What it is

HeyForm is an open-source form builder written in TypeScript and released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. It lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, and its repository is organised as a monorepo of packages: a Node server, a React webapp, a form renderer, an embeddable JavaScript library, and shared utilities and type definitions used by both the server and the webapp. The project describes itself as an open-source form builder built for small business success, and it is positioned as an open alternative to Typeform.

The concrete problem it solves is the cost and lock-in that come with hosted conversational form products. HeyForm lets anyone build conversational forms, surveys, quizzes, and polls without depending on a proprietary service, and it covers the full lifecycle of a form: authoring the questions, rendering and embedding it, collecting submissions, and analysing the results. Because the source is available and self-hostable, the organisation that runs it keeps control of the form data and the deployment rather than renting that capability from a vendor.

Key capabilities

• Versatile input types, ranging from basic text, email, and phone number fields to picture choices, date pickers, and file uploads.
• Conditional logic and URL redirections, so a form can adapt its flow dynamically based on previous answers.
• Integrations through webhooks, analytics, marketing platforms, and tools such as Zapier and Make.com.
• Visual themes with customizable fonts, colors, and backgrounds, plus advanced theming that includes custom CSS.
• Analytics covering drop-off rates and completion rates for each form.
• Data export of form results to CSV for further analysis or for loading into other systems.
• An embeddable JavaScript library and a standalone form renderer package for integrating forms into other sites.

Who uses it and how

• Small businesses that need surveys, quizzes, and polls to gather information or feedback from customers.
• Teams that want conversational forms embedded into an existing website using the embed library rather than hosted on a third-party domain.
• Organisations that must keep form submissions on their own infrastructure and therefore self-host the server and webapp.
• Operators connecting a self-hosted identity provider such as Authelia, Authentik, or Keycloak through the generic OpenID Connect setup guide.
• Developers running the project locally for development, following the local installation instructions in the documentation.

Getting started

The simplest route is the official hosted service at my.heyform.net, which the maintainers describe as providing reliability, automatic backups, security, and maintenance. Self-hosting is documented separately, with one-click deployment options and a self-hosting installation guide, and local development follows the local installation instructions.

When to use it — and when not to

HeyForm is the sensible choice when the goal is to replace a paid product such as Typeform while keeping the form data under your own control, and the hosted service exists for those who would rather not run anything themselves. A self-hoster takes on the operation of the Node server, the React webapp, and whatever database, storage, and mail infrastructure the deployment requires, along with upgrades and backups. The trade-off is that this operational burden is real, and the documentation, rather than the README, is where the deployment details live.

.
└── packages
    ├── answer-utils       (form submission utils for server and webapp)
    ├── embed              (form embed javascript library)
    ├── form-renderer      (form rendering library)
    ├── shared-types-enums (shared types/enums for server and webapp)
    ├── utils              (common utils for server and webapp)
    ├── server             (node server)
    └── webapp             (react webapp)