Custom Email Templates
Brand your auto-responder and AI reply emails with custom HTML
Custom Email Templates let you replace the default plain-text auto-responder email with a fully branded HTML email. Upload your own HTML, use dynamic placeholders, and deliver a polished experience to every form submitter — no extra tools required.
Pro Feature
Custom Email Templates are available on the Pro plan and above. Upgrade to Pro to unlock this feature.
How It Works
When a form is submitted and an auto-responder or AI reply is triggered, Static Forms checks whether a custom HTML template is saved and enabled for the account. If so, it renders your template — injecting the processed message where {{message}} appears — and sends that HTML email instead of the default template.
If no custom template is configured (or it is disabled), emails fall back to the built-in auto-responder template automatically.
Setting Up a Custom Template
Insert Example or write your own HTML
Click Insert Example to populate the textarea with a working starter template, or paste your own HTML. The template must be valid HTML and must contain the {{message}} placeholder.
Enable the toggle
Switch the toggle at the top of the card to On. The template is only used when it is both saved and enabled.
Preview and save
Click Preview to see your template rendered with sample data. Switch between the Preview and HTML Source tabs to verify both the visual output and the raw markup. When satisfied, click Save Template.
Available Placeholders
You can use the following placeholders anywhere inside your HTML template. They are replaced with real values each time an email is sent:
| Placeholder | Description |
|---|---|
| {{message}} | Required. The processed auto-responder message body. |
| {{name}} | Value of the submitter's name field. |
| {{email}} | Value of the submitter's email field. |
| {{recipient_email}} | Alias for {{email}} — the address the email is sent to. |
| {{fieldName}} | Any other form field — use the exact field name, e.g. {{company}}. |
Required placeholder
Every template must include {{message}}. Saving a template without it will fail validation.
Example Template
Here is a minimal branded template you can use as a starting point:
Template Validation Rules
Templates are validated before saving. The following rules apply:
Must contain {{message}}
Required so the auto-responder body has somewhere to appear.
Maximum size: 50 KB
Keep templates lean — large images should be hosted externally and referenced with <img> src URLs.
No <script> tags
JavaScript is stripped for security.
No inline event handlers
Attributes like onclick= or onmouseover= are rejected.
Child Account Templates
Each child account can have its own custom email template that overrides the parent's template. Navigate to the Child Accounts tab on the Email Templates settings page to configure per-child templates.
The priority order is:
- Child account template (if enabled)
- Parent account template (if enabled)
- Default built-in template (fallback)
Works With Auto-Responders and AI Reply
The custom template is applied to both Auto-Responder emails and AI Reply emails. The {{message}} placeholder will contain the respective message body for each email type.
Disabling or Deleting
Toggle the switch off to temporarily disable the custom template without deleting it. Use the Delete Template button to remove it entirely — emails will then fall back to the default template.