best wordpress form plugins

6 Best WordPress Form Plugins

The best WordPress form plugins are easy to use, reliable, and feature-packed.

And they can be vital in growing conversions and sales.

In this review, we tried out the best WordPress form plugins to save you time.

In a rush? Our top picks are:

  1. WPForms: Beginner-friendly and Feature-Rich
  2. Formidable Forms: Creative Custom Forms
  3. Gravity Forms: Custom Data-Driven Forms

Benefits of Online Forms

Around 93% of all online experiences begin with a search engine query. And online forms are the biggest lead generator for over half of U.S. businesses.

Online forms combined with SEO help businesses reach their traffic and conversion goals. In fact, the mean conversion rate for online forms is over 21%.

Everyone’s familiar with newsletter signups, order forms, and contact forms. But forms can also route customer support requests, collect payments, register users, run polls and quizzes, and collect contest entries. Users can use forms to submit content to sites too.

And now, you can even use AI (artificial intelligence) to generate customized email responses to form submitters. Let’s learn more.

Best WordPress Form Plugins

We’ve test-driven the most popular WordPress form plugins. Here are our recommendations.

wpforms best wordpress form plugins

WPForms: the Market Leader

With a 5-star rating on WordPress.org and over 5 million active installations, it’s easy to see why WPForms is the market leader.

This is the closest you can get to instant forms.

With a beginner-friendly drag-and-drop form builder, even a child can use WPForms.

We like the pre-built templates that require no drag-and-drop action. Just select and edit.

There are over 700 of these templates, organized by niche: “Business and Operations,” “Customer Service,” “Entertainment,” and so on.

wpforms fields

We added our first form in less than 2 minutes without reading any instructions.

wpforms add block

With WPForms, you’ll get numerous add-ons, including integrations with HubSpot, MailChimp, Salesforce, and others. One of their most unique features is the User Journey add-on. With it, you can get insights to boost form conversions.

WPForms is compatible with Elementor, WooCommerce, WPML, and many other builders and plugins.

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) uses WPForms, and it’s played a vital role in our revenue and sales growth.

Who it’s for: WPForms is a good fit for beginners or intermediate users who value plugins that are easy to use. With its advanced add-ons like geolocation and form abandonment, this plugin will grow with you.

Key Features and AddOns:

  • GDPR-compliant
  • Conditional logic
  • File uploads
  • Form confirmation
  • Form notification
  • Conversational forms
  • Custom CSS
  • Form layouts
  • Entry management
  • Recurring subscriptions
  • Display options, including pop-ups

Payments: WPForms provides the following addons to collect payments: Stripe, Paypal Standard, PayPal Commerce, Square, Authorize.net

Spam Protection: Custom Captcha

Advanced Tools and Features:

  • Form abandonment
  • Surveys and polls
  • Geolocation
  • Digital signatures
  • User registration and login
  • Post submissions
  • Zapier integration
  • Offline forms
  • WP Mail SMTP

Email form integrations:

  • Constant Contact
  • MailChimp
  • Drip
  • ConvertKit
  • GetResponse
  • AWeber

Pricing: Starts at $49.50/year.

Good to know: WPForms offers a free version of their plugin: WPForms Lite. You’ll get access to 57 templates. And you can opt to store entries offline and import those if you upgrade to a paid version of the plugin.

Formidable Forms: Creative and Easy to Use

Another WordPress form builder we like is Formidable Forms. While it has fewer templates than WPForms (200+ versus 700+), that may be all you need!

Formidable Forms bills itself as “the most advanced” form builder.

Like WPForms, it has a free version available on WordPress.org. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid version to get the calculators, file uploads, surveys and forms, and data.

Once you’ve installed Formidable Forms, the dashboard is intuitive and includes an overview video.

formidable forms interface

Start by creating a blank form or using a template.

formidable forms templates

As with WPForms, we created a form in a few minutes without reading instructions.

The Pro version of Formidable Forms comes with 9 AI form templates that don’t require an API key, thanks to an integration with OpenAI.

