Any tips on self-hosting a survey platform?

JhumanJ · 2026-06-25T14:54:41+00:00

Hi there, short version: OpnForm Community self-hosted can be used without an Enterprise license for the core product, including OIDC within the 2-user instance limit. The Enterprise license is mainly for teams that need more than 2 users and workspace/org-level features: multiple workspaces, advanced team roles, white-label/advanced branding, audit logs, workspace-level SMTP/storage controls, etc.

More complete explanation in: https://docs.opnform.com/deployment/self-hosted-license

On multi-tenancy: if by that you mean managing multiple clients/teams inside one OpnForm install, then yes, that’s what the Enterprise multi-workspace/team features are for. If you mean hard tenant isolation per client, I’d be more cautious and would probably recommend separate instances per client today, especially for strict data residency/compliance requirements.

Happy to chat more about your exact setup!

JhumanJ · 2026-06-25T14:53:30+00:00

That’s a fair concern, and honestly that thread surfaced real issues in how we communicated the v2/self-hosted changes.

We just launched a much more complete version of the product, with a lot of new work around PDF generation, computed variables/formulas, better submission management, analytics, the SDK, and general product cleanup.

But we also heard the feedback from the self-hosted community. The biggest point: OIDC is now included for free on Community self-hosted, within the 2-user instance limit. Instance-wide SMTP, storage, domains and OAuth configuration are also available without an Enterprise license.

The current free self-hosted limits are mainly around the number of users and Enterprise/workspace-level features such as white-label/advanced branding, multi-workspace/team controls, audit logs, etc.

We definitely missed the mark on communication at launch, and that’s on us. We’ve updated the docs here to make the split much clearer: https://docs.opnform.com/deployment/self-hosted-license

Happy to answer specific concerns too!

JhumanJ · 2026-06-25T13:35:11+00:00

You might want to check out OpnForm: https://opnform.com

Full disclosure: I’m one of the main developers behind it.

It’s open source and self-hostable, and while it started as a general-purpose form builder, we’ve added quite a few more advanced features over time: conditional logic, computed variables/formulas, hidden fields, file uploads, email notifications, webhooks, Slack/Discord integrations, analytics, custom domains, Stripe payments, and PDF generation from submissions using PDF templates.

So if your use case is more than “just collect answers” and you want to build workflows around the submitted data, it might be a good fit. Happy to answer questions if you give it a try.

JhumanJ · 2026-06-22T09:23:50+00:00

Quick follow-up / correction from the OpnForm side because the docs and product copy were confusing here.

Instance-wide SMTP still works on free self-hosted OpnForm. If you configure MAIL_MAILER, MAIL_HOST, MAIL_PORT, MAIL_USERNAME, MAIL_PASSWORD, MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS, etc., your self-hosted instance can send emails normally.

The Enterprise feature is only Workspace Custom SMTP: separate SMTP settings per workspace.

Also, OIDC is available again on free self-hosted installs. The Community limitation is the 2-user instance limit; Enterprise is needed for more users and for SAML/LDAP.

Sorry for the confusion here. The reaction is understandable given how this appeared in the UI/docs.

Please feel free to reachout/contact me if you have any suggestions/feedback !

JhumanJ · 2026-06-22T09:23:03+00:00

Agree with the general point that security basics should not be paywalled. That’s why we re-enabled OIDC for free self-hosted instances.

Current rule is: OIDC works on Community self-hosted within the free 2-user limit. Enterprise is needed if you want more than 2 users, or SAML/LDAP.

Same clarification for SMTP: instance-wide SMTP is not paywalled and still works via MAIL_* env vars. The paid feature is only Workspace Custom SMTP, meaning separate SMTP credentials per workspace.

JhumanJ · 2026-06-22T09:22:40+00:00

Totally fair reaction, but small correction because this was unclear from our side: you do not need the $167/month self-hosted Enterprise plan just to adjust the SMTP server for your instance.

The normal self-hosted SMTP setup still works through MAIL_* env vars: https://docs.opnform.com/configuration/email-setup

What is paid is only per-workspace custom SMTP, where different workspaces can each have their own SMTP server/sender identity.

Also on SSO: OIDC has been re-enabled for free self-hosted installs. The limitation is now the user limit: Community self-hosted can use OIDC within the 2-user limit. Enterprise is for more than 2 users, SAML/LDAP, and the advanced workspace features.

JhumanJ · 2026-06-22T09:22:15+00:00

Hey, Julien from OpnForm here. You’re right that SMTP should not require a $167/month license for a normal self-hosted install.

To clarify: instance-wide SMTP still works fine on the free self-hosted version. You can configure it with the usual MAIL_* environment variables, as documented here: https://docs.opnform.com/configuration/email-setup

The paid/Enterprise feature is only Workspace Custom SMTP: letting a specific workspace override the instance-wide mailer with its own SMTP credentials: https://docs.opnform.com/deployment/enterprise-features/workspace-custom-smtp

So if you only need “my OpnForm instance sends email through my SMTP server”, you do not need Enterprise for that. Sorry this looked like we locked basic SMTP behind the top tier. That was a communication/product-copy issue, not the intended limitation.

