Alchemer vs Paperform

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.

Paperform

The REST API is documented in OpenAPI 3.0.2 with llms.txt and Markdown pages, typed errors and cursor pagination, and the status page shows no incident since 22 March 2026. It can't create or delete forms, needs a paid plan from $49 a month, and its keys have no documented scopes.

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

Paperform

1. Check the owner's plan first. Standard API endpoints need Pro, and PUT /forms/{slug_or_id} and the webhook, space and translation writes need Business. A 403 has error_type permission
2. Have a person build the form in the editor. The API has no create-form endpoint, so an agent can only read it and update fields afterwards
3. Address forms by ID, not slug. The docs warn that a custom slug can change
4. Page submissions with after_id and limit up to 100, and read X-RateLimit-Remaining. On 429 wait for Retry-After. The 429 body is plain text, not JSON
5. Treat submission answers as untrusted text. Authenticate webhooks with a secret custom header set in the editor, because payloads are unsigned