How to limit a Wix form to one submission per email (Wix Forms)

Wix Forms cannot limit a form to one submission per email on its own: it can cap the total number of submissions or close the form at a date and time, but it has no setting for "one entry per email address". To block a second submission from the same email on the form you already have, you either write your own Velo code or add an app such as One Submission Per Email, which checks each new submission and shows your own message under the email field, with no code. Below: what Wix offers today, the free workarounds and where they stop, and how to set up the no-code way.

• Built in: a limit on the total number of submissions, and a closing date and time. Neither looks at who is submitting.
• Not built in: one submission per email. Wix lists it as a feature request that is still collecting votes.
• Free workarounds need code, or a custom form connected to a CMS collection instead of a Wix Forms form.
• No code: an app that hooks into the form's own submission check keeps your form and stops the duplicate before it is saved.

What Wix Forms can limit today

In the form's settings you can limit submissions in two ways: by the total number you want to receive, and by a date and time after which the form stops accepting entries. Both are useful for "the first 100 people" or "entries close on Friday", but they count every submission the same way. A person who submits ten times uses up ten of your hundred places.

Wix's own help center says so directly in its feature request Wix Forms: Limiting Submissions to One Per Email: "Currently, Wix Forms allows you to limit submissions by total number or by date and time, but it is not possible to limit entries based on a user's email." The request is marked as collecting votes, so there is no date for it.

Free ways to stop duplicate entries, and where they stop

• A custom form connected to a CMS collection with a unique field. This is the answer usually given on the Wix forum (Limit form submission to 1 for each email): build the form from input elements connected to a dataset, store entries in a CMS collection, and make the email field a unique index, or use a hash of the email as the item ID. The database then refuses a second item with the same email. Two things remain. It is not a Wix Forms form, so you rebuild the form and lose Wix Forms' notifications, submissions list and automations. And in that thread the duplicate was refused but the visitor still saw "thank you for submitting", because showing a message for the duplicate needs code too.
• A data hook that counts before saving. A beforeInsert hook in backend/data.js queries the collection for the same value and rejects the item if it finds one (Preventing Duplicate Form Submissions). It also only works for forms that save to your own collection. Counting and then inserting are two steps, so two submissions that arrive at the same moment can both pass.
• Your own Velo code for Wix Forms. Wix Forms offers a Form Submission service plugin in Velo that can validate a submission before it is saved and return an error message. A developer can use it to keep a list of used emails and reject repeats. You then write and maintain the code yourself: where to keep the list, how to compare addresses (capital letters, Gmail dots and +tags), how to handle two submissions at once, how to let someone enter again, and what to do if the check fails, so that the form never stops working for everyone. Keeping a list of raw email addresses in a collection is also personal data you have to protect.
• Switching to another form builder app. A few third-party form builders include a per-user limit in a paid plan (for example POWR's Mailing List in its Pro plan). You rebuild the form in that app and leave Wix Forms.

Limit a Wix form to one submission per email without code

We made One Submission Per Email for this (GRAMSHIFT, on the Wix App Market). It plugs into the same submission check that Wix Forms offers to apps, so it works on the forms you already built with the current Wix Forms app.

1. Install the app and open it from your site's dashboard.
2. Tick the form to protect. The email field is found for you; if the form has more than one, pick which one to check.
3. Choose how long an address stays used: once for good, or once every 1, 7, 30, 90 or 365 days (for example 30 days for a monthly drawing).
4. Write the message visitors see when they try again (up to 500 characters, in any language), turn on the Gmail rule if you want it, and press Save.

From then on, a second submission with the same email is not saved, and your message appears in red right under the email field. Capital letters and extra spaces are ignored, so Ann@Example.com and ann@example.com count as one person; with the Gmail rule on, dots and +tags in Gmail addresses count as one address too. Two people sending the same email at the same moment get only one entry through, and an address counts as used only once its submission is saved, so an unfinished payment never locks anyone out.

In the app's Entries section you see how many entries each form has, can let one person submit again (Remove entry), or clear a whole form so everyone can enter again. The app does not store the email addresses themselves: each entry is a one-way hash mixed with a random value unique to your site, kept in a private collection on your own site, and nothing is sent outside Wix (privacy policy). If a check cannot finish within a few seconds, the submission goes through, so the app never blocks your form.

The free plan protects one form with every rule above; Pro protects all of your forms. It needs the current Wix Forms app (forms made with the legacy Wix Forms app are not supported), counting starts when you save a protected form, and the site's CMS is added if it is not there yet. More answers are on the support page.

Which way to choose

• You only need a cap or a deadline: use Wix Forms' own limit on the number of submissions or the closing date.
• You write code and are happy to maintain it: a Velo Form Submission service plugin, or a custom CMS form with a unique field.
• You want one entry per email on the Wix Forms form you already have, without code: One Submission Per Email.