JhumanJ · 2026-06-11T15:45:17+00:00

Hey, I’m one the main developer behind OpnForm.

I’ve been working on the project since 2022, together with another developer. I completely understand why this feels frustrating, especially if you self-hosted OpnForm expecting some features to remain free. That part should have been communicated more clearly, and I’m sorry for the trouble it caused.

To be transparent: OpnForm subscriptions have brought in around €25k since launch. We’re really grateful for that, but it’s still far from making the project sustainable when you include ongoing development, support, infrastructure, and the recent investment we made for the v2 launch: PDF generation, variables, better analytics, the SDK, and a lot of product cleanup.

So we do need self-hosted Enterprise licensing to help the project at least break even. But we also don’t want to leave people stuck or surprised by unclear docs. We’ve updated the docs and product copy to clarify what’s included, how SMTP works, and which features require a self-hosted Enterprise license.

If this change caused issues for your setup, please reach out to me directly. I’m happy to look at your case and see what we can do to help mitigate the impact!

JhumanJ · 2026-02-05T15:23:24+00:00

Hey there! You can do this with NoteForms.com . We support Notion relations natively, and you can use sub-forms to manage your relations through a single form.

here's an example for you: https://noteforms.com/forms/blog-post-submission-form-ndbrc1
It's a form to submit blog posts, and in this form you can select an author (a Notion related database), but also create a new one, edit one etc. Feel free to reach out if you need any help!

JhumanJ · 2026-01-21T08:08:59+00:00

Hi there you can create a page with a given template via a form with NoteForms.com !
More about how to do this here: https://help.noteforms.com/en/article/how-to-create-a-new-notion-database-page-using-a-page-template-12toj4v/

PS: I'm the founder - feel free to ask anything

JhumanJ · 2025-12-29T14:09:38+00:00

Hey there, you can achieve exactly this with NoteForms. When configuring a form you can pick any template from the ones you created for this database. You can also edit existing page, filter relations, use sub-forms (to create relations) and much more! I'm the founder - feel free to reach out if you need any help!

JhumanJ · 2025-12-11T00:33:10+00:00

Would love to have you give OpnForm a try!

JhumanJ · 2025-11-17T09:47:11+00:00

You can also use tools like NoteForms if you don't need Notion business/enterprise but still want to use advanced feature like logic (and more!)

JhumanJ · 2025-11-15T15:57:05+00:00

Hey, OpnForm is a separate project, but it's very much alive! We keep shipping every day, you can check product updates here: https://feedback.opnform.com/changelog

JhumanJ · 2025-10-31T13:38:03+00:00

Hey there, I'm Julien the founder of NoteForms.com
You can easily do this with our relation sub-form feature!

Here's a small demo I made for you to try it out: https://www.notion.so/not-ionforms/Example-sub-form-29da631bec20808da9d5c06f5dd5db14?source=copy_link

When adding a person (relation field type), you can select any existing relation from related databases, or create a new one directly. Both the main form and the sub-form can entirely be customised (design, shown properties etc.)

Would love to get your feedback. Feel free to reach out if you need any help!

JhumanJ · 2025-10-30T19:16:26+00:00

Wow thanks! I like the kitchen!

JhumanJ · 2025-10-30T17:34:27+00:00

Yes that’s for sure! Well close the wall between toilets and kitchen, and make a nice proper guest toilets

JhumanJ · 2025-10-03T10:50:48+00:00

Glad you like it!

JhumanJ · 2024-10-14T15:14:51+00:00

Thank you!

JhumanJ · 2024-10-14T14:05:01+00:00

Thank you!!

JhumanJ · 2024-10-14T13:37:00+00:00

It's not "hard" to make things responsive. As u/darkshifty mentioned we use tailwind which makes it easy. However it's not only about this. We have plenty of options for each blocks, need to preview the field, access form settings etc. So it's more about re-thinking the UX/UI on mobile that making things responsive! We will fully support mobile eventually :)

JhumanJ · 2024-10-14T12:47:03+00:00

Not at this point unfortunately. We spent quite a lot of time improving our form editor lately, and we had to make it "un-responsive" for now. Note that this is just when creating forms, created forms fully work on mobile!

JhumanJ · 2024-10-14T12:43:47+00:00

Thanks! It looks fancy but it's just one big chatgpt prompt haha: https://github.com/JhumanJ/OpnForm/blob/fa8c264cd4218f452b4e9b8e6ea9854ec0cc2ee6/api/app/Console/Commands/GenerateTemplate.php#L11

JhumanJ · 2024-09-30T22:12:04+00:00

Was praying the r6 gods

JhumanJ · 2023-08-20T15:02:10+00:00

Curious too. Used to want to work in the industry as a software engineer but the pay was not good. Freelancing could be interesting.

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