What is a form notification service, and do you need one?

Why isn't the form's own email enough?

Because email is the step most likely to fail without anyone noticing. Out of the box, WordPress sends mail through PHP's mail function, and the makers of WP Mail SMTP point out that most hosting companies don't have their servers set up properly for it. The message can be rejected, delayed or filed as spam, while the visitor still sees "Thank you".

Even when it arrives, the email sits among newsletters and invoices in an inbox you might check twice a day. Some form plugins keep no copy either: Contact Form 7 doesn't store submitted messages, so a lost email is a lost enquiry. If your form emails keep landing in junk, start with why WordPress form emails go to spam.

What are the options for getting form notifications?

There are five common ways to hear about a new submission, and they differ mainly in where the message lands and how much there is to look after.

The first two keep you in email and make it more dependable. An SMTP plugin sends WordPress mail through a proper mail service instead of the web server, and it's worth doing on any WordPress site, whatever else you choose. Our guide to setting up SMTP for WordPress contact forms walks through it, and SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain English covers the DNS records that go with it.

Some form builders now alert you themselves. Jotform, for example, sends push notifications through its mobile app, and at the time of writing also offers SMS, WhatsApp, Slack and Microsoft Teams notifications [CHECK which plans include them]. That's handy if all your forms are Jotform forms, but it does nothing for the Contact Form 7 form on your WordPress site.

How does a form notification service work?

It notices each submission, tidies it up and sends it to you as a short message on a channel you already watch. There are usually three ways to connect one to a website:

• A script tag pasted into every page, which listens for forms being submitted. This suits site builders such as Wix, Squarespace and Webflow, where you can't install plugins.

• A plugin for your CMS, which sends from the server once the form plugin has accepted the submission.

• An API, for developers who send submissions from their own code.

The service then filters out obvious spam, drops anything that shouldn't travel, such as passwords and card numbers, and sends an alert to each person or channel you've connected. The better ones keep a copy of each submission and show whether every alert was delivered, so you can tell a quiet week from a broken form.

Enquiries hold personal details, so treat any service you add like any other supplier. Check where it stores submissions and for how long, whether it offers a data processing agreement, and mention it in your privacy notice. A service that deletes old submissions on a schedule is easier to defend than one that keeps everything for ever.

A WhatsApp message or a text gets seen within minutes by someone up a ladder or between appointments, where an email might wait until the evening. For the details of each channel, see how to get website enquiries on WhatsApp and sending form submissions to Slack or Microsoft Teams.

When is an automation tool the better choice?

An automation tool is the better choice when you want each submission to do several things, such as add a row to a spreadsheet, create a contact in your CRM and message you. Zapier and Make connect thousands of apps, and a form notification is one small job among many they can do.

Their free plans have limits that matter for alerts. At the time of writing, Zapier's Free plan includes 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only, and checks for new data every 15 minutes [CHECK]. Make's Free plan includes up to 1,000 credits a month, with a 15-minute minimum interval between scheduled runs [CHECK]. A form that pushes straight to a webhook can be quicker, but Zapier keeps webhooks for its paid plans.

You also need a way for the form to reach the tool. Some form plugins have a built-in connection, while others need an add-on or a webhook. Someone has to build each workflow, and fix it when an app changes how it signs in or names its fields.

Which option should you choose?

Choose by who needs to see enquiries and how quickly they need to answer. As a rough guide:

• If enquiries can wait until tomorrow and your email mostly works, set up SMTP properly and leave it there.

• If you reply from your phone during the working day, send alerts to the app you already check: WhatsApp, texts, or Telegram.

• If a team shares the work, a Slack or Microsoft Teams channel lets everyone see who has picked an enquiry up.

• If every enquiry also needs to land in a spreadsheet or CRM, an automation tool earns its set-up time.

• If all your forms live in one form builder that offers mobile alerts, try its own option first.

Whichever you pick, keep the form's email switched on as a second route. Send yourself a test submission after any change to the site, the form or the hosting, and make sure someone besides you knows where enquiries go. A form can break during an update and still look normal to visitors.

Where does Formcrier fit?

Formcrier is a UK form notification service. It sends each submission to WhatsApp, a text, Telegram, Slack or Microsoft Teams within seconds, through one script tag or a WordPress or Craft CMS plugin, and emails the alert instead if it can't be delivered. The Free plan includes 10 alerts a month, and how Formcrier works explains what it keeps and for how long.