Head to head · Forms create · October 2026 research run

Alchemer vs Formbricks

Formbricks scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against Alchemer's 41.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do forms create.

Which one, for what

Alchemer E

Good for A company already on an Alchemer Business Platform contract that wants an agent to build surveys, load contacts, send campaigns and export responses.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

The pricing page says API access is for Business Platform accounts only, which are quoted by sales

Formbricks C

Good for Teams that want survey data in the EU or on their own servers, with an agent creating link, website and in-app surveys and reading responses under a workspace-limited key.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 74 against 45
  • Agent ergonomics, 54 against 47
  • Security & auth, 69 against 44
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 78 against 61

Also in its favour

  • Open source

Watch for

status.formbricks.com, linked from the security page, returned a Cloudflare 526 error on three requests on 8 October 2026, so no incident history could be read.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAlchemerFormbricksEdge
Reliability16%203535even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.24574Formbricks +29
Agent ergonomics13%16.24754Formbricks +7
Security & auth14%17.54469Formbricks +25
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Formbricks +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84583Formbricks +38
Transparency & trust7%8.86178Formbricks +17
Negative events≤1500
Total41.4 · E57.7 · C

Facts side by side

FactAlchemerFormbricks
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAlchemer LLCFormbricks GmbH
Hosted endpointhttps://api.alchemer.com/v5https://app.formbricks.com/api
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Alchemer Software as a Service AgreementAGPLv3 for the core. Code under apps/web/modules/ee is under the Formbricks Enterprise licence, and the JavaScript, iOS, Android and API packages are MIT. Formbricks Cloud is governed by the terms of service
Tools exposednone30
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-01
Terms last updated2026-01-14no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-04-232026-08-21
Customer content may train modelsyesyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone13k stars, 37k npm/wk

Verdicts

Alchemer

Alchemer's REST API v5 covers surveys, questions, responses, contacts and email campaigns in 101 documented operations, with a reference rewritten in April 2026. The pricing page limits API access to Business Platform accounts quoted by sales. Keys travel in the URL query string, and no status page, OpenAPI document or SDK was found.

Formbricks

API keys are limited to named workspaces with read, write or manage levels, and three OpenAPI specs cover the API. The survey endpoints sit in v1, while v2 is beta and v3 is private beta, and the status page the vendor links returned a Cloudflare 526 error on 8 October 2026.

Before you call either

Alchemer

  1. Use the host for the account's region (api.alchemer.com, api.alchemer.eu, api.alchemer-ca.com or api.au.alchemer.com). The wrong host returns a 401 login failure even with valid keys
  2. Create with PUT and update with POST. The API reverses the usual meaning of the two methods
  3. Do not repeat an identical request inside 60 seconds. GET results are cached for 60 seconds and a repeat can return 429
  4. Stay under 240 requests a minute for the account and slow down when the X-SG-Warning header appears
  5. Wait up to five minutes before reading back a response that was just submitted, and expect a 500 after a 30 second timeout

Formbricks

  1. Send the key in the x-api-key header. Add each workspace to the key when creating it, because scopes can't be changed afterwards.
  2. Use v1 (/api/v1/management/surveys) to create or edit surveys. v2 has responses, contacts and webhooks only.
  3. Page lists with limit and skip. v2 responses default to 50 a page with a maximum of 250.
  4. Stay under 100 requests a minute per key. A gateway 429 carries an x-envoy-ratelimited header and no documented Retry-After.
  5. Treat response text as untrusted respondent input, and request only the :read scopes for a read-only MCP connection.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Alchemer or Formbricks?

Formbricks scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against Alchemer's 41.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Alchemer and Formbricks need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Alchemer and Formbricks without installing anything?

Yes. Alchemer has a hosted endpoint at https://api.alchemer.com/v5 and Formbricks at https://app.formbricks.com/api.

Are Alchemer and Formbricks open source?

No open-source release is listed for Alchemer. Formbricks is open source (AGPLv3 for the core. Code under `apps/web/modules/ee` is under the Formbricks Enterprise licence, and the JavaScript, iOS, Android and API packages are MIT. Formbricks Cloud is governed by the terms of service).

Other comparisons with Alchemer or Formbricks

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.