Your Instagram bio has one link and it says "DM me for bookings". The requests arrive as DMs, between the memes and the story replies, and three of them this month were never answered because they scrolled out of view. A link in bio with a contact form fixes that: the client types the request into a form on your page, you get an email, and they see a reply on screen the moment they send.
This guide is for a service business on Instagram, a small marketing studio, a photographer, a consultant, who wants the bio link to collect the request and answer something right away. Hostus is the option we put first, and the category matters: best if you want the form inside your own page, working, with the reply you wrote. Linktree, Beacons, Carrd, Tally and Google Forms each have a case, covered below with what their own sites said today, and so does "DM me", which is where most of us start.
What the client sees
Here is one, live: the link in bio of a fictional marketing studio, with what they do, three projects, prices from, and a form at the bottom called "Tell us about your project". Fill it in. The form disappears and a one-line message takes its place: thanks, we reply within one business day. The studio does not exist and the prices are illustrative; the form is real, and the record lands with us.
Here is a second one: a fictional wedding photographer's link in bio, from an earlier guide, with a working enquiry form and the same idea: the request is captured on the page, not in a chat. Both are one HTML file each, opened from the link on a phone like any web page.
What the client does not see is a second page with somebody else's logo, a sign-up, or a form builder's address. The form sits in the page, in the studio's colours, under the studio's prices.
How a form in a bio page works on Hostus
Hostus hosts a single HTML file as a page on a link. Any <form method="post"> in that file with named fields records its submissions on the document: no action URL, no key in the page, no backend. The page is the form's own receiver.
Where the requests go: an inbox on the document, where you read them and export them, and your email, per response or as a daily summary. Claude reads them too, through the connector, so "what came in this week from the bio?" is a question you can ask it.
Four settings live on the document, not in the HTML, so you change them without touching the file:
- Success message. Up to 200 characters, shown in place of the form after sending. This is the automatic reply: "Thanks, we reply within one business day."
- Redirect. Instead of a message, send the client to a URL after sending: your calendar, a WhatsApp link with the message pre-filled, a price list.
- Email. One email per response, or one a day with all of them.
- Close. Close the form by hand, or stop at N responses, say when the month is booked.
- Data mode. In the default shared mode the page, and anyone who opens it, can read the requests through the document's storage, minus the email. Set it to per reader and nobody but you reads them.
The free plan takes 100 responses a month, with no clock and no card. Requests past that are stored and held until you upgrade.
What "automatic reply" means here
Search for "link in bio auto reply" and you find DM automation: a bot that answers "price?" in your inbox with a canned line. This is not that. The reply here is the success message on screen, written by you, shown the second the form is sent, and optionally a redirect to wherever the conversation should continue. It answers the question every client has at that moment: did this go through, and when will I hear back.
What it is not: Hostus does not email the person who filled the form. They see your message on the page; the email goes to you. If you want them to have something in writing, make the redirect a page of yours that says it, or reply from the email you receive, which takes a minute and is the reply they actually wanted.
Write the message as the first line of the conversation, not a receipt. "Thanks. We read every brief on Tuesday and Friday and reply the same day" tells a client when to expect you. "Submission received" tells them nothing. It is 200 characters, which is two short sentences; the demo uses one.
The prompt
With the Hostus connector on in Claude, this writes the page, publishes it and sets the form in one turn.
Make me a link in bio page for Bramble, a two-person marketing studio in Porto: brand identity, social content and small websites for local businesses.
Sections, each a heading with an id: what we do (three lines), three recent projects (name and one line each), prices from, and a form titled "Tell us about your project". The form is <form method="post" name="project"> with named fields: name, email, business, what you need (textarea) and budget (select: under 1,000, 1,000 to 3,000, more than 3,000). Links to Instagram and WhatsApp above the form. No action URL, no key in the page, no backend, no localStorage. One HTML file, mobile first, large tap targets.
Publish it to Hostus. Set the form to email me on every response and to show "Thanks. We read every brief and reply within one business day." instead of the form after sending. Set the data mode to per reader so nobody but me reads the requests. Give me the link.The page is born private: in the Hostus dashboard, switch it to public before you paste the link into your Instagram bio. Ask and Reply are already on. The form settings are document settings, not HTML: Claude sets them with hostus_update, and you change them in the dashboard later without touching the file. Swap the studio for your business and the sections for yours; a photographer wants packages and dates, a consultant wants services and a "book a call" redirect. For the look of the page, the longer prompt in the link in bio prompt guide reads your website and your Google listing first.