WPForms provides ChatGPT integration via Uncanny Automation, a third-party tool.

Another standout feature is the Twilio SMS add-on. With it, a form submission triggers a text message to the user. A good use case is for confirming event registrations.

You can also use the Twilio SMS addon to allow users to text in votes in response to polls and surveys.

WPForms also provides Twilio SMS via a Zapier add-on. Is the Formidable Forms integration simpler? Decide for yourself.

Features:

  • Drag-and-drop form builder
  • Pre-built templates
  • File uploads
  • User Registration
  • Surveys and polls
  • Quizzes
  • Dynamic fields
  • 1-click addon installation
  • Conditional logic
  • Star ratings
  • Multi-page forms
  • Conversational forms
  • Form management
  • Age-restricted forms

Payments: Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net

Spam Protection: reCAPTCHA v2 + Honeypot

recaptha example
reCAPTHAs prevent spam bots from filling out your forms.

Advanced Tools:

  • Geolocation
  • Advanced calculations
  • Multiple ways to view data
  • AI forms

Email form integrations:

  • Constant Contact
  • Campaign Monitor
  • GetResponse
  • AWeber
  • Mailchimp

Pricing: Starts at $39.50/year.

Good to know: You’ll need to set up and fund a Twilio account to use the SMS feature. Twilio has pay-for-what-you-use pricing. In the U.S., it costs .0079 cents to send 1 text message via Twilio. So it would cost $7.90 to text 1,000 people. You can purchase a phone number from Twilio for a one-time fee of only $1.15 or $2.15 for a toll-free number.

twilio studio flow example
Twilio’s Studio is a drag-and-drop interface for creating SMS flows. You can use it to create automated SMS messages and responses, and to forward replies to a staff member’s phone. You can also use it to program phone flows.

Gravity Forms: Custom Data-Driven Forms

Gravity Forms is a popular choice for agencies, marketers, and those who need advanced forms.

Marketers will love the conditional pricing and coupon features.

Gravity offers e-commerce options designed to drive sales, like inventory displays. And Gravity forms are compatible with WooCommerce.

As with most form plugins, you can customize the form submission confirmation messages and choose several ways to receive notifications.

Like WPForms and Formidable Forms, Gravity’s add-ons are accessible in the WordPress dashboard.

Those add-ons include integrations with Trello, FreshBooks, Help Scout, Dropbox, Breeze, and Capsule.

Web accessibility is emphasized by Gravity Forms, which is WCAG 2.1AA compliant.

Drag-and-drop form elements include Consent and Captcha.

After uploading the plugin, it’s easy to find Gravity’s templates.

gravity forms templates

Creating a form is intuitive. As with WPForms and Formidable Forms, we created a form in minutes without reading instructions.

gravity forms standard fields
Above: In Gravity Forms, the drag-and-drop form fields appear at the right (enlarged here). Gravity Forms is a good choice for marketers and those looking for advanced features and lots of integrations.

Features:

  • GDPR compliant
  • Drag-and-drop form builder
  • Conditional logic
  • File uploads
  • Accessible forms
  • Automated workflows
  • Surveys
  • Recurring subscriptions

Payments: PayPal Checkout, Stripe, Mollie, Square, Authorize.net, 2CheckOut

Spam Protection: Google reCaptcha v2 & v3

Advanced Tools:

  • Digital Signatures
  • API & webhooks

Email form integrations:

  • Campaign Monitor
  • Intuit MailChimp
  • ConstantContact
  • Emma
  • MadMimi
  • Mailgun
  • SendGrid
  • PostMark

Pricing: Starts at $59/year.

Good to know: Gravity Forms does not offer a free version.

Ninja Forms: Beginner-Friendly Forms

Ninja Forms is a well-known form builder with drag-and-drop functionality and a good selection of add-ons.

Those add-ons include CRM integrations with Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Capsule, Insightly, Pipeline, OnePage, and CiviCRM.

All plans include unlimited forms, submissions, and emails.

