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

(www.ikiform.com)
183 points preetsuthar17 | 1 comments | 10 Jul 25 09:02 UTC | HN request time: 0.338s | 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

Show context
snowwrestler ◴[10 Jul 25 14:53 UTC] No.44521781[source]▶
Form builders are a hard business to succeed with. Quite a lot of companies started off as a general “form builder” product and then found success by specializing into specific uses of forms. Examples include Qualtrics, Survey Monkey, Open Water, etc. Quite a lot of other companies stick with generic forms and get stuck and stagnate.

The reason is that forms are like dates, time, addresses, names, to-do lists, etc. They are things that many developers need to work with, but are way deeper and more complicated than they seem at first. See the wide variety of feedback and suggestions just in this HN thread.

So I would recommend specializing if you want to gain traction. And expect to do tons of marketing.

replies(1): >>44521873 #
diggan ◴[10 Jul 25 15:02 UTC] No.44521873[source]▶
> And expect to do tons of marketing.

Fun fact: Typeform basically did no "traditional" marketing in the beginning of its life, and most users came from the "Powered by Typeform" button in the bottom right, which was visible for every free form IIRC. Those users, also publishing their own forms, led to more users finding Typeform from that same button.

replies(1): >>44524482 #
snowwrestler ◴[10 Jul 25 19:15 UTC] No.44524482[source]▶
When does a marketing tactic become “traditional”? Putting ‘Powered By’ tags on products goes back at least 20 years.
replies(3): >>44528115 #>>44528587 #>>44534983 #
1. Dylan16807 ◴[11 Jul 25 05:09 UTC] No.44528587[source]▶
Unless there's a sea change, a minor tactic can continue to exist but not be "traditional" indefinitely.