Messages
Some people would rather write
A chat is a conversation you have to be in the middle of. Plenty of people would rather leave a note and get on with their day, especially at eleven at night. So the widget has a second door: write to somebody by name, get an email when they answer, and pick the thread back up on your site.
On every plan, including the trial. Nothing extra to buy.
Dana Okafor
Owner
Marcus Bell · 11:42 PM
Dana · 8:05 AM
Emailed to marcus@bell.co with a link back to this thread. No account, no password, nothing to install.
The same note, to two businesses.
Marcus wants a quote for a full bathroom refit. It is not urgent and he does not want to have a conversation about it right now.
noreply@ - do not reply
Thanks for getting in touch
We have received your message and will get back to you as soon as possible.
Nobody is named. Nothing says when.
- He does not know whether a person has it or a queue does.
- The reply, if it comes, lands in a thread with no history.
- There is nowhere to go back to and see what was said.
To: Dana Okafor, Owner
Usually replies in about 3 hours
Dana at Northside Plumbing
Re: bathroom refit
We do, and happily. I will put some rough numbers together tomorrow. Do you know roughly when you would want the work done?
Answered at 8:05 the next morning, by the person he wrote to.
- He knew who had it before he sent it.
- The answer found him by email, wherever he was.
- The whole thread is still on your site, for both of you.
Two doors, one widget
Not everybody wants to talk right now.
The same corner of your website offers both. Somebody in a hurry starts a chat and has an answer in seconds. Somebody who would rather not writes to a person by name and gets on with their day. You do not choose for them, and neither door is a dead end.
Ask now
Hi, I'm Formala. What can I help with?
An answer in seconds, at any hour, from what you told it.
Write instead
- Dana OkaforOwner
- Mia ReyesScheduling
Goes to that person. The answer comes back by email.
Both land in the same inbox, against the same person.
Messages, in three parts
A face and a name to write to
Put your team in the widget with their roles and their photos. A visitor picks who they want and writes to that person, not to a form.
Your reply reaches them by email
They get your answer wherever they are, with a link back to the thread on your site, so the whole conversation stays in one place.
One inbox for both
Chats and messages land in the same place, against the same person, so there is not a second system to remember to check.
Worth knowing. A message is not a live chat and never pretends to be. Nobody is left watching a page waiting for somebody to start typing.
Messages: the questions people ask
Only a measured one. It reports how long your replies have actually taken, and says nothing at all until there is enough history to be honest about it.
Messages works with
Pricing
Simple pricing. Every core feature included.
Start with 30 free conversations over 30 days, no card. Every plan has every core feature. Bigger plans add volume, and Growth and up learn from real chats, Pro adds the AI follow-up engine, and Business adds auto-sent replies plus seats for your team. How billing works →
Growth
$39/mo
400 conversations / month
about 10¢ per conversation
- Every core feature
- Learns from real chats
- Team seats
Pro
$79/mo
1,000 conversations / month
about 8¢ per conversation
- Every core feature
- Learns from real chats
- Team seats
- AI follow-up engine
- Send from your own domain
Business
$149/mo
2,500 conversations / month
about 6¢ per conversation
- Every core feature
- Learns from real chats
- Team seats
- AI follow-up engine
- Send from your own domain
- Auto-sent AI replies
And it never switches off
$0 a monthNo card to start. Your first 30 conversations are answered by the AI, over 30 days. After that the AI stops answering and the rest of it keeps working, for nothing, for as long as you like, carrying a small “Powered by Formala” line that any paid plan removes.
- The contact formThe widget falls back to your own form, so a visitor who wants to reach you still can, and the lead still lands in your inbox.
- Direct messagesVisitors can still leave a message for you or for a named person on your team, and reply to yours from the same thread.
- BookingYour booking page keeps taking appointments, with the reminders and the calendar sync that go with them.
Add voice: let visitors talk to it out loud
A microphone in the chat. Visitors speak instead of typing and hear the answer back, and you get the same transcript and the same lead as any other conversation. Works with any plan, on as many forms as you like.
$59/mo200 spoken minutes a month
Not sure what something does? Every feature, explained in plain English →
Every plan starts with a free 30-day trial: no card required, cancel anytime. If Formala catches one job you'd have missed, it's paid for itself.
Priced for small businesses, not enterprises.
You get the qualifying, structuring, and follow-up you'd expect from tools that cost far more, at pennies per conversation.
| Formala | A plain contact form | Chat / chatbot suites | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turns vague visitors into qualified leads | — | Limited | |
| Clean, structured leads, no transcripts to read | Limited | — | |
| Answers 24/7 and follows up on its own | — | Limited | |
| Live in minutes. One line, no code or setup fees | Limited | — | |
| Your brand, no “powered by” badge (any paid plan) | Limited | — | |
| Typical cost | From $19/mo · ~6–13¢ a chat | Free, but converts like a form | ~$30–130/seat + ~$1 per AI chat |
You pay less at every size
| Chats / mo | A comparable AI form tool | Formala |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | $59/mo | $39/moGrowth · 400 included |
| 500 | $98/mo | $79/moPro · 1,000 included |
| 2,000 | $330/mo | $149/moBusiness · 2,500 included |
Up to ~2.5× cheaper per conversation, and it does more.
Other tools' prices reflect major providers' publicly listed rates (AI form tools by conversation tier; live-chat suites per seat plus a per-AI-answer fee) and may change, so compare current plans before deciding.
Stop losing the visitors who almost reached out.
Set Formala up in the time it takes to read this page.
Start free for 30 daysNo card required · cancel anytime · your data stays yours