PortForm vs Formspark
What is the difference between PortForm and Formspark?
Formspark and PortForm both receive form posts, store them and email you. The main difference is the pricing model: Formspark sells one-time submission bundles that do not expire and have no automatic payments, while PortForm is a monthly quota (300 per 30 days free, 10,000 or 20,000 on paid plans) with a 30-day history.
New to the category? Read what a form backend is and how a form endpoint works. Last verified: , against Formspark's own pages listed under sources.
Formspark and PortForm at a glance
| Topic | Formspark | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | “No recurring payments.” The Upgrade bundle is $25 one-time (shown reduced from $50) for 50,000 submissions, 100 forms and 50 team members. “Out of submissions? Simply buy another bundle, no automatic payments.” (Formspark pricing and plans) | Monthly quota that resets on a rolling 30-day window; $9/month ($91 billed yearly), 10,000 submissions |
| Free allowance | 250 submissions, 10 forms, 5 team members, community support. Allowances are per workspace. (Formspark pricing and plans) | 300 submissions per 30 days, unlimited forms, no card |
| Retention | The plan table shows a submission archive of “Forever” for both Free and Upgrade. (Formspark pricing and plans) | 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 Formspark does well
- Submission bundles that do not expire: “you can spend the submissions at your pace across as many forms as you want.” (Formspark pricing and plans)
- A forever submission archive on both plans. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- A free allowance of 10 forms and 5 team members, plus a one-time, per-workspace upgrade. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- Spam options listed on the pricing page: automatic filtering, custom spam words and honeypot, and Botpoison, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA and Turnstile. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- Platform pages for Framer, Next.js, React, Vue, Webflow and WordPress. (Formspark pricing and plans)
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.
- Billing shape. Formspark’s allowance is a balance you spend down; PortForm’s is a monthly quota. For a form that receives very few submissions, a non-expiring bundle can last a long time, which is a different economic shape from a monthly plan. PortForm’s free tier already covers 300 per 30 days at no cost.
- History. Formspark’s pricing table shows an archive of “Forever”. PortForm deletes submissions after 30 days on every plan and offers CSV and JSON export so you can keep a copy.
- Delivery. PortForm documents store, then email (best-effort), then integrations with retries. Formspark’s documentation excerpt fetched here describes storing information from forms without a server; its delivery and retry behavior is 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 Formspark’s own pricing before deciding.
| Topic | Formspark | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0: 250 submissions, 10 forms, 5 team members. (Formspark pricing and plans) | 300 submissions per 30 days, unlimited forms, no card |
| Paid | Upgrade: $25 one-time (shown reduced from $50), 50,000 submissions, 100 forms, 50 team members. Additional workspaces start with 0 submissions. (Formspark pricing and plans) | $9/month ($91 billed yearly), 10,000 submissions; $29/month, 20,000 submissions |
| Recurring charges | None: bundles “do not expire” and there are no automatic payments. (Formspark pricing and plans) | Paid plans are subscriptions, monthly or yearly. |
Features
| Topic | Formspark | PortForm |
|---|---|---|
| Spam protection | Automatic filtering, custom spam words, honeypot, and Botpoison, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA and Turnstile. (Formspark pricing and plans) | Honeypot on every plan; hCaptcha on Free; reCAPTCHA and Turnstile on Pro and Agency |
| Webhooks and integrations | Webhooks, Slack and Zapier; Google Sheets and Notion; Make listed on the site. (Formspark pricing and plans) | Pro and Agency: Slack, Discord, Telegram, Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, HubSpot and webhooks (Zapier, Make and n8n connect through webhooks) |
| Autoresponder | Listed under email and customization. (Formspark pricing and plans) | Pro and Agency. |
| Export and API | CSV and JSON exports, analytics and a REST API are listed. Which plan includes each is not machine-readable on the page. (Formspark pricing and plans) | CSV and JSON export on every plan. |
| File uploads | A file-upload page exists in the documentation; limits are not stated in the excerpt fetched. (Formspark documentation) | Pro: up to 3 files per submission, 5 MB each |
When Formspark may make more sense
- If you prefer to pay once for a large allowance instead of a subscription. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- If you want the archive kept indefinitely rather than for 30 days. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- If you want your submission balance to carry over because volume is uneven. (Formspark pricing and plans)
Migrating from Formspark to PortForm
Migration means changing a form’s action and key, not moving data automatically. Ready-made forms are in templates, for example Basic HTML contact form and React contact form.
- Create the PortForm form and point the form’s action at PortForm’s endpoint with a hidden access_key input.
- Replace the old Formspark URL on every page. Field names carry over as ordinary submission data.
- Move spam settings: PortForm supports a honeypot field named botcheck, hCaptcha on Free, and reCAPTCHA or Turnstile on Pro. Botpoison is not a PortForm option.
- Export your Formspark archive first, since PortForm starts empty and keeps 30 days. The export format is Not verified from the vendor’s current public documentation, beyond the CSV and JSON exports listed on its pricing page.
- Send a test submission and confirm it arrives before switching over.
Which should I use?
There is no single answer. It depends on which requirement matters most to you.
- If your priority is you want to avoid a subscription, the relevant difference is: Formspark’s bundles are one-time payments that do not expire; PortForm’s paid plans are subscriptions. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- If your priority is you want submissions kept forever in the service, the relevant difference is: Formspark’s archive is “Forever”; PortForm’s history is 30 days plus export. (Formspark pricing and plans)
- If your priority is you want a monthly free quota with a store-first flow and an MCP server for agents, the relevant difference is: PortForm’s free tier gives 300 per 30 days, and its MCP server is on every plan.
Questions about Formspark and PortForm
- What is the difference between PortForm and Formspark?
- Formspark sells one-time submission bundles that do not expire; PortForm sells monthly plans with a 300-per-30-days free tier and a 30-day history.
- Does Formspark store submissions?
- Its pricing table lists a submission archive of “Forever” on both the free and Upgrade plans.
- Is Formspark a subscription?
- No. Its pricing page says there are no recurring payments and that bundles do not expire.
- Do I need JavaScript?
- Formspark: Not verified from the vendor's current public documentation. PortForm works with a plain HTML form post.
Sources
Every Formspark statement above was read from these first-party pages on . Anything not found there is marked as not verified.