Native Marketo Form vs Custom Form using Marketo API

[Evan_Clark]

Hello,

We currently are using a custom built form on our website that is using the Munchkin API to push Lead information into Marketo. What would be the pros and cons of using a custom form using the API verus using a form natively built within Marketo?

For example, I imagine one pro for using a native Marketo form would be that leads information can be prefilled in the fields after they revist the form.

Thanks,

Evan

[Anonymous]

This article has a good overview of pro's and con's of different Marketo form options:
http://elixiter.com/marketo-landing-page-and-form-hosting-options/

[Evan_Clark]

This is a great start -- thanks!

But what about a form created outside Marketo. Our custom form was created using JavaScript and resides on our website.

[Anonymous]

One advantage of using a Marketo form is form pre-fill. 

I believe the approach you are currently using is a server-side form post:
http://developers.marketo.com/blog/server-side-form-post/

[Anonymous]

Form pre-fill does not work on forms hosted anywhere besides Marketo though, right?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Bear in mind that a form that uses the Munchkin API is pushing information, not pulling it, no matter what.  Using the Munchkin API to update the lead database is not substantively different from using the Forms 2.0 API (the Munchkin API offers a helpful level of security, but also lacks several kinds of error detection).  In the vast majority of cases using a Forms 2.0 API post in the background is preferable to using the Munchkin API.

With that out of the way, there are still several answers to your question.  You can accomplish form prefill on a non-Marketo page, with no limitations, using some of my "special sauce."  Gatewaying through the REST API, on the contrary, is not special sauce but very dangerous and not recommended.