FormData beats v-model here
A contact form does not need per-keystroke reactivity. Reading the form element once on submit means no refs to declare, no reset logic, and native required validation you get for free from the browser.
integrations · framework
A contact form is the one piece of a Vue app that has no business being a component with state. It has three fields, it runs once, and then the user leaves. Yet the usual advice is to stand up an Express route or a serverless function whose entire job is to read three strings and forward them to an email API.
Point the form at a mailcontact endpoint instead. You can do it with no JavaScript at all, or bind @submit.prevent and post the FormData yourself if you want to keep the user on the page and show your own success state. Either way there is no server in your project.
the snippet
Point the form at your project's mailcontact endpoint. Submissions land in your project inbox. No server, no API route, no email service to wire up.
<script setup>
import { ref } from "vue";
const sent = ref(false);
const sending = ref(false);
async function submit(event) {
sending.value = true;
await fetch("https://mailcontact.app/api/forms/your-form-id", {
method: "POST",
body: new FormData(event.target),
});
sending.value = false;
sent.value = true;
}
</script>
<template>
<p v-if="sent">Thanks. We'll be in touch.</p>
<form v-else @submit.prevent="submit">
<input name="name" placeholder="Your name" required />
<input name="email" type="email" placeholder="you@email.com" required />
<textarea name="message" placeholder="What's on your mind?" required />
<input name="_gotcha" tabindex="-1" autocomplete="off" hidden />
<button :disabled="sending">{{ sending ? "Sending..." : "Send" }}</button>
</form>
</template>how it works
One inbox per project. You get a form endpoint and a project email address immediately, before you write any component.
Paste the block above and swap the endpoint id. It uses new FormData(event.target), so the field names in your template are the field names that arrive. No v-model wiring, no reactive object to keep in sync.
Add a Discord, Slack, email, or webhook channel. Every submission reaches you where you already are, instead of sitting in a database you have to remember to check.
why mailcontact
A contact form does not need per-keystroke reactivity. Reading the form element once on submit means no refs to declare, no reset logic, and native required validation you get for free from the browser.
No SSR, no Nitro, no adapter. This is the same code whether you are on Vite, Vue CLI, or a Vue island inside another site, because the only runtime dependency is fetch.
Rolling your own means choosing where messages go, then building a screen to read them. An inbox per project is that screen, and it also takes email at yourproject@mailcontact.app.
faq
Not on its own. Browsers cannot speak SMTP, and any mail API key you put in a Vue component ships to the browser for anyone to read and abuse. The form has to post to a server somewhere; the question is only whether it is a server you maintain. Posting to an endpoint means it is not.
No. Drop the script block and give the form a plain action attribute pointing at your endpoint and it works with zero JavaScript, which is a good fit for a mostly static marketing page. Use @submit.prevent when you want to stay on the page and render your own success state.
Keep the browser's. required, type="email" and pattern all still apply because this is a real form element, not a synthetic one. For custom messages, check event.target.checkValidity() before the fetch and render your own copy from there.
Yes. Nothing here depends on script setup or the Composition API: it is a submit handler that calls fetch with a FormData. Move submit into methods and sent into data and the same code runs on the Options API, including Vue 2 with the same DOM event.
related
Forms and a real email address, together, with notifications where you live. Launching soon. Be the first to know.