Formsly: A profitable approach to interactive ‘contact us’ pages?

Formsly – Cape Town based, Silicon Cape start-up is adamant it is meeting the needs for a global market with its offering at www.formsly.com. Falling into the online tools and web-apps category of the tech industry, the startup is targeting individuals and small businesses.

Formsly describes itself as a web app which allows users to create custom, feature-rich ‘contact’ pages for websites. Its features includes google maps, GPS, turn-by-turn navigation, social media links and integration, live support integration, as well as custom mailing lists and analytics. Formsly is available as a basic free service or a premium, paid subscription. The company officially launched in January 2011, following a few months of research and development.

Founder, Paul Müller, is a self taught, freelance web developer who has been involved in a number of start ups over the past ten years. His experiences include South Africa’s first online casino and thunda.com, though his attention “is now concentrated on Formsly” he tells memeburn.

Müller conceived the idea while working as a freelance web developer. He mentions often receiving requests to revamp the ‘Contact’ page of many clients’ websites. As a result Paul embarked on a search to find an online solution to provide his clients with this service. After finding no application online, other than form generators which couldn’t provide his clients with a feature-rich solution at an affordable price, he decided to design the Formsly System.

So, considering that there are many online web apps and services which generate contact forms for websites, what makes Formsly different? According to Müller, Formsly is the first web-app to offer individuals, businesses and website owners a feature-rich, elegant and affordable solution to a good contact page on their website. “The only alternatives at the moment that exist are simple online form generators which offer none of the functionality which we offer,” argues Müller in making a case for a service.

“Formsly now gives users an affordable solution to creating a feature-rich contact page for their website without have to endure the costs of an external web developer, or settle for a plain and feature-lacking contact form.”

Müller believes the company has potential that allows it to expand for global reach. “Formsly changes the way individuals and small businesses list their contact details, and how they allow consumers to find and contact them, without enduring huge costs. Small business entities can now have much greater control over how their consumers communicate with them.”

“Although Formsly is Cape Town-based, we are focusing on both the local and international market. The service offered by Formsly is applicable to users all over the world. We are currently focusing most of our international efforts on the US, where most of the interest is, but plan to market to many other international markets in the future.”

Key startup features include cost effective, feature-rich solutions and power admin tools. For a non-techie there is not a single bit of coding required, making the overall experience extremely user friendly.

Though Formsly says it has little direct competition, it did acknowledge online form generators such as Wufoo, Whspr, and Contactify , all of which are currently making a similar offering, with varying degrees of success.

Formsly is forging ahead and the startup is convinced it is within the reach of becoming the industry’s leading web-app for creating contact pages.

The focus right is now on ensuring an established user base, offering the most value of any competitor and ensuring the most customisable solution.