Your forms will outlive FormNode.
FormNode is founder-led and self-serve. That's a feature — but it also means you're right to ask what happens to the forms you build here if the product ever goes away. Here's the answer, in writing.
Your data exports anytime
Every plan — including Starter — can export forms, submissions, and organization data as JSON or CSV. No tier gates, no support tickets required.
Your n8n workflows are already yours
The workflows that power your dynamic dropdowns and run on submissions live in your n8n instance. They never depended on FormNode running in the first place.
If we sunset, the code goes open-source
The FormNode application is released under the AGPL license, with a Docker image you can run on your own hardware and an importer that reads your exported data. Every form you built keeps working.
How it actually works
What triggers a release?
A decision to sunset FormNode as a hosted product. If that call ever gets made, the open-source release is part of the same announcement.
What license?
The codebase is released under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL-3.0). That means you — or anyone — can run it, modify it, and self-host it. It also means any fork that's offered as a service has to stay open-source, so the guarantee can't be captured and closed up again.
What do you actually get?
A Docker image of the FormNode application you can spin up on your own hardware, the source code it's built from, the database schema and migrations, and a data importer that reads the export files you already have access to today. You bring your exported data, you run the container, every form you built keeps working.
When does this happen?
If a sunset is ever announced, the release is part of the announcement. You don't wait for the lights to go off first — the Docker image and the code drop on the day the decision is made public, so you have time to migrate on your own schedule rather than under pressure.
What doesn't get released?
Customer data is always yours — it lives in your exports, never in the release. The hosted multi-tenant control plane, payment integrations, and any third-party API keys stay out of the release for obvious security reasons. What you get is the application you need to run your forms, not the operational plumbing of the hosted service.
Why AGPL specifically?
AGPL prevents a worst-case outcome where someone takes the released code, re-closes it, and offers a new hosted version that orphans users all over again. AGPL keeps the guarantee honest in perpetuity.
Why we're writing this down
We live in a moment where SaaS tools pop up, get traction, and vanish — and the teams that built their operations on them are left scrambling. That uncertainty is a real cost, and it's a fair thing to worry about before you commit workflows to a new vendor.
The games industry has a phrase for the same shape of problem: when a publisher shuts down a multiplayer title, every player's library gets orphaned. The Stop Killing Games movement pushed back — if you sold something, you owe the people who bought it a path to keep using it. SaaS has the exact same problem, and most vendors just hope nobody asks.
We'd rather put it in writing. If you build something on FormNode, you're going to be able to keep running it — whether that's on our hosted platform, on your own Docker host, or on a fork somebody else picks up.
Build on something that outlives us.
Free forever on the Starter plan. Cancel in one click. And if we ever disappear, the code is yours.
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