<img src="public/logo.svg" width="60" alt="Tideform" /> <h1 align="center">Tideform</h1> Open-source, AI-native form builder. The privacy-first alternative to Typeform. <a href="#quick-start">Quick Start</a> · <a href="#features">Features</a> · <a href="#self-hosting">Self-Host</a> · <a href="#api">API</a> · <a href="#contributing">Contributing</a> · <a href="https://tideform.dev">Website</a> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-MIT-blue.svg" alt="MIT License" /> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/PRs-welcome-brightgreen.svg" alt="PRs Welcome" /> <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/self--hosted-✓-success.svg" alt="Self-Hosted" />

Why Tideform?

| | Typeform | Google Forms | Tideform | |---|---|---|---| | Price | $30-100/mo | Free | Free forever | | AI Generation | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Describe → Build | | Data Privacy | Their servers | Google's servers | Your servers | | Self-Hosted | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ Docker one-liner | | Open Source | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ MIT License | | Beautiful UX | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ Conversational | | RTL Support | Partial | Partial | ✅ Full | | API | Paid tier | Limited | ✅ Full REST API |

Quick Start

Docker (recommended)

docker run -p 3000:3000 tideform/tideform

Open http://localhost:3000 and create your first form.

Docker Compose

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tideform/tideform/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

From Source

git clone https://github.com/tideform/tideform.git
cd tideform
cp .env.example .env
npm install
npx prisma db push
npm run dev

Features

✦ AI Form Generation

Describe your form in plain English. Tideform generates the fields, labels, validation, and conditional logic. Powered by Claude (or works offline with smart templates).

"Create a customer feedback survey for a SaaS product with NPS score"
→ 6 fields generated in 2 seconds

🔒 Privacy-First

Your data never leaves your infrastructure. Self-host on any server, VPS, or Raspberry Pi. No telemetry. No tracking. No data harvesting. GDPR-compliant by architecture.

🎨 Beautiful Conversational UI

One-question-at-a-time experience with smooth transitions, keyboard navigation, and progress tracking. 6 built-in themes including dark mode and a light "Paper" theme.

📊 Built-In Analytics

Response dashboard with completion rates, field-level statistics, NPS tracking, submission timelines, and CSV export. No third-party analytics needed.

🔗 Developer API

Full REST API for everything — create forms, submit responses, fetch analytics. Webhook support for real-time integrations with Slack, Zapier, n8n, and more.

🌍 RTL & i18n Ready

Full right-to-left layout support for Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu. Interface translations welcome via PR.

Architecture

tideform/
├── src/
│   ├── app/                  # Next.js App Router
│   │   ├── api/              # REST API routes
│   │   │   ├── forms/        # Form CRUD
│   │   │   ├── submissions/  # Response collection
│   │   │   ├── ai/           # AI generation endpoint
│   │   │   └── auth/         # Authentication
│   │   ├── (dashboard)/      # Authenticated pages
│   │   └── (public)/         # Public form renderer
│   ├── components/           # React components
│   │   ├── builder/          # Form builder UI
│   │   ├── preview/          # Form renderer
│   │   ├── dashboard/        # Analytics & management
│   │   └── ui/               # Shared UI primitives
│   └── lib/                  # Core logic
│       ├── db.ts             # Prisma client
│       ├── auth.ts           # NextAuth config
│       ├── ai.ts             # AI generation service
│       ├── types.ts          # TypeScript definitions
│       ├── validations.ts    # Zod schemas
│       └── utils.ts          # Helpers
├── prisma/
│   └── schema.prisma         # Database schema
├── docker/                   # Docker configuration
├── Dockerfile                # Multi-stage production build
└── docker-compose.yml        # One-command deployment

Tech Stack

Framework: Next.js 14 (App Router)
Database: SQLite (dev) / PostgreSQL (production) via Prisma
Auth: NextAuth.js (credentials + OAuth)
Styling: Tailwind CSS
AI: Anthropic Claude (optional, works without it)
Validation: Zod
Charts: Recharts
Deployment: Docker, Vercel, any Node.js host

API

Create a form

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/forms \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Feedback Form",
    "fields": [
      { "type": "rating", "label": "How was your experience?", "required": true },
      { "type": "long_text", "label": "Any comments?" }
    ]
  }'

Submit a response

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/submissions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "formSlug": "feedback-form-abc123",
    "data": {
      "f_rating": 5,
      "f_comments": "Love it!"
    }
  }'

AI-generate a form

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/ai/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" \
  -d '{ "prompt": "job application for a startup" }'

Full API documentation: docs.tideform.dev (coming soon)

Self-Hosting

Minimum Requirements

1 CPU core, 512MB RAM
Docker 20+ or Node.js 18+
100MB disk space (+ data)

Environment Variables

| Variable | Required | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | DATABASE_URL | Yes | file:./dev.db | Database connection string | | NEXTAUTH_SECRET | Yes (prod) | Auto-generated | Session encryption key | | NEXTAUTH_URL | Yes (prod) | http://localhost:3000 | Your app's public URL | | ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | No | — | Enables AI form generation | | GITHUB_CLIENT_ID | No | — | GitHub OAuth login | | GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID | No | — | Google OAuth login |

PostgreSQL (production)

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  tideform:
    image: tideform/tideform:latest
    environment:
      - DATABASE_PROVIDER=postgresql
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://tideform:secret@postgres:5432/tideform
    depends_on:
      - postgres

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    volumes:
      - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: tideform
      POSTGRES_USER: tideform
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: secret

volumes:
  pgdata:

Roadmap

[x] Core form builder with drag-and-drop
[x] AI-powered form generation
[x] Conversational form renderer
[x] Response collection & analytics
[x] Docker deployment
[x] Email/password + OAuth authentication
[ ] Embed widget (<script> tag + iframe)
[ ] Conditional logic / field branching
[ ] File upload support
[ ] CSV/Excel export
[ ] Webhook integrations
[ ] Email notifications on submission
[ ] Custom thank-you pages
[ ] Team collaboration
[ ] Form templates gallery
[ ] Stripe payment fields
[ ] Multi-language form UI
[ ] Accessibility audit (WCAG 2.1 AA)

Contributing

We love contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

# Fork and clone
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/tideform.git
cd tideform

# Install and setup
cp .env.example .env
npm install
npx prisma db push

# Start development
npm run dev

# Open http://localhost:3000

Ways to Contribute

🐛 Bug reports — Found something broken? Open an issue
💡 Feature requests — Have an idea? Start a discussion
🌍 Translations — Help us reach more people
📖 Documentation — Improve guides, fix typos
🎨 Themes — Design new form themes
🧪 Tests — Increase coverage

License

MIT — free for personal and commercial use. See LICENSE.

If Tideform helps you, consider giving it a ⭐ on GitHub. It helps others discover the project.

Tideform

Install / Use

README