Curious is that FormsPlus 1 of 2?
FP 1 - I looked closely at v2, but IMHO there was not enough to justify the update. Doubtless some improvements in function, but clients are looking for more functionality and improved design flexibility.
Final decisions are still in progress, but it looks like there will be two products: for regular work such as simple contact forms on multiple websites, FormSnap or FormsPlus will work well.
MachForms is too expensive for those simple projects, but because they allow subscription by the month, it will work beautifully for certain bigger and high traffic projects. I recently ran events for major optics manufacturer and to capture form data to a spreadsheet, along with reply mails to confirm booking and ‘add to mailing list’ GDPR functionality, MachForms seems perfect and will save a great deal of manual work.
Thanks again!
@Nick : I don’t know how much the other products cost. I believe MachForm is $59 for one site. In my case I have several sites as subsites at the same base address:
- mysite.com
- mysite.com/courseA
- mysite.com/courseB
- and so on
… so in this case $59 is all I need. I upgrade every 3 or 4 years when there are enough improvements in future versions that makes it worthwhile for the upgrade ($29 I believe).
If you have 3 or more different domains you are working with then “pro” version is a bargain. Originally I got the pro version as I was also dealing with other site domains as well but now I’m happily retired.
It is $99 for up to 10 sites, with 3 installs on the Pro sub, so an additional 3 installs to do myself + ‘support’ at +50% after year 1. Really it is very capable, but too complex for the very minimal needs. They are talking of up to 2k monthly submissions on the personal plan which gives an idea - I’m talking of 10-20 submissions.
I’m not questioning the value, too sophisticated for my normal need. For the event work though, it is perfect and a 1 site licence will work fine.
On the other side, I think Greg’s FormsPlus seems the right choice, but the final decision is still to be made.
Don’t get confused, or restricted, by the single domain thing. It relates to the install of the code, NOT the deployment of the forms.
I have a single install, but I have forms that this install generates on various sites. Not sure if you do sites for clients, but I do, and I sometimes add a MF form from my “central” install which resides on my own business domain into the client site, which exists on their own domain (although my server: I host all the sites I make).
Once completed the form sends the client the data in an email and if a receipt I needed for the user, an email is sent to them. No client gets access to the MF script dashboard, only me. So, if a client gets an issue, or a user saying they completed the form but the client never got it, they tell me and I investigate.
So my costs are a single licence, and I only have to “maintain” a single install. Easy peasy. And as I only use MF for advanced/interactive forms, I get to charge a bit more for them :-)
I do realise those of us who use MF are verging on the evangelical, but in most cases it’s becuase we’ve all been burnt by “regular” form stacks which tend to fall over eventually. i should say often not of their own volition but becuase they have to rely on software on the server, which can get updated/changed without notice and so cause issues.
Some of the RW form stacks are super clever, and manage to do things they really shouldn’t by clever workarounds. I’ve used pretty much all of them excluding Formloom, and for me they all eventually fall over once pushed a bit. So far, MF has never let me down.
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MachForm does look powerful after trying out the online demo and if you need something beyond a basic form, looks hard to find a better solution.
I assume that that you create your form which is then generated into some iFrame HTML that you then paste into your page. Is this correct?
Like nearly all forms, it doesn’t appear to offer an option to use your page fonts and looks like you have to download a GoogleFont. Can you CSS the iFrame code to alter the fonts?
If MachForm is running on your server and the requirements states it requires PHP, then what makes MF more reliable in terms of delivering all completed forms into successfully delivered emails? Are MF doing something extra here?
I always thought that forms should do some sort of additional checking to check that the number of all valid completed forms tally with the number of received checking emails.
To be fair Gary, I’m surprised how many fonts are offered - once I got to around 60 options, I stopped loading more.
The ‘extra’ php question is interesting - what more are they doing to guarantee reliability? I have asked them that question.
You have various options…
In the MF dashboard, you can set up themes, then apply them to a form(s). You can set the font to match that of your site. Does it pull in already loaded fonts? That’s a good question… Dunno. Must check that. The guys behind it are pretty smart, so I’d hope they’ve worked in some way to check if the required fonts are already loaded. If that is even possible.
I have a feeling somewhere there might be the option to adopt the site CSS, or that might be in Sitelok, can’t remember!
No idea. All I know is, for me, it is. The key for me is having all data gathered added to a database.
