Formbricks
Open-source experience-management platform for in-app, link, and email surveys
Formbricks is an open-source experience-management platform -- an alternative to Qualtrics -- for running in-app, website, link, and email surveys with a no-code editor and audience targeting. For an indie founder it answers "what do my users actually think, and where do they get stuck?" -- collecting NPS, onboarding feedback, and churn reasons you can act on. It is AGPLv3-licensed, built in TypeScript on Next.js, self-hostable, and had 12,457 GitHub stars as of July 2026. But Formbricks collects feedback; it doesn't decide what to ask or turn the answers into changes. The judgment about which signal matters, and the work of acting on it, is still yours.
What Formbricks is
Formbricks (github.com/formbricks/formbricks) is an open-source platform for gathering user and customer feedback through surveys. It sits in the same category as Qualtrics or Typeform: you build a survey in a no-code editor and run it in-app, on your website, as a shareable link, or over email. It is built in TypeScript on Next.js with Prisma, licensed AGPLv3, and can be self-hosted from the repo or used via the team's hosted plan.
- In-app and website surveys -- ask users a question at a specific moment inside the product, without shipping code for each one.
- Link and email surveys -- send an NPS or feedback survey to a list, or drop a link anywhere.
- No-code targeting -- show a survey to a specific user segment based on attributes or actions.
- Open-source and self-hostable -- run it on your own infrastructure so the response data stays yours.
Where Formbricks fits in a founder's growth stack
Feedback is an input to almost every growth lever, but it is easy to fly blind on. Analytics tells you what users did; Formbricks helps you learn why. A well-placed micro-survey after onboarding tells you why new users don't reach value, a cancellation survey tells you why they leave, and an NPS pulse gives you a trend line plus a list of promoters to ask for reviews and referrals.
| Growth question | How a Formbricks survey helps |
|---|---|
| Why don't new signups activate? | A one-question in-app survey fired right after onboarding, targeted to users who stalled. |
| Why do customers churn? | A required 'reason for leaving' survey on cancellation, aggregated into themes. |
| Who would recommend us? | A recurring NPS survey that surfaces promoters to invite into referral or review asks. |
| What should we build next? | A short in-product survey scoped to power users, weighted against what they actually do. |
It pairs naturally with a product-analytics tool like Umami: analytics flags the drop-off, a survey explains it. For the wider system around collecting and acting on this, see how do I collect customer feedback for my SaaS.
What Formbricks does and doesn't do
Formbricks is a collection tool, and a good one. What it deliberately leaves to you is the strategy around the survey: which moment to ask at, which question actually reveals the blocker, and -- the hard part -- what to change once the answers come in. A pile of survey responses nobody reads is as useless as no survey at all. The value is created when a recurring theme turns into a fix that moves activation or retention.
- It collects responses; it doesn't interpret them or decide what to do next.
- Self-hosting means you run and update the infrastructure yourself (or use the hosted plan).
- Good survey design -- short, well-timed, unbiased questions -- is on you; a tool can't make a leading question fair.
- Feedback volume depends on traffic you still have to earn; a survey on a page nobody visits collects nothing.
How to get users for what you build with Formbricks
Feedback improves the product, but you still have to bring people to it. If you self-host Formbricks or ship a product that runs on it, the growth work is the same as any SaaS: get in front of the right users, earn the click, and turn feedback into a story worth sharing.
- Close the loop in public. When a survey surfaces a request and you ship it, say so publicly. 'You asked, we built it' is credible, repeatable content. See what should I post when building in public.
- Turn promoters into proof. Use your NPS promoters to ask for reviews and testimonials while goodwill is fresh, then use that proof on your landing page and launch.
- Publish what you learn. Aggregate, anonymized feedback ('what 200 founders told us about onboarding') is genuinely useful content that earns links and citations.
- Feed feedback back into your ICP and messaging. The words customers use in surveys are the words that convert on your site. See how do I find my ideal customer profile.
Where Ceres fits in
Formbricks collects the feedback; the recurring work is reading all of it, spotting the theme, and acting on it while you also build. Ceres -- the AI Growth Officer is a managed AI marketing team you run: its customer-feedback specialist can cluster reviews and responses into themes and draft replies, while other specialists turn what you learn into content, outreach, and launches. You stay the boss, and every outbound action is approval-gated -- nothing is sent or published until you review it. Formbricks gives you the signal; Ceres helps you act on it. Ceres offers a 14-day card-less trial, with plans from $19 to $499 per month.
FAQ
- What is Formbricks used for?
- Formbricks is used to collect user and customer feedback through in-app, website, link, and email surveys built in a no-code editor. Founders use it for onboarding feedback, NPS, cancellation reasons, and product-direction surveys, with targeting so a survey only shows to the right user segment. It is open-source and self-hostable, so response data can stay on your own infrastructure.
- Is Formbricks free and open-source?
- Formbricks is open-source under the AGPLv3 license, and the community edition can be self-hosted for free from the GitHub repository. The team also offers a hosted cloud plan and an enterprise edition with additional features. As of July 2026 the project had 12,457 GitHub stars; check the repo for the current count and licensing terms.
- How is Formbricks different from Typeform or Qualtrics?
- The main difference is that Formbricks is open-source and self-hostable, so you can run it on your own infrastructure and keep the response data, whereas Typeform and Qualtrics are hosted, closed-source products. Formbricks leans toward in-product and in-app surveys with targeting for software teams. Which fits depends on whether self-hosting and data ownership matter more to you than a fully managed service.
You built it. Now grow it.
Ceres is a managed AI marketing team — specialists draft the SEO, social, and outreach that fill your links, you approve what ships. 14-day free trial, from $19/month.