You set up Formspree for your contact form or
event registration. Submissions arrive in your inbox. You open the first one, and it looks like this:

name: John Smith
email: john@example.com
message: Hello there
_gotcha: 
_next: https://yoursite.com/thanks

Raw field data. Internal Formspree variables.
No structure. No labels. No context.

You think: I will upgrade to get better email formatting.
You open Formspree's pricing page and discover that custom HTML email templates are locked behind their Business plan at $60 per month.

That is the moment most people start looking for an alternative.

This post covers exactly why Formspree charges so much for custom templates, what you actually get for that price, and how Formgrid gives you the same capability for $29 per month with a lead pipeline included.

Why Formspree Charges $60 for Custom Email Templates

Formspree's pricing tiers look reasonable until you need anything beyond basic notifications.
Formspree Free: $0/month
50 submissions, basic notifications
Formspree Basic: $10/month
200 submissions, still basic notifications
Formspree Plus: $40/month
1,000 submissions, still basic notifications
Formspree Business: $60/month
Custom email templates finally available

You have to pay $60 per month just to control how your notification emails look. There is no middle ground. No custom templates at $20 or
$30. Just $60 or raw data dumps forever.

For a small business owner, an event organizer, or a freelancer who needs clean, organized emails that their team can actually read, $60 per month is a hard number to justify.

Especially when the alternative costs $29.

What a Professional Form Notification Email Actually Looks Like

Instead of receiving a raw data dump every time someone submits your form, imagine receiving this:

Clean. Organized. Readable by anyone on your team whether they are a developer, an event coordinator, or an office manager who just needs to know who submitted and what they said.

That is what $29 per month gets you with Formgrid.

What Formgrid Gives You for $29 Per Month

Formgrid is an open-source form backend and form builder. The Business plan at $29 per month includes full HTML email template control using Mustache templating alongside everything else a growing business needs.

Here is the complete Business plan at $29:
Custom HTML email templates
Auto-responder emails to submitters
Multiple notification recipients
Unlimited Google Sheets sync
Webhooks and Zapier integration
15,000 submissions per month
Priority support
Direct access to the founder

Formspree charges $60 per month for custom templates alone. Formgrid charges $29 per month for templates plus every feature listed above.

That is $31 per month less for significantly more.

How Custom Email Templates Work in Formgrid

Formgrid uses Mustache templating for email customization.
It is a simple, widely used templating language that lets you write an HTML email with placeholders that get replaced with real submission data automatically.

The Available Template Variables

{{ _formName }}    
Name of your form

{{ _time }}        
Submission timestamp

{{ fieldName }}    
Any field by its exact name attribute

{{# fields }}      
Loop through all fields
  {{ _name }}      Field label
  {{ _value }}     Field value
{{/ fields }}      
Close the loop

Option A: The Simple Loop for Any Form

If you want clean, formatted emails without thinking about structure, use the fields loop. This works for any form automatically:

<div style="font-family: sans-serif; 
            max-width: 600px; 
            margin: 0 auto;">

  <h2 style="color: #1d4f3d;">
    New Submission: {{ _formName }}
  </h2>

  {{# fields }}
  <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; 
              border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; 
              padding-bottom: 16px;">
    <p style="margin: 0; 
              font-size: 12px; 
              color: #888; 
              text-transform: uppercase;">
      {{ _name }}
    </p>
    <p style="margin: 4px 0 0; 
              font-size: 15px; 
              color: #333;">
      {{ _value }}
    </p>
  </div>
  {{/ fields }}

  <p style="font-size: 12px; 
            color: #999;">
    Submitted: {{ _time }}
  </p>

</div>

This renders every field cleanly with its label above and value below. No internal fields. No raw data. No mess. Clean, readable output for every submission automatically.

Option B: Sectioned Template for Complex Forms

If your form has multiple sections like a registration form with attendee details, session selection, dietary requirements, and payment, you can group fields into sections with clear headers:

<div style="font-family: sans-serif; 
            max-width: 600px; 
            margin: 0 auto; 
            color: #1f2937;">

  <h2 style="color: #1d4f3d; 
             border-bottom: 2px solid #e8f3ee; 
             padding-bottom: 10px;">
    New Registration: {{ _formName }}
  </h2>

  <h3 style="color: #1d4f3d;">
    Attendee Information
  </h3>
  <p><strong>Name:</strong> {{ name }}</p>
  <p><strong>Email:</strong> {{ email }}</p>
  <p><strong>Company:</strong> {{ company }}</p>
  <p><strong>Phone:</strong> {{ phone }}</p>

  <h3 style="color: #1d4f3d; 
             margin-top: 24px;">
    Session Selection
  </h3>
  <p><strong>Workshop:</strong> {{ workshopName }}</p>
  <p><strong>Date:</strong> {{ date }}</p>
  <p><strong>Format:</strong> {{ format }}</p>

  <h3 style="color: #1d4f3d; 
             margin-top: 24px;">
    Payment
  </h3>
  <p><strong>Ticket Type:</strong> {{ ticketType }}</p>
  <p><strong>Total:</strong> {{ totalAmount }}</p>

  <h3 style="color: #1d4f3d; 
             margin-top: 24px;">
    Notes
  </h3>
  <p>{{ notes }}</p>

  <hr style="margin-top: 32px; 
             border: none; 
             border-top: 1px solid #e5e7eb;" />
  <p style="font-size: 12px; 
            color: #9ca3af; 
            margin-top: 12px;">
    Submitted: {{ _time }}
  </p>

</div>

The variable names like {{ name }},
{{ workshopName }}, and {{ totalAmount }}
must match the name attributes of your form inputs exactly.

Custom Subject Lines

You can control the email subject line using the _subject hidden field in your HTML form:

<input 
  type="hidden" 
  name="_subject" 
  value="New Registration from {{ name }}"
/>

Every submission email now has a meaningful subject line like "New Registration from Sarah Johnson" instead of the generic one
"New form submission."

How to Set Up Custom Email Templates in Formgrid

Custom email templates are available on the Business plan at $29 per month.

Step 1: Go to Your Form Settings

Log in to your Formgrid dashboard, open your form, and click the Settings tab.

Step 2: Find the Custom Email Template Section

Scroll down to the Custom Email Template section.
In the Business plan, you will see the full template editor. On free or Premium, you will see a prompt to upgrade.

Step 3: Enable the Custom Template

Toggle the custom template on. The editor pre-populates with a starter template using the simple fields loop. A clean starting point
that works for any form immediately.

Step 4: Customize Your Template

Edit the HTML to match your needs. Use the simple loop for basic forms or build a sectioned template for complex registration forms. The available variables panel shows every variable you can use.

Step 5: Preview and Save

Click Preview to see exactly how your email will look with sample data substituted in. When you are happy, click Save Template.

From this point on, every submission to your form will use your custom template. Clean, organized, and formatted exactly the way you designed.

Step 6: Test It

Submit a test entry on your form and check your inbox. Your notification email should arrive formatted exactly as you designed.

The Real Example: What Annie's Event Emails Look Like Now

One of Formgrid's customers runs endurance horse riding events in San Diego. She was using a basic form backend and receiving raw field data for every rider registration. Her 75-year-old event manager was receiving emails she could not read.

After switching to Formgrid's Business plan, she built a custom email template that organizes every registration into clean sections: rider information, horse details, division selection, and emergency
contacts. Every registration email now arrives looking like a professional document that her event manager can act on immediately.

"The level of personal support was impressive."
A. Libby, Event Manager, San Diego Endurance Riders

She pays $29 per month. Formspree would charge $60 per month for custom templates alone, without any of the lead tracking, follow-up reminders, or Google Sheets sync that Formgrid includes.

What Formgrid Includes Beyond Email Templates

This is where the comparison becomes completely one-sided.

Formspree Business at $60 per month gives you custom email templates plus higher submission limits. That is essentially it.

Formgrid Business at $29 per month gives you:

Custom HTML email templates
Full Mustache templating with section headers,
branded colors, and organized field groups. Preview before going live.

Lead pipeline
Every submission becomes a tracked lead with
New, Contacted, and Converted stages. Your conversion rate updates automatically.

Notes on every lead
After every conversation, add a private note
directly on the lead. What they said. What you quoted. What is the next step?

Follow-up reminders
Set a follow-up date on any lead and get an email on that date with their details and your notes. Warm leads never go cold.

Google Sheets sync
Every submission appears as a new row in your Google Sheet automatically. No Zapier needed.

Auto-responder emails
Automatically acknowledge every lead the moment they submit your form.

Multiple notification recipients
Your whole team gets notified simultaneously.

Webhooks
Connect to Slack, Notion, Zapier, and any other tool you already use.

Formspree does not have a lead pipeline at any price point. There are no notes on submissions. No follow-up reminders. No conversion tracking. Just submissions in a flat list.

You get all of that from Formgrid at $29 per
month versus paying $60 per month to Formspree just for email templates.

How to Switch From Formspree to Formgrid

If you are already using Formspree, the migration takes about five minutes, and your HTML form does not change at all.

Step 1: Sign up for free at formgrid.dev.
No credit card required.

Step 2: Create a new form and copy your
Formgrid endpoint URL from the Overview tab.

Step 3: Replace your Formspree endpoint
in your HTML form with your Formgrid endpoint.
One line change:

<!-- Before: Formspree -->
<form action="https://formspree.io/f/your-id" 
      method="POST">

<!-- After: Formgrid -->
<form action="https://formgrid.dev/api/form-id/" 
      method="POST">

Step 4: Upgrade to the Business plan at $29 per month and build your custom email template in the Settings tab.

That is the entire migration. Your form works exactly as before. Every submission now arrives as a clean, organized email you designed plus a tracked lead in your pipeline.

The Full Comparison

Formgrid costs $31 per month less and includes
7,500 more monthly submissions, plus a complete lead management system that Formspree does not offer at any price.

Who This Is For

Use Formgrid Business if:

You are paying $60 per month for Formspree
Business and want to cut your bill in half while getting more features.

You manage event registrations, client intake forms, or any complex form where readable, organized emails matter.

You want to track what happens to form submissions after they arrive not just collect them in a flat list.

You need your whole team to see new submissions in Google Sheets without anyone logging into a dashboard.

You care about open source, self-hosting, and complete data ownership.

Stay on Formspree if:

You are deeply integrated with Formspree's
specific features and the migration cost
outweighs the savings.

You only need a basic contact form with simple
notifications and have no plans to scale.

Final Thoughts

Formspree is a reliable product that does what it promises. But charging $60 per month just for custom email templates in 2026 is hard to justify when Formgrid offers the same capability
at $29 per month with a complete lead management system on top.

If you are currently paying Formspree $60 per month for custom templates, you are overpaying by $31 every month. Over a year, that is $372 spent on a feature that costs half as much elsewhere, with significantly more included.

Start free at formgrid.dev.
No credit card required. Business plan at $29 per month. Switch from Formspree in five minutes, and your form does not change at all.

If you have questions about switching or setting up custom email templates for your specific situation, reply in the comments or email
allen@formgrid.dev directly.

Full disclosure: I built Formgrid. Written as
honestly as I could. Let me know in the comments
if anything looks inaccurate.