What is a thank you page and what should it say?

The four things it should say

The GOV.UK design system is specific about confirmation pages, and its list works for almost any form. A reference number, if there is one. What happens next and when, stated as a fact rather than a hope: replies go out within two working days, by email. Contact details, for the person whose situation changes an hour later. And a link to give feedback. The same pattern suggests offering a way to keep a record of the transaction, such as a PDF, which matters most for applications and orders. Leave out anything that reads as marketing until those four are done. A newsletter prompt above the confirmation makes people scroll to find out whether their form went through.

Writing the next step

The sentence about what happens next deserves more care than any other on the page. Give a time frame people can hold you to, name the channel, and say who will make contact, even if it is a role rather than a name. Tell them what to do if nothing arrives: check a spam folder, or write to a named address after three working days. If replies slow down over holidays or at the end of a financial year, update the page for that period rather than letting an out of date promise stand. A specific, slightly longer time frame that is kept beats a short one that is missed.

Making the confirmation reach everyone

A confirmation that only appears visually can be missed entirely by somebody using a screen reader, especially when the form is replaced in place without the page reloading. WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.3 covers exactly this case: status messages must be exposed so assistive technology can announce them without moving focus, and its own example is a line reading that a form was successfully submitted. The W3C forms tutorial suggests putting the confirmation in the main heading and the page title, so the first thing announced is the outcome. Check it by submitting with a screen reader running and listening for the confirmation before anything else.

When a redirect helps and when it hurts

Sending people onward automatically is right when the form was a gate rather than a destination: a short form in front of a download, a booking calendar or a checkout. The person expects to arrive somewhere, and an extra click is friction. It is wrong when the confirmation itself carries information they need, such as a reference number or a reply time, because a redirect removes it before it is read. If you redirect, make the destination page confirm the submission too, and leave enough time on the confirmation for a slow reader. A button they choose to press is the safer default whenever you are unsure.

Matching the tone to the form

A thank you page for a competition entry and one for a complaint should not look alike. Celebration, confetti and exclamation belong on signups and registrations. On an incident report, a hardship application or a bereavement notification, the right tone is calm and specific: this has been received, this person will contact you, this is what to do if it is urgent. It is also worth reconsidering the words thank you on those forms, since nobody filling in a report of a workplace injury wants to be thanked for it. Received, with a clear next step, reads as more respectful.

The thank you screen in the form builder

The thank you screen has 4 layouts, editorial, split, centered and card, plus an eyebrow, title, description, a confetti toggle and a button with a URL. A timed redirect, set in seconds, only runs when that button URL is set, and 0 or an unset value turns it off; with no button URL the button resets the form instead. One screen serves every submission. Separately, the redirect add-on sends the browser to a URL straight after a successful submit, so the thank you screen is not seen. Email alerts go to the single address set on the form, which makes them a notice to the owner rather than a confirmation to the respondent.

Questions people ask