Bootstrapped Form Builder Businesses

No matter if it's for school work or business use, form builders are an essential tool in our daily lives.

At first glance, they may seem boring and unremarkable, but the fact is that these seemingly boring tools have proven to be highly effective in streamlining processes and enhancing productivity.

In this article, we will explore a few of these 'boring' yet successful form-builder businesses.

Paperform: $2 Million/Year

Paperform is a powerful online form and survey tool that offers unmatched flexibility to create dynamic forms, eSignatures, surveys, bookings, payments, and more.

Paperform was founded in 2016 by Dean Ipaviz and Diony McPherson. The two founders saw a need for a more intuitive and user-friendly online form builder that could replace the outdated and clunky form builders available at the time. They set out to create a platform that would allow users to create beautiful, dynamic forms with ease, without needing any coding or design skills.

Doiny shared on her blog that Paperform achieved revenue of $2 million in 2021.

Tally: $70K/Month

Tally is an online survey and polling platform. The website's primary target audience includes individuals, businesses, and organizations that need to conduct market research, collect user feedback, or organize voting activities.

Tally was founded in 2020 by Marie Martens and Filip Minev. They created the tool because they noticed that existing survey and polling tools on the market were either too complex or too expensive, making it difficult for individuals and small businesses to collect the data they need. Then they decided to create a simple, affordable online survey and polling platform that would provide users with better data collection.

Marie Martens announced in August 2023 that their monthly recurring revenue (MRR) had reached $70,000.

Growform: $7k/mo

Growform is an application that helps professionals build custom, integrated multi-step forms. Growform provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to create and customize forms and templates with ease, while also offering advanced features such as integrations with other software tools.

In 2020, Growform was founded by Harvey Carpenter, who had previously worked for a marketing team that invested thousands of dollars monthly in advertising and had hired an agency to improve lead generation. It was during this time that Harvey was inspired by the agency's approach of breaking down long and tedious forms into smaller, more manageable stages. This inspired him to create a visually captivating multi-step form builder, which would revolutionize the way forms are created and completed.

Based on the interview, Growform generates a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of $7000.

Noteforms: $10k/Month

Noteforms is a form builder tool designed specifically for Notion users. With NotionForms, users can create beautiful forms from their existing Notion tables and embed them in their Notion pages or on their website.

NotionForms was founded by Julien Nahum in 2021, who was inspired by the quick form creation capabilities of Airtable. The ability to generate forms in mere seconds, with submissions automatically populating their database, proved to be incredibly effective. Recognizing the value of these functionalities, Julien saw an opportunity to integrate them into Notion, leading to the creation of NotionForms.

In July 2022, Julien disclosed on his blog that how he bootstrapped from 0 to $10k MRR in one year.

Reform: Acquired

Reform is a modern tool for constructing forms. With Reform, users can design personalized forms, surveys, and questionnaires that can be integrated into websites or distributed via email.

Reform was founded in 2021 by Peter Suhm and Bjørn. Peter observed that many of these builders were outdated in design, lacked accessibility, and produced generic forms with unnecessary constraints. Reform was created to address the shortcomings of existing form builders.

Although Peter did not disclose the exact figure of Reform, Funnelenvy acquired it in October 2023.

Makerforms: $1.2K/Month

Makerforms is an online form builder tool that utilizes AI to support the creation of customized forms, including branding, fonts, and the use of a customized domain.

Pratik Ghela founded Makeforms in 2022. After using various options such as Typeform, JotForm, and Google Forms, Pratik recognized a need for a highly advanced form builder. He then developed MakeForms, a form builder with powerful capabilities, launched in 2023.

After launching in March 2023, Makerforms has 20 paying customers and reached $1.2k in MRR.

Blocksurvey: $4K/Month

Blocksurvey is a decentralized survey and form builder tool that emphasizes privacy and security. The platform uses blockchain technology to ensure that the data collected through surveys and polls is owned and controlled by the user, and is kept secure and private.

Wilson Bright founded BlockSurvey during the IndiaDAppFest Hackathon in June 2019, to create a platform for sensitive surveys, polls, and feedback that is kept private. BlockSurvey keeps the gained insights out of surveys and feedback with only the creator, encouraging takers to participate with confidence that their answers are not known to the creators. The team strongly believes in protecting people's digital rights and aims to contribute to building a better web for the future.

According to an interview, BlockSurvey generated $4k MRR in 2021.