Ninja Forms lives up to its user-friendly reputation. Like WPForms, we could quickly create a form without reading any instructions. But WPForms, Formidable Forms, and Gravity Forms are slightly more intuitive.

A couple of minor quibbles. When you start building your form, no drag-and-drop form fields are visible. You must click the blue “+” icon at the bottom right to make those fields appear.

ninja forms interface

We’re not sure why this added step exists, but it’s not a deal-breaker.

ninja forms fields

Also, the templates seem slower to load than those of the other form builders we tested.

Who it’s for: Beginners who want versatility but don’t need geolocation or form abandonment features.

Features:

  • Drag-and-drop builder
  • File uploads
  • Conditional logic
  • GDPR-compliant
  • Multi-step forms
  • Zapier integrations

Payments: Stripe, PayPal Express Checkout, Recurly, Elavon

Spam Protection: Google reCaptcha v3 + honeypot, Askimet integration

Advanced Tools:

  • Digital Signature
  • Webhooks
ninja forms addons
When you open Ninja Forms in WordPress, you’ll get a scrollable list of add-ons and integrations like these.

Email form integration:

  • Emma
  • EmailOctopus
  • ConvertKit
  • Intuit MailChimp
  • Constant Contact
  • Campaign Monitor
  • CleverReach
  • AWeber

Pricing: Starts at $49/year. A free version is available on WordPress.org.

Good to know: If you’re using the free version of NinjaForms, you can buy add-ons a la carte. For example, the Conditional Logic add-on is $49 for 1 site. But the lowest-cost paid version of the plugin costs the same and comes with 4 add-ons, including conditional logic.

What's the Best WordPress Form Plugin?

“Best” is often subjective, especially when it comes to software. For example, some people simply prefer different types of interfaces.

Based on our experience, here are our recommendations for the best WordPress form plugins.

  1. WPForms: This is the market leader with a 5-star rating on WordPress.org. While it’s easy to use, it also offers ChatGPT connections and cool features like text messaging.
  2. Formidable Forms: Also easy to use, this form builder impresses with its advanced features and modest cost.
  3. Gravity Forms: A favorite of agencies and marketers, Gravity Forms is known for its data-driven approach and customization options.

All of these plugins offer many types of forms and form templates. They each provide a generous number of apps or add-ons and spam filtering.

Our top 3 picks also provide clear tutorials on creating forms, quality support, and reasonable pricing.

The first 2 provide free WordPress.org versions and premium versions. And Gravity Forms offers premium (i.e., paid) versions only.

Honorable Mentions: Forminator and JetPack Forms

Lastly, we have 2 form builders for those on a tight budget.

Forminator: Low-Cost Alternative

With Forminator, you can collect leads via interactive polls and quizzes that display real-time results.

Costing only $7.50/month, Forminator is a low-cost alternative to better-known brands.

It has a generous feature set with recurring subscriptions, trial periods, conditional logic, and calculators.

While using Forminator, we received an error message suggesting the form’s styling could not be loaded because we were using HTTP. However, we were actually using HTTPS.

forminator css warning
While using Forminator, we got this error message on all our pages, even though we were using HTTPS. (URL enlarged for better viewing.)

We don’t know what caused the error message; perhaps it conflicted with another plugin we used. In these cases, you’d contact support to get it resolved.

Forminator doesn’t feel as intuitive as the other brands we reviewed, and we had to try a few things first to figure out how it works. But that’s probably because the styling was not displaying correctly.

forminator interface

When you click on a field, like First Name, a small pop-up window opens with optional settings.

forminator edit fields

Once you save your form and click Publish, you’ll get a shortcode for embedding the form.

Because of the styling issue we encountered, you may want to watch Forminator’s video so you can get a better idea of how the plugin looks and works.

