How to Build a Web Form?

Say, you want to build a form. A web form. A form for your website.

But where to start?

There are several choices.

Building web forms the hard way

Ready, Set, Go!

Learn HTML and CSS. Teach yourself server side programming. Add JavaScript. And MySQL. Don’t forget Apache HTTP. Study Linux. Read about shell scripting.

Then, code your form on a webpage with HTML. Add JavaScript code for interactivity. Style your web form with CSS. Write server-side code in Java, PHP, Ruby - plenty of choices here. Design and build your database. Buy hosting. Deploy.

All hard talk aside, this is by far the most difficult way to build your web forms. Yet you may find it extremely rewarding — there is a lot of learning involved. A lot of accomplishment is here too. This is a chance to feel like a web pioneer, if you have not tried it already.

Building everything yourself is a solid guarantee that you will control every bit of your web form user experience (not to mention every byte of code). You will have unlimited control over your forms and data.

Or you can hire a developer.

Easy? No.

Should you do it this way? Probably not.

Building web forms the better way

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

The more relaxed approach is to find an online form builder service.

There are plenty of form builders to choose from. Quick Google search will give you at least several flavors of the day. Do not spend too much time looking around — all visual online form builders are virtually the same. Choosing one from the top three that came up in your search is a safe bet.

Most likely you will be given an opportunity to sign up for a free trial. Why not take it? Most reputable online services offer free trials. It’s wise to use the trial.

Sign in to your new form builder trial account and start building your form.

First, you pick a form template. Then, you customize the template and design your form.

The design part is usually pretty straightforward — drag fields from a form field palette into your form template. Name form fields and set field options, one by one. Drag fields around. There is some learning required here. Configuration options are usually quite extensive, and there are lots of pages to cover them all. You may need to refer to an online user guide or support documentation. It should be readily available.

This is the mainstream way to build web forms. Online form builders have been around for over 20 years, there are many established players in the industry. Most of the form builders available today are solid products. Maybe dated, yes — but well tested at the same time.

Are there tradeoffs? Of course. Drag-and-drop visual form builders were invented way before the mobile era. As a result, these form builders do not work well, if at all, on mobile devices. Also, if you work with large forms, be aware that the web browsers were never intended to be developer tools for designing user interfaces. There are limitations here.

Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of web forms were built using online form builders.

Easy? Somewhat.

Should you do it this way? Maybe.

Building web forms the new way

Choose Payformix.

Payformix is a modern form builder designed for mobile from the ground up.

There is no need for a free trial. Payformix is absolutely free.

With Payformix form builder, you create your forms the same way you create text documents — simply by typing. As you type your form description in a single text field — that is the Payformix form builder — your web form is built for you automatically. In real rime, right in your web browser. Making changes to your form is as easy as editing text.

Payformix form builder works from any device, smartphones and tablets included — even preferred, in fact!

Check out what forms Payformix can build for you today.

Easy? Yes, definitely.

Should you do it this way? Yes — please give it a try.