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Integration guide · Hugo

Add a contact form to your Hugo site — no server required

Hugo builds pure static HTML — there is no server to receive a form POST. That's exactly what a form backend is for: point your form's action at a PostTo endpoint and submissions are delivered to your inbox, with spam filtering and a searchable dashboard, while your site stays fully static.

No JavaScript, no theme changes, no build configuration. One partial template and you're done.

Start for free Jump to the code

Free plan, no credit card required.

Three steps, a few minutes

1

Create an endpoint

Sign up free, create an endpoint in the dashboard, and set your destination email. You'll get an endpoint URL right away.

2

Add a form partial

Create layouts/partials/contact-form.html with the form below and include it anywhere with {{ partial "contact-form.html" . }}.

3

Build and deploy

hugo builds your site as usual — GitHub Pages, Cloudflare Pages, S3, anywhere. Submissions land in your inbox and dashboard.

The code

Replace YOUR_TOKEN with the endpoint URL from your dashboard.

layouts/partials/contact-form.html 
<form action="https://postto.dev/api/v1/send/YOUR_TOKEN" method="POST">
  <label for="name">Name</label>
  <input type="text" id="name" name="name" required>

  <label for="email">Email</label>
  <input type="email" id="email" name="email" required>

  <label for="message">Message</label>
  <textarea id="message" name="message" required></textarea>

  <!-- Honeypot: bots fill this in, humans never see it -->
  <input type="text" name="_hp" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off" style="display:none">

  <!-- Where to send the visitor after a successful submission -->
  <input type="hidden" name="_next" value="https://yoursite.com/thanks/">

  <button type="submit">Send</button>
</form>

Good to know

Works with any theme

The form is plain HTML, so it inherits your theme's styling. Keep it in a partial so you can include it on the contact page, in a footer, or via a shortcode.

Success page

Create a content/thanks.md page and point the hidden _next field at it. Or leave _next out and PostTo shows a hosted success page you can customise per endpoint.

Spam protection is already wired in

The hidden _hp field is a honeypot — humans never see it, bots fill it in, and PostTo silently discards those submissions. Server-side baseline filtering (heuristics and optional AI classification) runs on every submission after that, so you don't need a CAPTCHA to start.

From the docs

Sending submissions Reserved fields

Frequently asked questions

Does Hugo need any plugins or config for this?
No. Hugo just renders the HTML; the form posts directly from the visitor's browser to PostTo. There is nothing to install and no build step to change.
Can I use this in a shortcode instead of a partial?
Yes — put the same markup in layouts/shortcodes/contact-form.html and drop the shortcode into any content file. Partials suit templates; shortcodes suit Markdown content.
How do I stop spam without a CAPTCHA?
Include the hidden _hp honeypot field shown above. PostTo also runs first-party heuristic filtering on every submission, and you can enable AI classification per endpoint. Cloudflare Turnstile is supported if you want a visible challenge.
What does it cost?
The free plan includes 50 submissions per month with the full dashboard — no credit card required. Paid plans start at $9/month.

Add a form to your Hugo site today

Create an endpoint, paste the snippet, and see your first submission in the dashboard — all on the free plan.

Try PostTo free