Software Alternatives & Startups

Formlets VS DocSpring

Compare Formlets VS DocSpring and see what are their differences

Formlets

Make beautiful, powerful forms with the #1 online form creator

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium $22 / Monthly (10 forms, unlimited responses)
DocSpring

PDF filling API that makes it easy to fill out PDF forms and convert HTML to PDFs

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo)
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Which is more popular?

Based on our record, DocSpring should be more popular than Formlets. It has been mentioned 5 times since March 2021.

social mentions
1 vs 5
Form Builder popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
140 vs 176

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Formlets
DocSpring
Website formlets.com docspring.com
Pricing
Freemium $22 / Monthly (10 forms, unlimited responses) Official pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo) Official pricing
Platforms
Web Google Chrome
Company Startup from Belgium · 1 - 9 employees Startup from the United States · 1 - 9 employees · 2017
Listed in

About Formlets and DocSpring

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Formlets
DocSpring

Easy to use drag and drop editor to make beautiful forms, multicolumn with extra elements like fileupload or stripe payment integration

Read more about Formlets

We provide a PDF filling and generation API: Upload your PDF to our visual template editor to set up form fields and data types Post JSON to fill out existing PDF forms with data Generate editable PDF forms, or overlay static data on top of fields Create HTML/CSS templates with Liquid fields,...

Read more about DocSpring

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Formlets 5 features
DocSpring 5 features
  • Ease of Use
    Formlets offers a user-friendly interface, making it simple for users to create forms without requiring extensive technical knowledge.
  • Customizability
    Users can customize forms extensively, allowing for a personalized look and feel that can be tailored to match branding or specific needs.
  • Integration Options
    Formlets can integrate with various third-party applications and services, enhancing functionality and allowing data to flow seamlessly between platforms.
  • Pre-built Templates
    A variety of pre-built templates are available, enabling users to quickly start creating forms for common use cases without starting from scratch.
  • Responsive Design
    Forms created with Formlets are optimized for all devices, ensuring a smooth user experience for both form creators and respondents on mobile or desktop platforms.

Possible disadvantages

  • Pricing Structure
    The cost may be prohibitive for some users, especially those running on a tight budget, given that the best features may be locked behind paid plans.
  • Feature Limitations
    Some advanced features users may expect, like complex automation or analytics, might not be as robust as those offered by competitors.
  • Learning Curve
    While the basic usage is straightforward, mastering all the features and customization options might require a learning period.
  • Customer Support
    The level of customer support may be limited, and users requiring immediate assistance might encounter delays, particularly on lower-tier plans.
  • Dependency on Internet
    Since it's a cloud-based service, users need a stable internet connection to access and manage their forms, which could be a disadvantage in areas with poor connectivity.
  • Automated PDF Generation
    DocSpring allows users to automate the generation of PDFs by filling out templates with data. This can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to create documents.
  • API Integration
    DocSpring offers a robust API, which allows developers to integrate PDF generation into their own applications easily, enhancing productivity and workflow automation.
  • Flexible Templates
    The platform supports flexible and customizable templates, enabling businesses to maintain brand consistency while meeting specific document formatting requirements.
  • Secure Data Handling
    DocSpring is SOC 2 Type II compliant. We ensure data security through encryption and secure storage options, making it suitable for handling sensitive information.
  • Ease of Use
    The user interface is designed to be intuitive, making it easy for businesses to create and manage PDF templates without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Formlets 1 video + Add
DocSpring 0 videos + Add

How to create a Free online form at formlets.com

No DocSpring videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Formlets
DocSpring
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Formlets and DocSpring.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

DocSpring's answer:

Ruby on Rails, React, AWS

What makes your product unique?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is built specifically for developers who need reliable, secure PDF generation in production. We combine PDF form filling and HTML-to-PDF in a single API, with a visual template editor, typed fields, and validation to catch issues early. Our product has a lot of power features and is built to handle very advanced forms. Our infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II compliant, battle-tested, privacy focused, and optimized for high-volume workloads, so you can ship PDF features quickly and then stop thinking about them.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is designed for teams who need a powerful tool with all the features you need for complex forms and business logic. DocSpring supports structured JSON, typed fields, and array iterations, and many other advanced features, so your templates stay aligned with your real data model. You get powerful validation, a visual editor, strong observability, and an API that fits into modern engineering workflows, so you spend less time fighting PDFs and more time shipping product.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is built for engineering and product teams who manage complex documents in production: things like financial applications, insurance forms, healthcare and legal documents, HR and payroll workflows, and government-style forms.

What's the story behind your product?

DocSpring's answer:

I used to work at a payroll company (Gusto). We had built a similar in-house tool for filling out tax forms. I then built the first version of DocSpring (formerly named FormAPI) while I was living in Thailand. I built it to automate the filling out of visa application and visa extension forms, but realized that it could also be used for tax forms, real estate contracts, and any other kind of fillable PDF form.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

DocSpring's answer:

  • SaaS services serving customers in the real estate, insurance, finance, and legal industries, among many others.

User comments

Share your experience with using Formlets and DocSpring. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Formlets 1 mention
DocSpring 5 mentions
  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2025)
    I'm still working on DocSpring [1], originally launched on Hacker News in October 2017 under the name "FormAPI." It's a PDF generation API with a template editor UI for setting up fields on PDF forms. It makes it easy to turn complex tax... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Launch HN: Onedoc (YC W24) – A better way to create PDFs
    For programmatic filling of PDFs, have a look at DocSpring: https://docspring.com. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • So you want to modify the text of a PDF by hand
    Great post. I've spend a lot of time reading through the PDF specification over the last ~5 years while building DocSpring [1], and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Qpdf is a great tool. One of my other favorites is... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago

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Alternatives to Formlets and DocSpring

When comparing Formlets and DocSpring, you can also consider the following products.