FormPress: A Brief Introduction for a Solid Start

And we're in business!

Hey there! Let me first introduce our start-up, FormPress: a brand new software company that's been in development for the past year, ready to offer its services of form-building and data collection/storage with FormPress app: our form-builder.

In this brief article, I'll try to shed light on some concepts about form-building, FormPress, and FormPress app.

First, though, let's take a look at the place of online forms and form builders in the wide spectrum of digital marketplaces.

Online forms are everywhere in the digital realm, and no wonder.

Information is key in the digital realm. Whatever it is you do, whether it be running a business, surveying, or carrying out studies, you have a certain audience; and you have to keep close contact with them, collect information, get feedback, and make proper adjustments on what you do constantly.

Of course, using online forms is the best way to collect and store information, but the process is complicated. Creating forms, categorizing them, sharing them, collecting responses, and more.

How do you manage all that?

This is where a form-builder comes into play: a software program, helping you create forms, customize them, distribute them, collect/store/analyze data, and much more.

With the explosion of the digital realm where countless enterprises and customers have to be in constant communication, the need for sophisticated form-builders has risen dramatically.

So, then, what makes a good form-builder?

Feature-richness, functionality, ease of use, speed, support, and safety are amongst the essential characteristics of a good form-builder.

Of course, FormPress aims to provide all of the above and more, but we know it's easier said than done.

I can't just leave here a couple of vague sentences about all the great features we'll have. Having said that, I also don't want to make any of this overwhelming for those not much familiar with these concepts. So, let's briefly talk about some features of FormPress app, and why they're important.

Lightweight, Ultra-Fast

FormPress app is designed to be as smooth as possible. We don't like load time that's turtle-speed. I'm sure you don't either.

FormPress forms are as soft as feathers. Pages load with kbs only.

Speed is very important to us.

On a page, why load anything more than you absolutely have to?

Open-Source

This is more than a feature. One of the distinctive characteristics of FormPress app is that it's open-source, meaning that everything, any code running in the background, is at your reach.

On our homepage, there is a link to our Gitlab repository. There, you'll find 'Form Builder and stuff :)' with all the source code available.

Now, a whole new article can be written just about open-source, but this is no time or place for that, not yet anyway. However, I will briefly go over a couple of benefits.

a) Trust

Well, if you're going to work with a company for any service, you want to make sure that the service is legit and there isn't anything evil going on behind the curtain.

In our case, you'll be using an app to create forms, share them, collect information, and save it, on a regular basis. So, the question begs to be asked: how do you know this app is safe?

Obviously, there are many ways, depending on a variety of factors, to seek proper answers to this question, but one technical method is to conduct a security check on the source code of the app.

That's not really possible with any app though, right? Exactly. It's possible to security audit the source code of an app, only if the code accessible.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why our app is open-source. We don't just want to say that we're genuine, we want to show it. We want you to have the opportunity to see it for yourself.

b) Your Builder, Your Data, Literally

This is another reason why FormPress app is open-source: so it can be self-hosted, so you can install it on your own cloud, and literally own your data.

This way, our app becomes your FormPress app.

Isn't that awesome?

c) Collaboration

Another advantage of open-source code is the opportunity for external contribution.

If you're a developer and interested in FormPress, you can find many ways to collaborate with us.

It could be about an innovative idea of yours, or a bug we missed, or, I don't know, any productive way of collaboration.

Support

This is something we aim to be known for.

Now, since we're still a small team, I won't exaggerate our current capabilities to offer top-notch support to a large audience.

Bearing in mind this limitation, however, we are preparing our private support to be available as soon as it starts to be demanded, for as many customers as we can possibly provide it with.

Of course, we offer support to all our users, regardless of their plan. But the mentioned private support differs in that it will be a scheduled video call support. It will be available in the plans "Diamond" and "Enterprise".

We are determined to make our general support a prominent feature of FormPress.

Drag & Drop Interface

The interface of FormPress app is basically "What You See Is What You Get".

Preparing the interface, one of our main aims was to promote ease of use and straightforwardness so users can be comfortable with the app.

While building a form, for example, you can simply pick an element from the left-hand side, and drag it into the form. With the same mechanic, you can also change the order of elements inside the form.

Even as we improve our app with a variety of features, we will pay attention to keeping a certain level of simplicity.

Upcoming Features

Well, please keep in mind that FormPress app is in beta.

However, we'll be working on various features to add to our app, and some of them are of high priority to be added in the near future. These are mainly templates and integrations.

This article gets updated regularly.