Comparison
Toimii vs a mailto: link
A `mailto:` link is free, instant, and the most common "contact us" pattern on small business sites. It's also silently broken for a significant portion of desktop visitors, a reliable spam magnet, and leaves no record of who tried to reach you. Toimii replaces it with a real form on the same line of HTML, with prompts, spam protection, and a dashboard log.
At a glance
A fair side-by-side, including where the free option actually wins.
| Toimii | A mailto: link | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Flat monthly plan. Unlimited submissions. | Free. |
| Setup | Two-line snippet. Script tag plus a custom element. | Add an `href="mailto:..."` link. About 30 seconds. |
| Hosting | We host the bundle on a CDN. Auto-updates. | None. It's an HTML attribute. |
| Maintenance | Zero. No plugins, no spam filter tuning, no upgrades. | None, technically. The address is the maintenance. |
| Tools included | Contact, booking, NPS, ordering, pricing calculator in one subscription. | Contact via email. Booking, ordering, NPS are not included. |
| Branding | Lives on your site, your domain, your brand. Never looks like a third-party page. | A plain underlined link. No styling beyond your CSS. |
| Submission storage | Every submission stored in your dashboard, encrypted at rest. | None. The customer's email client is the only record. |
| Notifications | Email, Slack, generic webhook, mobile push to the Toimii app. | Whatever your email client delivers. No retries, no fallback. |
Where they really differ
Works whether the visitor has email set up
A `mailto:` link assumes the visitor has a desktop email client configured. On a laptop without Outlook or Mail.app set up (common on work laptops and shared computers), the link does nothing. The user sees nothing happen, gives up, and moves on. Toimii renders a real form on the page; submission works whether the visitor has an email client or not.
Spam-resistant by design
A plain-text email address published on a web page gets scraped within weeks and ends up on spam lists. The inbox you wanted for customers becomes a stream of phishing attempts and marketing pitches. Toimii has spam protection built in, so real customer messages stay visible.
A form converts better than a blank compose window
A `mailto:` link gives visitors a blank compose window: no prompts, no required fields, no structure. Many drop off before sending; others send a one-liner missing the details you need. Toimii asks for the right things in the right order, so fewer messages fall through the cracks.
A submission log, not just an inbox
With a `mailto:` link, the only record is in your inbox. If the email lands in spam, the address changes, or someone deletes it, that contact is gone. Toimii stores every submission in a dashboard the moment it arrives. Email is one delivery channel; the dashboard is the source of truth.
More than a contact link
A `mailto:` link handles contact. Toimii adds booking, NPS feedback, online ordering, and a pricing calculator on the same two-line embed, the same dashboard, the same flat plan.
Frequently asked
How big a problem is the broken-on-desktop issue, really?
More than most expect. Mobile devices generally have an email client set by default, but a significant portion of desktop visitors (people on work laptops, shared computers, or browsers where Gmail isn't the default `mailto:` handler) get nothing when they click. No error message, just silence.
How long does it take for a published email to be spam-listed?
A few weeks at most. Scrapers crawl sites constantly looking for `mailto:` patterns. Even low-traffic small business sites get hit. The scrapers don't need to find you specifically, they crawl everything.
Can I keep using my existing email address?
Yes. Keep using the same address as a notification endpoint behind Toimii's form. Visitors interact with the form; you still get email to your inbox, plus a dashboard log and delivery retries.
Is `mailto:` ever the right call?
Yes. For a personal site, portfolio, or hobby project where a missed message has no real cost, a link is fine and it's free. Once missed contacts start costing you, a real form earns its keep.
How long does it take to replace a `mailto:` link?
Two minutes. Design the form in the visual editor, copy the snippet, paste it into your contact page. The "email us at" line can stay as a fallback for the few who prefer it.
Comparing against something else?
Same breakdown for every alternative. Pick the one you're weighing.
Drop it in. See for yourself.
30-day free trial. No credit card. Set up in minutes.
No credit card required. Set up in 2 minutes.