Silicon Palms

Tag: FormStack

  • Aweber and FormStack vs MailChimp and NinjaForms

    Aweber and FormStack vs MailChimp and NinjaForms

    Aweber and FormStack help keep our connection

    Not so long ago it was good enough to use the “Contact form” built into WordPress since the beginning but a few instant problems arise mostly due to mailserver being separate from Apache or Linux web server software.

    Sending any amount of bulk email is always going to have bounce backs, there’s a rule-of-thumb in web development to keep these server functions separate.

    Using a 3rd party to manage and send bulk email is just good practice, once a list grows beyond a few hundred subscribers, it’s way better to rent the service from one of many service providers. My two top favourites are Aweber and MailChimp, each of them can connect with 3rd party form services. We are testing FormStack and NinjaForms.

    Another WordPress Ap called Newsletter is very impressive for being able to prefrom everything that can be done with the above tools, just a much more bare-bones platform, so you would need design skills.

    Aweber and MailChimp both have vast resources of tutorials, templates, and self-help videos, plus fabulous support and all sorts of webinars and secondary coaching and consulting. It’s truly amazing how big this market sector has become and it’s reflected in the quality of the products.

    So far I’m preferring FormStack just slightly because it can connect to WebMerge, which is really cool tech that enables multiple groups to work on a the same document. In other words pass information to be completed by another authorized user, for example a bank or grocery store.

    The sophistication involved Aweber and MailChimp is already amazing but when you add FormStack with Webmerge, or NinjaForms with their partners for the same systems, what you have is the capabilities of a giant institution, or tech giant, in your hands, for under $100 per month.

    Aweber and FormStack Photo on Visual hunt

  • FormStack for Data Management

    FormStack
    Form follows…..?

    FormStack is the best solution I’ve seen for designing and creating amazing looking and working website forms. You know I’m a full-blown geek to be excited about something so potentially boring to you, as an online 3rd party system for creating website data input forms but data is key so you have to have this task perfected.

    I’ve been using Aweber for almost ten years and they hosted a webinar with FormStack marketing folks, which was excellent, otherwise I would never have heard about FormStack but I’m glad I did because I’ve already started using their great platform and it works flawlessly and so easy to make changes to the setting or to design new landing page forms.

    It doesn’t stop with FormStack and Aweber… you can add webmerge and follow documents through the entire process, start to finish, with multiple collaborators. These tools redefine what a small company can achieve from the data input, in a systems that makes it easy to manage each and every step it’s possible to complete a contractual process, completely online.

    My only complaint is that it’s that it’s expensive to have the best document automation available, so you can patch things together yourself, or add one of the many plugins available on WordPress, or use the WP Form that’s built into wordpress but you won’t end-up with such superior looking documents, plus you won’t be able to show your clients and subscribers that you’re using exceptionally safe software and systems to handle their data.

    Here’s a New Form for Lions Gate Self-Sovereign ID News

    FormStack Photo credit: s2art on Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA