---
title: "Formbricks alternative when you would rather not run the stack"
description: "Compare Formbricks with Fillo when self-hosting is not the goal: your own components render the fields, uploads go to storage you connect, and there are no services to operate."
group: "Compare & migrate"
order: 10
type: "comparison"
keywords:
  - "Fillo vs Formbricks"
  - "Formbricks alternative"
  - "self-hosted form builder"
  - "open source survey tool"
updated: "2026-08-06"
---

Formbricks is an open-source survey platform. Use its cloud, or run the whole thing yourself with Docker: responses stay on infrastructure you control, and the source is there to read and patch. Surveys go out as links, or as in-app surveys delivered by its JavaScript SDK.

Fillo is hosted and does not offer self-hosting. It fits a different moment: the form belongs on a route inside your product, rendered by your own components, and nobody wants to own a survey stack.

## Which should you choose?

### When Fillo fits

- Nobody wants to run Postgres, object storage, and certificate renewal for a form.
- The form is part of a product flow: your route, your components, your submit button.
- Files should go browser-direct to Google Drive, Box, or S3-compatible storage you connect once in settings.
- One typed schema should drive the fields, client checks, server checks, visibility, and the response record.

### When to stay on Formbricks

- **The requirement is "it runs on our infrastructure."** Fillo has no self-hosted edition. If data residency put Formbricks on the list, Formbricks is the honest answer and the comparison ends here. Staying keeps self-hosting a standing job: database, object store, certificates, upgrades, backups.
- **You want the source.** Reading, forking, and patching it is a real advantage Fillo cannot match. The cost is that what you would otherwise buy — storage wiring, availability, recovery — is yours to design.
- **You run in-app surveys with targeting**: this segment, after this event, with recontact and cooldown rules. That is Formbricks' core job and Fillo does not do it. The cost shows on the other side: for a form that has to look like it belongs in the page, the SDK gives you a survey to restyle, not fields to compose.

## What changes in your app

Formbricks publishes `@formbricks/js` on npm. Initialize it once with your workspace ID and app URL; from there it decides which survey to show and renders it, and you customize with CSS over what it draws.

```ts
import formbricks from "@formbricks/js";

formbricks.setup({
  workspaceId: "<workspace-id>",
  appUrl: "https://app.formbricks.com",
});
```

With `@usefillo/react`, the fields are components in your own tree:

```tsx
import { Fillo, when, createClient } from "@usefillo/react";

const client = createClient({ key: process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_FILLO_KEY });

export function SetupFeedback() {
  return (
    <Fillo.Form id="setup-feedback" title="How did setup go?" client={client}>
      <Fillo.Rating id="ease" label="How easy was setup?" max={5} required />
      <Fillo.LongText
        id="blocked"
        label="What got in the way?"
        visibleIf={when("ease").lt(4)}
      />
    </Fillo.Form>
  );
}
```

Keep the default styles, pass your own class names, or swap a field for your own component. That `visibleIf` condition is data — a field ID, an operator, a value — so the same rule decides what renders and what Fillo's server accepts.

## Key differences

| Decision | Fillo | Formbricks |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Operating model | Hosted; nothing to run | Open source; Formbricks Cloud, or self-host the database, object storage, and reverse proxy |
| Rendering in your app | Your React or DOM components, a `fillo-form` custom element, or a hosted page | SDK that displays Formbricks-rendered surveys, restyled with scoped CSS; link surveys by URL or iframe |
| File uploads | Connect a provider in settings; the browser uploads directly and Fillo verifies completion | S3-compatible storage you configure: environment variables, IAM policy, bucket policy, CORS |
| Working with responses | Grid, versions, CSV, Management API, signed webhooks | Your own instance, or Formbricks Cloud |
| Data residency | Fillo-hosted | Self-host to keep processing on your infrastructure |

Uploads are where the models diverge most concretely. Formbricks' [file uploads documentation](https://formbricks.com/docs/self-hosting/configuration/file-uploads) states that S3-compatible storage is required, and that the File Upload and Picture Selection question types stay disabled until it is configured: the `S3_*` variables, an IAM policy, a bucket policy, and a CORS rule without which browser uploads fail. The provider must also implement the S3 POST Object operation, and the same page names Backblaze B2 as incompatible for that reason. Checked against the [self-hosting guide](https://formbricks.com/docs/self-hosting) on August 6, 2026.

## Before you switch

Fillo will not satisfy a self-hosting requirement, and it has no in-app targeting engine. It also starts a new response history: existing Formbricks responses stay where they are and cannot be imported with schema versions and delivery state. Fillo's transit storage is a starting lane, not a destination — 10 MB per file, 100 MB of active files per workspace, and completed files expire after seven days. Durable file workflows connect your own storage.

## What you would need to change

| Existing Formbricks setup | Expected work |
| --- | --- |
| A link survey shared by URL | Rebuild the fields as a Fillo form, then publish the hosted page or render it on your own route |
| An in-app survey with display rules | Decide where the form belongs in your UI and render it there |
| A self-managed S3 bucket | Connect the same storage in settings and retire the CORS, IAM, and endpoint plumbing |
| Webhooks into your backend | Reconnect each one, verify the signature, deduplicate on the delivery ID |

## Next step

[Open the editor](/new) and rebuild one real form on a route in your app before deciding about the rest.

## Related

- [Embed a Fillo form](/docs/embed): Choose a native React, DOM, or hosted form.
- [File uploads](/docs/uploads): Connect storage and send files browser-direct.
- [Security and data handling](/docs/security): Where Fillo responses and files live.
- [Compare form tools](/compare): Find the right starting point for the form you need.
- [Fillo plans and limits](/docs/limits): Check response, storage, and upload limits.