Features:

  • GDPR-compliant
  • Interactive polls and quizzes
  • Recurring subscriptions and trial periods
  • Calculators
  • Conditional logic
  • Registration and login forms
  • Repeat fields
  • Form management
  • Custom CSS

Payments: Stripe and PayPal

Spam Protection: Honeypot, Akismet, hCaptcha, Google ReCAPTCHA

Advanced Tools:

  • Digital signatures
  • Adjust privacy

Pricing: Starts at $7.50/month. WordPress.org offers a free version.

Good to know: Forminator offers a 7-day free trial of their Pro version. And all Pro versions have access to 9 other plugin products from parent company WPMU Dev including Hummingbird Pro and Hustle Pro.

Jetpack Forms: Basic Contact Forms

JetPack is a speed and security plugin that provides a free contact form builder.

With Jetpack, forms are added via a Gutenberg block. After you add a form block to a page, you choose a template.

jetpack form templates

You can also build forms from scratch, selecting fields like phone number, date picker, and checkbox.

jetpack form fields

Need simple payment forms? Jetpack provides a payment block to add a Stripe payment button. This option supports recurring payments.

If you have an e-commerce store we recommend opting for a more advanced form builder.

Features:

  • Drag-and-drop fields
  • Unlimited forms

Spam protection: Askimet Anti-Spam

Pricing: Included for free with any Jetpack plugin.

Good to know: Many hosting companies, including BlueHost and Hostinger, include Jetpack at no additional cost. If you already have it and only need simple contact forms or registration forms, Jetpack is a good choice.

Q&A on Best WordPress Form Plugins

What is the best free form plugin for WordPress?

All of the best WordPress form plugins have a free version. For example, WPForms and Formidable have free versions available for download from WordPress.org. Free plugins typically don't have the full functionality of paid versions, but you can upgrade anytime.

If you want a free form plugin, don’t download it from any website other than WordPress.org. There are sites offering pirated copies of form plugins. These are called “nulled” or “cracked” plugins and typically contain malicious code.

Which contact form plugin is best for WordPress?

WPForms is considered by many to be the best WordPress contact form plugin. This is an established plugin with a 5-star rating on WordPress.org. With over 5 million active installations WPForms continues to be the market leader. Featuring a beginner-friendly interface and library of pre-made templates, WPForms makes form creation simple.

What is the easiest form plugin for WordPress?

The easiest WordPress form plugins include WPForms and Formidable. Before downloading a form plugin, check the plugin's rating on WordPress.org. If a plugin promises it's easy to use and has a low rating, it may be challenging to use. WPForms has a 5-star rating on WordPress.org and over 5 million active installations.

The easiest way to create a fillable form in WordPress is to use a form plugin. Most WordPress form plugins provide pre-built templates. And they include ways to accept payments, register users and subscribers, and collect customer feedback. WPForms is the market leader with a 5-star rating on WordPress.org and over 5 million active installations.

When you install WPForms, you get access to over 700 pre-built form templates, ready to go.

Bonus Tips

  • Use the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin to attract more form signups. AIOSEO is a popular SEO plugin used to optimize WordPress websites.
  • WP Mail SMTP improves deliverability of your form-based notification emails. This is a sister product to WPForms and solves common problems that cause notification emails to get trapped in spam filters.
  • Capture leads as people leave your WordPress site. OptinMonster is an effective and low-cost plugin for exit pop-ups.
  • Don’t have a website or WordPress theme yet? Check out the SeedProd page builder. Use it to create a single landing page with a sales funnel or an entire website in minutes.

What’s Next?

We hope this post helped you choose the right WordPress form plugin to boost conversions.

Next, explore our review of the best WordPress SEO plugins and the best on-page SEO tools.

If you found this article helpful, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You’ll find plenty of WordPress tutorials there. You can also follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook to stay in the loop.

Want to Try AIOSEO for Free?

Enter the URL of your WordPress website to install AIOSEO Lite.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

author avatar
Sherrie Gossett Content Writer
Sherrie is an SEO analyst based in New Hampshire in the United States. When she’s not busy researching, implementing, and writing about new SEO developments, she can be found hiking and playing guitar.

Add a Comment

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy, and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.