Create a signup form
A hosted page people can fill in — the only way they add themselves.
Every other route into your audience — typing someone in, importing a CSV, the API — needs someone on your side to act, so consent is something you assert. A form is the one path where the person themselves acts, which makes it the only place consent is provable. Build one at Forms.
Build one
Choose the fields
Email is required; everything else is optional, including your own custom fields. Ask for less than you think — every extra box costs signups.
Write the page
A heading, a line about what they’re signing up for, and what happens after. This copy is also the consent record, so say what you’ll actually send.
Pick the lists they join
One or more. If a list has a welcome email, confirmed signups get it.
Turn it on and share the link
The form has its own public page, ready to share, or you can embed it on your site.
The link
Each form has a permanent public URL. Renaming the form updates the readable part of it, but old links keep working and redirect — so a URL printed on a flyer doesn’t break because you renamed something months later.
The page is set not to appear in search results. A form is for people you send there; an indexed one mostly attracts bots.
Spam is handled for you
Several checks run before a submission is accepted — a hidden field bots fill in, a minimum time to fill the form, per-form and per-visitor rate limits, and the same address validation the importer uses.
Bot submissions get a success message rather than an error, deliberately: an automated client that can tell rejection from acceptance just iterates until it gets through.
Double opt-in is the real defence
With it on, an unconfirmed signup is never mailable — so junk submissions are inert rather than harmful. It’s on by default. Why.
Common issues
Submissions are showing but nobody's subscribed
Expected with double opt-in: people are subscribed when they click the link in their email, not when they submit. The gap between the two numbers is your confirmation rate.
I submitted a test and nothing happened
Check the address you used hasn’t previously bounced, and look in spam for the confirmation. Filling the form faster than a human plausibly could also trips the bot check.
Someone who unsubscribed signed up again but isn't subscribed
If they previously reported your mail as spam, a form submission won’t bring them back — anyone can type someone else’s address, so that isn’t strong enough evidence to overturn a complaint. The submission is recorded so you can act on it deliberately.
FAQs
How many forms can I have?+
As many as you like. A form per source — homepage, event, partner — is a good habit, since it tells you where signups came from.
Can I collect custom fields?+
Yes — any field you’ve defined in Attributes.
What do people see after submitting?+
A message you write. With double opt-in on, it should tell them to check their email — that’s the moment most confirmations are won or lost.