From the Lab: Why We’ve Been Quiet (and What We’ve Been Building)
The irony of 'building in public' is that sometimes you get so deep into the craft that you forget to talk about it. Here’s an honest look at where Aldform stands today, from infrastructure overhauls to our new Alpha features.
Hey everyone. Whether you’ve been following our progress from day one or you just stumbled onto this post—it’s good to have you here.
I’m one of the co-founders of Aldform, and I have a quick confession. It’s actually a bit ironic. When we started this journey, the whole idea was to document everything exactly as it happened—the real decisions, the mistakes, and the actual work behind the scenes. But as it turns out, I got so caught up in the actual building that I completely stopped talking about it. It’s a classic founder move, and I’m guessing a few of you can relate.
The good news? Our CTO has been doing a great job keeping the technical updates flowing over at our main blog. But today, I wanted to share the founder’s perspective—the "why" behind our recent moves and a clear look at where we’re standing right now. Consider this me catching up on my promise to stay transparent.
So, what exactly is Aldform?
At its heart, it’s form infrastructure designed specifically for developers. It’s two endpoints and one tiny SDK. We built it because we felt like traditional form builders were holding your designs hostage. Usually, when you use a third-party tool, you have to play by their rules—their fonts, their buttons, and their specific layouts.
We think your forms should belong to you. You write the HTML or React exactly the way you envisioned it, and Aldform handles the invisible stuff: submission storage, emails, file uploads, and the API to pull that data back whenever you need it. Your design stays yours. Your data stays yours.
We’ve been busy. We’re currently in Alpha, and we’ve spent most of our time making the foundation as solid as possible.
- Tightening Security: We did some major "spring cleaning" on the architecture. We moved Supabase entirely to the server-side within our Lambda functions so credentials never touch the browser. Everything now communicates through secure API keys. We also added IP-based rate limiting to keep the service stable for everyone.
- Smoother Authentication: We fixed those small friction points that can be so annoying. Sessions now persist properly, and the app is much smarter about your login status. It’s a small detail, but it makes the daily workflow feel a lot more reliable.
- Rethinking Communication: We moved to AWS SES with dedicated subdomains. This gives us better deliverability and a cleaner separation between your notifications and billing emails.
Beyond the plumbing, we've shipped some tools we’re really excited about:
- Email Template System: There’s now a live editor in the dashboard. You can see how your message looks on mobile and desktop while you type. You can also link these templates directly to a form to send personalized confirmations the moment someone hits submit.
- File Uploads: Our SDK now detects file fields automatically. We support images, PDFs, and docs up to 10MB. To keep things secure, we use pre-signed URLs, and the dashboard gives you rich previews for everything you collect.
- AI Integration: For the AI-inclined, we’ve added full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support. You can now manage your templates using natural language through your favorite AI coding tools.
I want to be upfront about what isn’t here yet. We don't have webhooks, conditional logic, or team workspaces in this version. We’re focusing on the core experience first. We’d much rather give you a rock-solid foundation than a long list of features that aren't quite ready for prime time.
When it comes to pricing, we’re doing things differently. Most services charge a flat monthly fee regardless of your usage. We charge roughly ₹100 per 1,000 submissions—which is about 13 times more affordable than the industry standard.
If you want to go deeper into your data, you can add Professional Analytics to your plan for ₹250 a month. It gives you better insights into how your forms are performing so you can make decisions based on real usage patterns.
And if you want to skip the cloud entirely? The self-hosted version is free forever under the MIT license. Use your own S3 and Postgres and keep total control.
That’s the honest state of Aldform today. We’re building, we’re learning, and we’re trying to stay as open as possible - even when we get a little too busy to post.
Thanks for being part of the journey. I’ll make sure the next update comes a lot sooner.