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Quickstart

Create a form, point your HTML at it and receive your first submission. No backend code, no SDK.

5 minWorks on every planUpdated Sep 22, 2026

Before you start

You need a MakeTheForm account (the free plan is fine) and an HTML form you can edit. If you do not have one handy, copy the example in step 2.

  1. 1

    Create a form

    Sign in to the dashboard and click New form. Give it a name you will recognise later, like contact, and choose which email address gets notified. The endpoint exists the moment you save.

    contactActive

    Your endpoint

    https://mtform.co/f/your-form-keyCopy

    Copy the endpoint. It is public by design: it only accepts submissions, it cannot read them back. We also send a confirmation link to the notification address; until it is confirmed, submissions are stored but not emailed.

  2. 2

    Point your form at the endpoint

    Set your form's action to the endpoint and its method to POST. Every input needs a name: that becomes the field name in your submission.

    <form action="https://mtform.co/f/your-form-key" method="POST">
  <label>
    Name
    <input name="name" autocomplete="name" required>
  </label>

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

  <label>
    Message
    <textarea name="message" required></textarea>
  </label>

  <!-- Spam trap: hidden from people, tempting to bots. Leave it empty. -->
  <input
    type="text"
    name="_mtf_honeypot"
    tabindex="-1"
    autocomplete="off"
    aria-hidden="true"
    style="position:absolute;left:-9999px"
  >

  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>
    Keep your own markup. MakeTheForm never injects scripts or styles. Anything that renders a standard form works, including Webflow and Framer. The hidden _mtf_honeypot field in the snippet is the spam trap; leave it empty.
  3. 3

    Send a test submission

    Submit the form in your browser, or send a request from your terminal. Add Accept: application/json to get a JSON response instead of a redirect.

    curl
    curl -X POST https://mtform.co/f/your-form-key \
  -H "Accept: application/json" \
  -d email=you@example.com \
  -d message="Hello from the quickstart"
    Response · 201 Created
    {
  "ok": true,
  "submission_id": "5f0c2b8e-3d1a-4c6e-9b7f-2a8d4e6c1b90",
  "message": "Submission received"
}
    On the Free plan, notifications arrive as one daily digest email at 9:00 in your timezone. The submission still shows in your dashboard immediately. Pro and Agency send each one the moment it arrives.
  4. 4

    Check the dashboard

    Open Submissions in the dashboard. Your test is at the top.

    FormFromStatusReceived
    contactyou@example.comNewJust now
    Before you go live, add your site under Allowed domains in the form's settings, so only your own pages can submit to the endpoint from a browser. See Allowed domains for how matching works.

Next steps

That is the whole integration. From here, most people add one of these:

Allowed domainsKeep redirects on your own sites.WebhooksProForward submissions to your own API.AJAX & fetchSubmit without a page reload and show errors inline.Projects for clientsOrganise forms by client if you run an agency.

Want the details of every status code? See the API reference.