Autoresponder
Send each submitter an automatic confirmation, written by you, with safeguards that stop the form being used as a relay.
Before you start
The autoresponder sends an automatic reply to whoever submitted your form, at the address they typed into a field you choose. It is available on Pro and Agency.
Because it sends mail to an address a stranger typed, it has requirements a form must meet before it can be turned on. Without them, anyone could submit a third party's address and use your form to mail them. The form needs:
- A verified email on your MakeTheForm account.
- At least one verified recipient. See email notifications.
- A restricted audience: either limited to your allowed domains with Cloudflare Turnstile on, or in protected mode, where only your server can submit with an API key. A fully public form cannot auto-reply.
The Autoresponder panel on the form's Notifications tab lists whichever of these is still missing, word for word, so you do not have to guess.
- 1
Send a test submission
The field picker is filled from the form's most recent submission. If the form has never received one, submit it once yourself, with an address in the field you will reply to.
- 2
Choose the address field
Under Reply to this field, pick the field that holds the submitter's address, usually
email. Replies only ever go to the value of that field, and only when it is a valid address. A submission without one gets no reply. - 3
Write the subject and message
Both are plain text, and both accept
{{field}}to insert a submitted value. Leave the subject blank for a default that names your form.Reply messageHi {{name}}, Thanks for getting in touch. We read every message and reply within one business day. If it is urgent, email hello@example.com and mention your enquiry. The Example teamReplies to the autoresponder do not reach you. The email has no Reply-To, so put a contact address in the message if you want people to write back, as the example does. - 4
Turn it on
Click Turn on. From the next accepted submission, the submitter gets your message. It is sent under your form's name, without MakeTheForm branding apart from a one-line “Sent via MakeTheForm” footer.
Daily limits
| Plan | Autoresponder |
|---|---|
| Free | Not included |
| Pro | 50 replies per form per day |
| Agency | 500 replies per form per day |
Once a form reaches its limit, further submissions that day get no reply. They are not queued for the next day. The submission itself, and your own notification, are unaffected.
Safeguards
These exist to keep a form from being used to send mail nobody asked for. Each one protects the sending reputation that every form's mail depends on, including yours.
- Links in new accounts. Until a workspace is seven days old or has sent one reply successfully, links in the message are replaced with a note saying they were removed.
- Complaints and bounces. The autoresponder switches itself off after 1 spam complaint or 10 bounces.
- Suppressed addresses. An address that has bounced or complained before is skipped, and does not use up the daily limit.
- Losing eligibility. If the form stops meeting the requirements above, for example because Turnstile was turned off, the next send is refused and the autoresponder is switched off.
- Repeated failures. After 20 failed sends in a row it switches off.
- Spam. Submissions held for spam review never get a reply.
When it has been switched off, the panel shows the reason. Fix the cause, then click Re-enable. Turn off stops it yourself and keeps your message for later.