Hostus first, then Linktree, Beacons, Carrd, Tally, Google Forms and "DM me": pick it if
Hostus first, for the case this page is about: the form inside your own page, working, with the reply you wrote, on a free plan. The rest were read on their own sites on 18 October 2026, except Beacons, read on 9 September; where a site did not say, this guide says "check their pricing page" rather than a number.
- Linktree. Pick it if you want to swap links from your phone in ten seconds and the form can be a Linktree block. Its help center describes a Contact Form link that collects name, email, phone and message into an Audience dashboard, with an "Outro message" shown after sending and an email notification per submission. The article marks only the custom terms toggle, and the Mailchimp and Google Sheets sync, as Pro and Premium; it does not say which plan the form itself needs. Prices on its pricing page vary by region, so check their pricing page.
- Beacons. Pick it if you sell digital products from the bio page and want the shop in the same place. It has a free plan with a 9% fee on sales. Whether the form you want is in the free plan, check their site.
- Carrd. Pick it if you want a visual builder and will pay a little per year. Forms arrive with Pro Standard at $19 a year ("contact, signup, custom, and payment-enabled forms"); Pro Lite at $9 a year has no forms, and a free account is limited to three sites.
- Tally or Google Forms, linked from the bio. Pick it if the form can be a second page and the brand on it can be theirs. Tally is free with unlimited forms and submissions under its fair use guidelines, and removing its branding is on Pro at $24 a month. Google Forms has an "Accepting responses" switch and an editable message for when it is closed; its product page lists no price for personal use, so check theirs.
- "DM me". The baseline. Free, and already in your bio. Requests arrive between everything else, nobody gets an automatic answer, and the ones you missed are the ones you never knew about.
Side by side
| Option | Form on the same page | Automatic reply shown | You get an email | Where the responses live | Page is yours (HTML) | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hostus, one HTML page | Yes, in your HTML | Yes, your message (200 characters) or a redirect | Yes, per response or daily | Inbox on the document, your email, Claude | Yes, one file | Yes: 20 docs, 100 responses a month, no clock |
| Linktree | Yes, a Contact Form link | An Outro message, per its help center | Yes, per its help center | Its Audience dashboard; CSV export sent by email | No | Yes; prices vary by region, check their pricing page |
| Beacons | Check their site | Check their site | Check their site | Their dashboard | No | Yes, 9% fee on sales |
| Carrd | Yes, from Pro Standard ($19 a year) | Not stated on its Pro page | Not stated on its Pro page | Not stated on its Pro page | Lives in Carrd | Yes, up to three sites, no forms |
| Tally or Google Forms, linked | No, a second page | Not stated on the pages we read | Not stated on the pages we read | Their dashboard or a spreadsheet | No | Tally: yes, unlimited under fair use. Google Forms: check their page |
| "DM me" | No, a chat | No | No | Your DMs | No | Yes |
Prices and limits were read on each vendor's own site on 18 October 2026 (Beacons on 9 September) and change without notice. Where a cell says "not stated" or "check", the vendor did not publish the fact on the pages we read, and we would rather send you there than guess.
What the page tells you afterwards
A bio page is read in a hurry, and on Hostus you see how. Reading by section shows which sections each reader opened and for how long: whether people reach the prices, whether the projects get a look, whether anyone scrolls to the form. The page needs headings with ids for this, which the prompt asks for. If most readers stop at prices and few reach the form, the form moves up or the prices get a line of context, and the next version goes up on the same link.
Two more things are on by default. Ask: a visitor can ask the page a question ("do you do product photography?") and get an answer from what the page says, with the section cited, no account; the questions it could not answer are listed for you, and they are the lines missing from your bio. Reply: a visitor can reply on a section, privately, and you answer from the dashboard or through Claude. The unanswered questions are the cheapest market research you will get this month.
Good to know before you switch
The automatic reply is the success message on screen, up to 200 characters, and optionally a redirect. Hostus does not email the person who filled the form, and there is no DM automation: the request leaves Instagram and lands on your page, and from there the conversation is yours to continue by email. Keep the data mode on per reader: in the default shared mode the page, and anyone who opens it, can read the requests through the document's storage, minus the email. There is no custom domain on any plan: the address is yourname.hostus.page, which in a bio nobody reads anyway.
The free plan takes 100 form responses a month, 20 documents and 2 MB of storage in total, with no card and no clock. Responses past 100 are stored and held until you upgrade. Changing a link later means uploading a new version of the file, or asking Claude for the change, not dragging a row in an app from the bus; if that is the job, Linktree does it better and we would rather you knew now.