PortForm vs Formcarry
What is the difference between PortForm and Formcarry?
Formcarry and PortForm are both hosted form backends, and both mention MCP for AI tools. Formcarry lists an MCP Server on every plan, including its free one; PortForm’s MCP server is on every plan and is documented as never returning submission contents. Otherwise they differ in plan shape: Formcarry’s free Baby plan is 50 submissions and 1 form; PortForm’s is 300 per 30 days with unlimited forms.
New to the category? Read what a form backend is and how a form endpoint works. Last verified: , against Formcarry's own pages listed under sources.
Formcarry and PortForm at a glance
| Topic | Formcarry | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Baby: $0, 1 form, 50 submissions per month, 1 team member. (Formcarry pricing) | 300 submissions per 30 days, unlimited forms, no card |
| MCP for AI tools | An MCP Server (AI Access) is listed on every plan, including the free Baby plan. Its pricing FAQ says it connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any AI app, and can create forms, set up notifications, spam protection and webhooks, and search or analyze submissions. (Formcarry pricing) | MCP server on every plan: 8 tools for managing forms and reading submission metadata, and none returns submission contents |
| Submission storage | Not verified from the vendor's current public documentation. | 30 days of submission history on every plan |
| Retry and failure handling | Not verified from the vendor's current public documentation. | Stored first. The notification email is attempted once, best-effort; a submission with no recorded attempt after 10 minutes gets one late recovery attempt, and failed sends can be retried manually from the dashboard. Integrations are retried automatically, up to 5 attempts over about two and a half hours |
What Formcarry does well
- Unlimited forms on every paid plan and a REST API with Forms and Submissions API sections in the docs. (Formcarry pricing, Formcarry documentation)
- Paid plans include white-label, a custom email server and built-in integrations and webhooks. (Formcarry pricing)
- Documented features for spam protection, Google reCAPTCHA, file uploads, reply-to and a dynamic return URL. (Formcarry documentation)
- An Enterprise plan with a 99.9% SLA and migration support. (Formcarry pricing)
- File upload storage of 1 GB on Starter up to 30 GB on Premium. (Formcarry pricing)
Where PortForm differs
PortForm stores each submission first, then attempts the email, then runs integrations. See delivery retries for exactly what is and is not retried.
- MCP scope. Both products mention MCP. PortForm’s server is available on every plan, exposes 8 tools for managing forms and reading submission metadata, and by design returns no submission payloads or sender emails. Formcarry’s pricing FAQ says its server can create forms, set up notifications, spam protection and webhooks, and search or analyze submissions, which goes further than PortForm’s, so the tools are not interchangeable.
- Free plan. Formcarry’s free Baby plan limits you to 1 form; PortForm’s free tier allows unlimited forms within a 300-per-30-days account quota.
- Delivery order. PortForm documents store, email (best-effort), then integrations with retries. Formcarry’s docs list self and respondent email notification pages, but its storage and retry behavior are Not verified from the vendor’s current public documentation.
Pricing and limits
PortForm’s current prices are on the pricing page and its limits in the docs. Competitor prices are as listed on the dates above and change; check Formcarry’s own pricing before deciding.
| Topic | Formcarry | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Baby) | $0, 1 form, 50 submissions per month. (Formcarry pricing) | 300 submissions per 30 days, unlimited forms, no card |
| Starter | $5/month billed annually ($6 monthly), 500 submissions, 1 GB, unlimited forms. (Formcarry pricing) | No matching tier. |
| Basic | $15/month billed annually ($19 monthly), 2,000 submissions, 2 GB, 5 team members. (Formcarry pricing) | $9/month ($91 billed yearly), 10,000 submissions |
| Premium | $80/month billed annually ($99 monthly), 30,000 submissions, 30 GB, 20 team members. (Formcarry pricing) | $29/month, 20,000 submissions |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing, unlimited submissions and uploads, 99.9% SLA. (Formcarry pricing) | No enterprise tier listed. |
Features
| Topic | Formcarry | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| AI / MCP | MCP Server (AI Access) listed on every plan, including Baby. (Formcarry pricing) | MCP server on every plan: 8 tools for managing forms and reading submission metadata, and none returns submission contents |
| Spam protection | Spam filtering (pricing FAQ); Spam Protection and Google reCAPTCHA pages in the docs. (Formcarry pricing, Formcarry documentation) | Honeypot on every plan; hCaptcha on Free; reCAPTCHA and Turnstile on Pro and Agency |
| File uploads | Documented; 1 GB to 30 GB by paid plan. (Formcarry pricing, Formcarry documentation) | Pro: up to 3 files per submission, 5 MB each |
| API | REST API covering forms, submissions and webhooks (pricing FAQ); Forms API and Submissions API in the docs. (Formcarry pricing, Formcarry documentation) | HTTP submit endpoint documented in /docs; MCP for management. |
When Formcarry may make more sense
- If you need a REST API for forms and submissions: Formcarry documents Forms and Submissions APIs. (Formcarry documentation)
- If you need a documented SLA: Formcarry lists 99.9% on Enterprise. (Formcarry pricing)
- If you need larger file storage tiers (up to 30 GB on Premium). (Formcarry pricing)
Migrating from Formcarry to PortForm
Migration means changing a form’s action and key, not moving data automatically. Ready-made forms are in templates, for example Ajax contact form and React contact form.
- Create the PortForm form and copy its access key. Point each form’s action at PortForm’s endpoint and add a hidden access_key input.
- Replace the old Formcarry URL wherever it is embedded. Reply-to: PortForm uses the email field (or replyto) automatically.
- Formcarry’s dynamic return URL maps to PortForm’s redirect field.
- If an agent uses Formcarry’s MCP server, reconnect it to PortForm’s MCP server with a workspace token from the dashboard. The tools differ: PortForm’s do not read submission contents.
- Export existing Formcarry submissions first. Export options are Not verified from the vendor’s current public documentation.
If an AI agent manages your forms, see PortForm for AI agents.
Which should I use?
There is no single answer. It depends on which requirement matters most to you.
- If your priority is an AI agent manages your forms, the relevant difference is: Both list MCP on every plan. PortForm’s is documented as never returning submission contents; Formcarry’s pricing FAQ says its server can search or analyze submissions. (Formcarry pricing)
- If your priority is you need a form API with documented submissions endpoints, the relevant difference is: Formcarry’s docs list Forms and Submissions APIs. (Formcarry documentation)
- If your priority is you need more than one form on a free plan, the relevant difference is: PortForm’s free tier has unlimited forms; Formcarry’s Baby plan has 1. (Formcarry pricing)
Questions about Formcarry and PortForm
- What is the difference between PortForm and Formcarry?
- Both are hosted form backends that list MCP support. PortForm has unlimited forms on its free tier and a store-first delivery order; Formcarry has paid tiers with unlimited forms, a REST API and an SLA on Enterprise.
- Does Formcarry have an MCP server?
- Its pricing page lists an MCP Server on every plan, including the free one, and describes it as able to create forms, set up notifications, spam protection and webhooks, and search or analyze submissions.
- Does Formcarry store submissions?
- Not verified from the vendor's current public documentation.
- Do I need JavaScript?
- Formcarry describes itself as collecting submissions from an HTML or JavaScript form. PortForm works with a plain HTML form post.
Sources
Every Formcarry statement above was read from these first-party pages on . Anything not found there is marked as not verified.