About Signup Form Options

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Signup forms are a powerful way to extend the reach of your email and SMS marketing and grow your audience. Mailchimp offers a number of options to attract subscribers on your website, social channels, and other platforms.

In this article, you'll learn about Mailchimp's signup form options so you can choose which type of form is best for you.

Signup form types

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Here's an overview of Mailchimp's available signup form types.

Forms for sharing

Form What is it? Learn more
Basic subscribe form A form that's hosted on our servers. Every audience comes with one. Quickly customize it, publish it, and share the link from anywhere on the web. Create a Basic Subscribe Form
Advanced subscribe form An advanced feature for paid users who want to edit the HTML of their subscribe form. Advanced Form Customization
Landing page form* A simple signup form content block placed on a shareable landing page that you design. Create a Landing Page

Forms for your website

Form What is it? Learn more
Embedded form* An HTML form we create for you, which you can paste into your site. Add an Embedded Form To Your Website
Popup signup form* A popup form you can design in Mailchimp and use on a website. Create a Popup Form

*Create as many forms as needed per audience to personalize your marketing and grow your audience.

Form integrations and plugins

Form What is it? Learn more
WordPress plugin, Squarespace integration and more Add-ons that help you collect signups on social sites, blogs, or e-commerce and marketing platforms. Mailchimp Integrations Directory

Form API

Form What is it? Learn more
Custom API forms The most technical and customizable Mailchimp form. It can be coded from the ground up. Manage Contacts in Mailchimp API 3.0 CSS Hooks for Customizing Forms

About the signup process

Mailchimp audiences are single opt-in by default. That means, each time someone submits your signup form, we'll immediately add them to your Mailchimp audience as a subscribed contact. Single opt-in makes it easier for people to join your audience.

We also offer the double opt-in signup method, which requires email or SMS verification if double opt-in is set for SMS. If you've received a high volume of bounces, unsubscribes, or complaints, double opt-in is recommended.

A subscribed contact is associated with their original signup source. If an existing subscriber attempts to sign up for your audience again with a different type of form, their original signup source and contact profile will stay the same.

You can change the opt-in settings for an audience at any time. If you want to update the opt-in method for an individual audience, change the form settings. If you have multiple audiences, you can make global changes on your Opt-In Settings page.

To learn more about the signup process, check out these articles.

Single Opt-in vs. Double Opt-in About Double Opt-in Choose opt-in settings

Note

If your primary contact address is in the European Union, some of your audiences may be double opt-in by default. Find out which method you’re using on the Opt-In Settings page.

About GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a privacy law that regulates how organizations treat or use the personal data of people located in the EU. You can design signup forms consistent with your brand and compliant with the GDPR requirements.

GDPR fields can't be enabled on pop-up forms. To learn more about collecting consent on popup forms, check out Collect Consent with Pop-up Forms.

About reCAPTCHA

Google reCAPTCHA helps protect your audience from spambots. Turn it on in Forms settings, under “Audience-wide defaults”.

On your basic subscribe form, reCAPTCHA runs in the background. Only the most suspicious traffic is asked to verify. On other forms, subscribers check a box before they're added to your audience.

reCAPTCHA can't be enabled on popup forms. To learn more, check out About reCAPTCHA for Signup Forms.

Forms for sharing

We offer shareable form options that are published and maintained on our servers.

Basic subscribe form

We automatically generate an easy-to-use, shareable subscribe form for each audience. Find it in Forms settings, under System forms. Customize the form, publish it, then share the link on your website or with potential subscribers across your digital channels.

Advanced subscribe form

Accounts on a paid plan can use custom code with their subscribe form in advanced form mode. This feature is recommended for users familiar with custom coding and HTML.

Landing page signup form

Design a shareable landing page to collect new contacts as part of a specific marketing goal. For example, boost your audience growth by collecting addresses in exchange for a free download or other limited-time offer.

Use the Signup Form content block to create a simple form with the email address field from your audience. Then, choose to include more fields as needed.

Forms for your website

If you have a Mailchimp website, you can add a signup form to any page with the Signup Form content block or the popup signup form. If you built your website with another service, use the popup signup form or the embedded signup form.

Embedded form

With our embedded forms, you choose the overall design of the form, and we give you the code to use. Enable and disable form fields, rearrange the field order, use custom display names, and add optional help text to create a custom signup experience for your website. If you're comfortable with HTML, edit the form code further to fit your organization's style and brand.

Add an Embedded Signup Form to Your Website

This form appears inside a popup on your website, based on the criteria you set. Create and design the form in Mailchimp, then add it to your Mailchimp website or another platform.

Create a Popup Form

Form integrations and plugins

If you need to set up your form through an integrated platform, check out our integration and plugin options. Here are some resources that can help you get started.

Form API

For complete control over your signup form process and opt-in settings, code your signup form from the ground up and pass subscriber information back to Mailchimp through our API.

This is an advanced feature and is recommended for users familiar with custom coding. Contact your developer, or hire a Mailchimp Expert if you need assistance.

Manage Mailchimp Subscribers with the API CSS Hooks for Customizing Forms

Next steps

Not sure what form is right for you? Try a few to test them out.

After you set them up, wait a couple of weeks and measure the performance of each form. To do this, create an audience segment by signup source, and see which form generates the most subscribers.

How the Form Builder Works

Learn how to customize forms, welcome emails, and other response emails with our Form Builder.

Share Your Signup Form

Mailchimp makes it easy to share your signup form with fans and friends. Learn how to share signup forms on using URLs, Facebook, and more.

Add an Embedded Signup Form to Your Website

We automatically create signup forms for your audience. Learn how to embed a signup form on your site. And find out which third-party sites accept Mailchimp forms.