Forms on a static site, without giving up static

Why it fits

• Stays a plain HTML form. No JavaScript required; progressive enhancement (AJAX, custom success states) is optional, not mandatory.
• Host anywhere. Unlike forms bundled with a specific host, the endpoint works the same on GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, S3, or your own nginx; moving hosts never breaks the form.
• Spam handled before your inbox. Honeypot, heuristics and rate limiting by default; optional Cloudflare Turnstile when you want a challenge.
• EU data residency. Names, emails and messages are personal data. Formward stores and processes them in Sweden, and submitter IPs are hashed on receipt.

The pattern

Identical on every generator; only the templating around it differs.

Copy<form action="https://forms.formward.eu/f/your-endpoint" method="POST">
  <input type="text" name="name" placeholder="Name" required />
  <input type="email" name="email" placeholder="Email" required />
  <textarea name="message" placeholder="Message" required></textarea>
  <!-- honeypot: keep hidden -->
  <input type="text" name="_gotcha" style="display:none" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off" />
  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

Step-by-step guides exist for Hugo, Jekyll, Astro, Eleventy, Gatsby and more platforms.

Compared to the alternatives

• Serverless functions work, but now you maintain code, secrets and an email provider integration for what a form action attribute can do.
• Host-bundled forms (such as Netlify Forms) couple your form to your host and its pricing; see the comparison.
• mailto: links depend on every visitor having a configured mail client, and lose everyone who does not.