surveys.

My first idea was to ask users to set up a free Resend account and use their API key to send emails. While free, this requires users to at least own a domain and definitely goes against my claim for one-click self hosting.

Then I realized that every user already has their personal email address. If only FormZero could send emails from it in a secure way.

SMTP to the rescue - it's the protocol your email client (Apple/Notion/Outlook) uses to send mail from your email address. The fact that it's a standard protocol allows users to connect to any email provider - Gmail, Proton, Outlook, iCloud or even Resend - just bring your sweet SMTP password with you.

This makes FormZero one more step closer to matching paid services in functionality. Next weekend: Captcha and spam protection.

FormZero: https://github.com/BohdanPetryshyn/formzero - use it for your next web form!