I use MF for the submissions of a lot of content additions/updates to client sites. So instead of sending me an email saying “Steve, can you just change this bit of text for me”, they complete a form which ensures they give me everything I need to complete the task. For this type of thing MF has two lovely features…
- Save and complete later: The client can start the form, then save it and come back later to complete.
2.Option to alow the form to be editable by the client for xxhrs after submission. So this means I get to add a completion message along the lines of “thanks for your updates. You can edit this form for 24hrs after submission, after which time no changes will be possible, the edits will be committed and you will be charged.” etc.
On the previous form I used I’d always get clients submitting it, then sending me amendments a few hours later. That don’t happen now.
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Yes, one can use custom fonts by inserting CSS code into your theme’s “Advanced CSS” section. I never do it, but it is possible.
Good. I couldn’t find that but good to know there is one.
Response from MachForm support ref php mail:
In regard to email delivery, MachForm self-hosted by default uses the PHP email functionality on your server. The reliability would depends on the reliability of your server as well.
However, you can easily configure MachForm to use an external SMTP server that provide detailed reporting (such as SendGrid) so that you can easily monitor/troubleshoot the email delivery.
So it’s probably the same as using a decent stacks solution which could also use a delivery service such as SendGrid.
SendGrid has a free 100 emails per day forever service which sound interesting.
Does a such a stack exist? i don’t think it does. i think you are oversimplifying things. I really don’t know of any RW form stack that has the same power as MF. Now granted most don’t need that power. But that doesn’t make youir statement accurate.
I think as with all things, you need to get hands on with MF before forming too much of an opinion. I appreciate that’s not a popular approach on a lot of forums, but it really is the best way to actually have an informed opinion, opposed to just an opinion. Especially if you are going to advise users. (not saying you are trying to advise anyone, just making an observation)
Sorry, I think that is a little too harsh. @Webdeersign is one of the most committed, helpful people here and he makes it a much richer place. He is Always keen to try out new tech and alternative ways of doing things. So many times, over multiple years, I have struggled with problems big and small and Gary has always stepped up and helped, so any assertion that he is trying to advise others in any other way than pure kindness and helpfulness is unfair.
PS I hope this does not come over as too harsh; I’m struggling to write on a ridiculously small phone, but wanted to make a speedy reply.
I was replying to what Machform stated above about how they deliver mail when self hosted. Without knowing specific details about versions, according to MF it’s the same method as used by stacks form solutions such as FormSnap, FormsPlus, etc… I think someone stated that MF was more reliable in terms of mail delivery than using a stacks solution, so I was curious to know how they achieved that.
Don’t know if you’re referring to this comment or not - I certainly wasn’t trying to denigrate anyone’s product. I can only say from experience that I absolutely have 40,000+ submissions in a database and 40,000+ emails that have been delivered to a ton of different email addresses- and to the best of my knowledge, none have gone missing. And, updating the recipient email addresses (which change often since we’re talking about a slew of schedulers) is so incredibly simple: log into the admin panel, delete and/or type in a new address and click save.
Not at all.
I was just pointing out that based on what MF said, MF use PHP mail for embeded instllations, which is what all RW form stacks use AKAIK. This is not a surprise because there doesn’t appear to be a magic solution to sending emails from web sites and as browser and server security changes over time, there will likely be emails that go missing or don’t get sent. That has been my experience of using several different form solutions in RW over 7 years. If you Google php mail problems thare is plenty to read.
You usually only know if the email is not working when you get a report from a user, so it’s a good addition to add a mailto: link to report any problems, onto any form page.
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Perhaps my comments above haven’t been clear… For me, the key factor with MF is that submissions get added to a database with a nice clean easy to use front end, so even if the email notifications go missing you still have the submission in the dashboard.
The final thing I’d add to that is that not all PHPmail integrations are equal. In testing I had regular forms that failed to send submissions but MF succeeded.
Perhaps it’s better integration by MF, or something else, no idea, my experience is just works better.
Vote here for Machform also - very comprehensive product which also has useful payments functionality (Stripe & Paypal) with discount vouchers if ever required. My clients like that they can go and check the database any time - just a check that they haven’t missed anything. Rock solid and easy to drop into RW as @dave says.
This aside, I also use Formloom 4 which is a great product - comprehensive and rock solid. Formsnap is arguably more flexible but I prefer the ease of a plugin and the import stack is faultless.