A Christmas-holiday proof of concept
Surjith S M describes himself simply: "I'm basically a 30/yo front-end web developer who can also design." Based in Palakkad, Kerala, India, he started freelancing in 2015 while selling website templates on Envato Market — building out a small ecosystem of sites including web3canvas.com, web3templates.com, and web3inspiration.com. The work was steady, but one problem kept nagging him: contact forms.
"To send a real email, we needed to use PHP with Mail() function enabled," he explained in an IndieHustle interview. PHP mail servers were spam-prone with deliverability issues — and then the Jamstack boom arrived. Static sites could suddenly be hosted for free, but a contact form on a static site was impossible. "I looked for an alternative solution for my needs. I did not find anything and decided to build my own. That's how Web3Forms is born."
He built the proof of concept over Christmas holidays with no plan to monetize — he needed it for his own templates and client sites. The key differentiator was there from day one: no signup, no login. Users create an access key, paste it into their HTML form tag, and it works. For a front-end developer who'd spent years fighting backend complexity, removing the backend entirely was the product.
"It grew slowly. I mean really slowly."
In January 2024, four years in, Web3Forms was making about $10,000 a year — roughly $800 a month. Surjith was candid about the pace: "It grew slowly. I mean really slowly." And about his effort level: "This business is still a side project for me so I don't actively work on it." What he did do, religiously, was answer support questions daily, fix bugs fast, and add features when time allowed. "But I do answer support questions daily and talk with customers."
The growth engine was SEO — deliberately, from the early days. He launched on Twitter and shared the beta in Reddit and Telegram groups, but quickly learned that social awareness didn't convert: "I did not actively promote it apart from sharing stats on Twitter... The paid customers mainly come from Google." So he created content targeting related keywords — free contact-form templates, tutorials, comparisons — and waited. "I'm happy that I made some effort on SEO starting from the early days. I created content so that Google can pickup on many related keywords. It takes some time, but it will work for sure. As I've mentioned, Google is currently the #1 acquisition channel for Web3Forms."
The compounding is now visible in the numbers. TrustMRR's Stripe-verified data shows roughly $41K MRR in 2026 — about a 40x increase from the $10K-a-year days of early 2024, or close to $500K in annualized run rate. The pricing page claims 412,000+ people served, 13.2 million+ emails delivered, and 220,000+ spam messages blocked. The pricing is straightforward: a generous free tier (250 monthly submissions), Pro at $12/month, and Agency at $33/month, processed via Paddle.
The long game, played quietly
What's remarkable about Web3Forms is what didn't happen. No Product Hunt launch. No podcast tour. No venture funding, no team — the company profile lists one core team member: Surjith himself. No pivot, no rebrand, no growth hacks. Just a useful product, a generous free tier that drives product-led conversion, daily support, and SEO content compounding for six years.
His philosophy, in his own words: "Overnight success is a myth. Playing the long term game is the way to go." And: "Our product is in a competitive market and to find your space, we need to give it some time. My product is around 4 years old now, but I work on it without losing hope." There's a quiet confidence in that — the confidence of someone whose acquisition channel is Google itself, not an algorithm he rents.
The trajectory from $800 a month to $41K MRR without ever going full-time on the product is the strongest possible argument for the indie playbook: build something people search for, make the free tier genuinely generous, answer every support email, and let time do the heavy lifting. "You will get the reward sooner or later."
The playbook
- Build for your own workflow first — Web3Forms was built for Surjith's own templates and client sites. He was the first user, so product-market fit was never a question.
- Remove friction ruthlessly — No signup, no login, just an access key in an HTML tag. The entire product is the absence of a backend.
- Invest in SEO from day one — Content targeting related keywords compounded for years until Google became the #1 acquisition channel. "It takes some time, but it will work for sure."
- Answer every support email — Even as a side project, daily support built the trust that turns free users into paying ones.
- Play the long game — $10K/year to $41K MRR took six years of patience. "Overnight success is a myth."