A campaign form starts life as a hosted page. Three weeks later it needs to live inside the product as a widget, and a backend job needs to post to it too. In Forms Expert, that progression isn't three builds — it's one definition, three surfaces, selected per form by a single field.
The Type Field
Every form carries a type that decides how it ships. It takes one of four values:
- hosted — a standalone page at /h/{slug}.
- embed — an auto-resizing widget at /e/{slug}.
- api — an API-only form, with no hosted or embed UI.
- both — a hosted page and an embeddable widget from the same definition.
Because the surface is a property of the form rather than a separate build, changing how a form ships is a one-field edit that leaves the form's logic untouched.
The Fourth Surface: a Universal REST Endpoint
There is a fourth surface that is not a type value at all. Every published form also accepts programmatic submissions at a REST endpoint, authenticated with a publishable key:
So a both form is, at the same time, a hosted page, an embeddable widget, and a REST endpoint. The type field selects which UI surfaces are provisioned; the submission endpoint is always there.
Why It Matters
The practical payoff is that a marketer can embed the form on a campaign site while a developer posts to the same form from a backend job — both hit the same endpoint, and neither keeps a separate copy. For embedding, the recommended path is the published SDK, @forms.expert/sdk (npm install @forms.expert/sdk, or load it from https://unpkg.com/@forms.expert/sdk). It ships React (@forms.expert/sdk/react), Vue, and vanilla-JS bindings, renders the form inline rather than in an iframe, and exposes theme, language, and submission callbacks (onSuccess/onError). If you'd rather avoid a dependency, the raw widget at /e/{slug} reports submissions through postMessage and auto-resizes with its content, and the REST endpoint lets a backend call the form directly with fetch.
Delivery Is Built In
Once a submission lands, Forms Expert routes it to the destinations you configure — email, Telegram, and signed webhooks that retry up to five times with exponential backoff. On the Pro plan and up, a completion funnel shows where people drop off, alongside per-field stats and NPS. None of this requires exporting data or wiring a separate analytics tool.
Wrapping Up
The type field is small, but it carries the whole promise: it is the reason a form can move from a landing page to an in-app embed to a backend integration without anyone rebuilding it. If flat pricing and triple delivery matter more to you than a conversational survey UX, the Typeform alternative comparison goes deeper.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the type field do in Forms Expert?
The type field is a single property on every form that decides how that form is delivered. It takes one of four values: hosted (a standalone page at /h/{slug}), embed (an auto-resizing widget at /e/{slug}), api (an API-only form with no public UI), or both (a hosted page and an embeddable widget from the same definition). Because delivery is a property of the form rather than a separate build, switching surfaces is a one-field edit instead of a rebuild. The same field schema, validation, conditional logic, and consent settings apply no matter which surface a respondent uses.
Can one form be a hosted page and an API at the same time?
Yes. Beyond the type field, every published form also accepts programmatic submissions at a REST endpoint — POST /f/{resourceId}/{slug} with a publishable key — regardless of its type. That means a form set to both is a hosted page, an embeddable widget, and a REST endpoint simultaneously: a marketer can embed it on a campaign site while a developer posts to the same form from a backend service. There is no second copy to keep in sync, because the form definition is shared across every surface. The type field controls which visual surfaces are provisioned; the submission endpoint is always available.
Does Forms Expert have a React SDK?
Yes. Forms Expert ships a published SDK, @forms.expert/sdk, available on npm (npm install @forms.expert/sdk) or from a CDN (https://unpkg.com/@forms.expert/sdk), and it is the recommended way to embed a form. The package includes React bindings under @forms.expert/sdk/react — a FormsProvider plus a FormsExpertForm component — alongside Vue and vanilla-JS builds. The React SDK renders the form inline rather than in an iframe and supports theme, language, available themes with setTheme, and submission callbacks (onSuccess and onError). You are not limited to the SDK, though: the raw widget at /e/{slug} works inside any framework and reports status through postMessage, and the REST submission endpoint lets a backend service or a no-dependency frontend call the form directly with fetch.
How are form submissions delivered after they are received?
When a submission arrives, Forms Expert validates it against the form schema and then routes it to the destinations you have configured. Notification channels are email, Telegram, and signed webhooks; webhooks carry a SHA-256 signature and retry up to five times with exponential backoff so a brief outage on your side does not lose data. Every submission is also stored and available in the dashboard, and on the Pro plan and up you get a completion funnel, per-field statistics, and NPS without exporting anything. Anti-abuse is handled with honeypot checks, rate limiting, and CAPTCHA rather than antivirus scanning.