Formera

Self-hosted form builder. Privacy-friendly alternative to Google Forms.

Features

• Drag & Drop form builder
• Multiple field types (text, select, checkboxes, ratings, date/time, file upload, signature)
• Multi-page forms with progress indicator
• Password-protected forms
• Custom slugs for forms
• Responsive design
• Response analytics & statistics
• CSV/JSON export
• i18n support (German, English)
• Docker deployment

Tech Stack

Component	Technology
Backend	Go, Gin, GORM
Frontend	Nuxt 3, Vue 3, TypeScript
Database	SQLite
Storage	Local or S3-compatible

Quick Start

Docker Compose (Recommended)

services:
  backend:
    image: ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-backend:latest
    container_name: formera-backend
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - formera-data:/app/data
    environment:
      - JWT_SECRET=your-secure-secret-here  # CHANGE IN PRODUCTION!

  frontend:
    image: ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-frontend:latest
    container_name: formera-frontend
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000
      - API_URL=http://localhost:8080
    depends_on:
      - backend

volumes:
  formera-data:

docker compose up -d

Access at http://localhost:3000. Setup wizard appears on first start.

Docker (Separate Containers)

Backend:

docker run -d \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v formera-data:/app/data \
  -e JWT_SECRET=your-secure-secret-here \
  ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-backend:latest

Frontend:

docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:3000 \
  -e API_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
  ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-frontend:latest

Development

# Backend
cd backend && go run ./cmd/server serve

# Frontend
cd frontend && yarn install && yarn dev

Configuration

Frontend

Variable	Description	Default
BASE_URL	Public URL of the frontend	http://localhost:3000
API_URL	Backend base URL	http://localhost:8080

Backend

Variable	Description	Default
PORT	Backend port	8080
DB_PATH	SQLite database path	./data/formera.db
JWT_SECRET	JWT signing key (change in production!)	-
CORS_ORIGIN	Allowed origin (optional)	-

Proxy / Rate Limiting

Variable	Description	Default
TRUSTED_PROXIES	Trusted proxy IPs/CIDRs (comma-separated)	- (trust all)
REAL_IP_HEADER	Custom header for client IP (e.g., CF-Connecting-IP)	-

Storage

Variable	Description	Default
STORAGE_TYPE	Storage type: local or s3	local
STORAGE_LOCAL_PATH	Local upload directory	./data/uploads
STORAGE_LOCAL_URL	URL prefix for local files	/uploads

S3 Storage

Variable	Description	Default
S3_BUCKET	S3 bucket name	-
S3_REGION	S3 region	-
S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID	S3 access key	-
S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	S3 secret key	-
S3_ENDPOINT	Custom endpoint (MinIO, etc.)	-
S3_PREFIX	File path prefix	uploads/
S3_PRESIGN_MINUTES	URL expiration time	60

Migration

Variable	Description	Default
STORAGE_MIGRATE_ON_START	Auto-migrate local files to S3	true
STORAGE_DELETE_AFTER_MIGRATE	Delete local files after migration	false

Cleanup

Variable	Description	Default
CLEANUP_ENABLED	Enable automatic orphan file cleanup	true
CLEANUP_INTERVAL_HOURS	Cleanup interval	24
CLEANUP_MIN_AGE_DAYS	Minimum file age before deletion	7
CLEANUP_DRY_RUN	Only log deletions, don't execute	false

SEO

Variable	Description	Default
PUBLIC_INDEXABLE	Allow search engine indexing	true

Production Setup with Reverse Proxy

Example with Traefik:

services:
  backend:
    image: ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-backend:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - formera-data:/app/data
    environment:
      - JWT_SECRET=${JWT_SECRET}
      - CORS_ORIGIN=https://forms.example.com
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.formera-api.rule=Host(`forms.example.com`) && PathPrefix(`/api`)"
      - "traefik.http.services.formera-api.loadbalancer.server.port=8080"

  frontend:
    image: ghcr.io/formeraapp/formera-frontend:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - BASE_URL=https://forms.example.com
      - API_URL=https://forms.example.com
    labels:
      - "traefik.enable=true"
      - "traefik.http.routers.formera.rule=Host(`forms.example.com`)"
      - "traefik.http.services.formera.loadbalancer.server.port=3000"

volumes:
  formera-data:

Testing

# Run all backend tests
cd backend && go test -v ./...

# Run tests with coverage
cd backend && go test -v -cover ./...

# Run specific package tests
cd backend && go test -v ./internal/handlers/...

API Documentation

Swagger/OpenAPI documentation is available at /swagger/index.html when running the backend.

For the hosted version, visit the API Docs on GitHub Pages.

Security

If you discover a security vulnerability within Formera, please send an e-mail to admin@formera.app

All reports will be promptly addressed and you'll be credited in the fix release notes.

Contributing

Formera is a free and open source project licensed under the MIT License. You are free to do whatever you want with it, even offering it as a paid service.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

MIT