What is Wufoo?
Wufoo is an Internet application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun. Because we host everything, all you need is a browser, an Internet connection and a few minutes to build a form and start using it right away.
What can I build with Wufoo?
Basically, the possibilities are endless. Here’s a short list of examples to give you an idea of Wufoo’s versatility:
- Contact Form
- Mailing List
- Survey
- Job Application
- Workshop Registration
- Event Calendar
- Account Management
- Customer Management
- Bug Tracker
- Invitations / RSVP
- Online Orders
- Wedding Planner
- Address Book
- Home Finances
- Classifieds
- Personal Journal
- Quizzes / Tests
- Media Collection
Definitely check out our examples page to see some of the more popular forms created in Wufoo along with descriptions of how to introduce them into your web site and workflow. For even more ideas, visit our Form Gallery where you can view and install over 80 templates and themes designed with Wufoo.
Why would I want to use this?
We believe forms are the starting point for building anything useful on the web. Basically, they’re the most efficient mechanisms for collecting data from people. The problem is creating an online form isn’t very efficient.
The process of creating a form and all the database structures and scripts necessary to make it work (not to mention useful) is a really tedious process that makes what should be a simple task (collecting and understanding information), not really worth the time, effort or cost of the endeavor. The entire process could take you or your IT person days, if not weeks. With Wufoo, you can skip all the hard stuff (because it does it all for you), and start getting things done.
Is Wufoo right for me?
While we do have a list of features and a tour for you to look at, Wufoo is more of an experience than a checklist. The only real way to find out if Wufoo is right for you is to create a FREE account and find out for yourself. Usually, you’ll know the answer within a few minutes of playing around with our services. If you have any questions after that, please do contact us.
Is Wufoo secure?
We’ve done everything possible to ensure the safe keeping of your data and the data you collect. Our servers are located at Sea01 and backed up onsite and offsite to data centers in Virginia and Amsterdam. We also offer plans with 128 bit SSL encryption for sending form submissions and the ability to store information in an encrypted format in the database. We have the expertise of BitPusher, a company whose founders have experience with Napster and Netcom (among others), to ensure that everything is safe and stable on the hardware end. Read more about our security measures.
Are there any long term contracts?
Nope. After creating an account, you can delete your data and leave at anytime from within the Wufoo application. No questions asked.
Wufoo will hold onto your information as long as you have a Wufoo account. When you delete an entry, or when you delete your account, the information is deleted from our servers.
Can anyone access my forms and reports?
That’s up to you. All forms and reports can be made either public or private with just a click of a button. By default, all new forms are public. And by default, all new reports are private. If you have a paying account, you can also password protect any form or report in Wufoo.
How much does Wufoo cost?
Wufoo’s tiered monthly plans range from $9.95/month to $199.95/month and the prices are based on the number of users that you can manage, the number of forms you might need, the number of entries you can have submitted per month, the amount of disk space you can use for handling files and various other factors. There’s also a very nice FREE version. You can learn about our plans on our Pricing and Signup page..
What browsers do you support?
Currently, we support Internet Explorer 6 and higher, Firefox 2 and higher, and Safari 2 and higher. You may be able to log into Wufoo and create forms with other browsers, but only the ones mentioned here are officially supported.
Do people have to have Flash and JavaScript to use my form?
Nope. While the admin interface requires JavaScript and Flash to build and manage your forms, the public forms you share with others are built with degradable techniques that’ll work even if JavaScript is turned off.
Can I add Wufoo forms to my web site?
Yes, we provide easy copy/paste code for those of you that want to have your forms integrated into your own web site. The data and the admin interface is still on our servers and you’ll have to login in to Wufoo to manage everything, but the form looks like you’re hosting it. For advanced users and developers, we’ve got an awesome API to help you tweak nearly everything to your heart’s content. You can read more about this in our documentation on the Code Manager.
How can I get at the data collected by my form?
In so many sweet ways, my friend. In addition to the various reports and views within the admin interface, Wufoo can email you entries, let you subscribe to them as an RSS feed and export them as an Excel document.
I can do my own server stuff. Can I just get the form markup and CSS from you?
Yes, my hardcore developer friend. If you want to handle all the server side stuff yourself and just want to use Wufoo as an easy way to create good-looking, valid CSS/XHTML form markup, you can use your account to design and download the markup and CSS for FREE.
Who are you guys?
Wufoo was built by 3 guys who thought they could build a better form builder. Chris and Ryan are brothers and Kevin is a good friend of theirs. They were given some money from some pretty cool investors, who thought they seemed like decent enough people capable of pulling off the idea. Kevin, Ryan and Chris also write about some of their web development shenanigans on their blog, Particletree, and publish, Treehouse, their web development magazine when they can. Learn more about our story and our company.
What’s with the name?
Kevin really likes Wu-Tang and Foo Fighters.
