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Show HN: Typeform was too expensive so I built my own forms

(www.ikiform.com)
183 points preetsuthar17 | 2 comments | 10 Jul 25 09:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.418s | source

Hey HN,

I'm a solopreneur and run a web design agency.

I create open-source apps, but I also work as a freelancer and designer. I was accepting any new freelance project via forms on my agency website.

I was using Typeform, but as time went by and more people submitted forms, it got more and more expensive. That time, I thought to use Google Form, but it was way too blocky and looked very unprofessional on my agency website.

So I thought to build my own forms for my own usage, and it turns out it almost doubled form submissions and inquiry calls.

I was happy, so I thought to build it for everyone and make it open-source.

I added AI functionalities using Vercel AISDK. I can generate forms almost instantly using AI and also added analytics AI so that users can talk with their forms—more like talk with their analytics data.

I've been building this publicly, sharing updates on my X account (preetsuthar17)

I hope this product will be as helpful to you as it was for me. Would love your feedback pls

Preet

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diggan ◴[10 Jul 25 10:51 UTC] No.44519534[source]▶
Disclosure: I used to work at Typeform 2014 - 2016

Taking a look at the demo (https://www.ikiform.com/forms/a2675039-5901-4052-88c0-b60977...), I'm not sure where the comparison to Typeform comes in. Probably the most unique feature of Typeform is the focus on user experience of the forms themselves, everything else is/was mostly built to support the forms, and making it as easy to fill out as possible. Things like the back button always being visible, no validation of fields as you enter data, no progress indication and so all makes it seem like there is a lot of polish left to do.

I guess the form looks OK, which is alright of course, but I'm not sure it actually serves as an alternative to Typeform. It seems to me to sit somewhere in-between the traditional (ugly) form providers, and Typeform, which isn't a bad place to sit at, but maybe people expecting a Typeform-like experience would feel slightly bait-and-switched by the comparison.

There used to be another open source project that replicated the form themselves and the experience (as far as I remember), but seem defunct by now (for the last 6 years...): https://github.com/tellform/tellform Besides that, seems there are some other open source alternatives, but I can't say I've tried them all (at a glance, Quill Forms seems most similar to Typeform): https://github.com/search?q=typeform+archived%3Afalse&type=r...

replies(1): >>44520371 #
1. earlyriser ◴[10 Jul 25 12:44 UTC] No.44520371[source]▶
I think they are using Typeform as form app. With an external view Tally, Typeform, Hotform are all the same, apps that make forms. I have use all of them, but I cannot remember their differences.
replies(1): >>44525595 #
2. gully00 ◴[10 Jul 25 21:04 UTC] No.44525595[source]▶
Maybe the UX of a Typeform is OK but the Typeform app to build forms is virtually unusable for anyone that actually needs forms. The most basic settings are hidden behind unrelated, unlabeled buttons. Because theres not enough white space already on the page obviously. The way they've architected pages and components, totally inflexible and leads to very unnatural flows in a lot of cases. To date I have never seen an integration UX worse than Typeform's. Using Airtable for example, a single alteration needed means resetting and reconfiguring the entire field mapping. You can have a borked integration config and have NO idea from within the app. Building with typeform takes easily 5x longer than any other form tool we've used. The call to action "Book a Free Strategy Call" is 25 characters. Typeform's native popup embed has an arbitrary 24 character limit on the button's text. "Book a Free Strategy Cal" is the exact kind of garbage I expect from a site that uses Typeform. Yes, there's (undocumented) workarounds.

With a number of team members we paid Typeform $100+ each month for this experience.

I found Tally and immediately got agreement to migrate every (~50) Typeforms to it. Canceled Typeform sub and haven't looked back.