Best 5 Contact Form Plugins for WordPress (2023)

Best contact form plugin WordPress- Best free contact form plugin WordPress

 

Are you looking to add a contact form on your WordPress site?

Not sure which one of the thousands of WordPress contact form plugins to use? There are so many choices out there, from free options on the WordPress.org plugin repository to premium options that you can get overwhelmed. 

In this article, we have hand-picked the 5 best contact form plugins for WordPress and compared their pros and cons, so you can easily add a contact form in WordPress.

Which is the Best WordPress Form Plugin?

The answer to which is the best WordPress form plugin varies based on your needs and use-cases.

While WPForms is the fastest-growing WordPress form plugin, in some cases Formidable Forms or another plugin might be a better fit.

1. WPForms

 

WPForms is the most beginner-friendly WordPress contact form plugin. 

Pros

WPForms’ drag & drop online form builder makes it the most user-friendly form plugin for WordPress, and that’s why over 5 million websites use it.

WPForms Lite is available for free in the official WordPress plugin directory meaning you can install it on as many sites as you like for free.

The free version comes with all the basic contact form features including basic form fields, captcha for spam protection, email notifications, and a thank-you page for form confirmation.

The premium version allows you to extend the functionality, so you can build any type of forms such as multi-page forms, email subscription forms, payment forms, order forms, and more.

WPForms pro also comes with other powerful form fields and features like smart conditional logic, file upload, geo-location, signature feature, form abandonment, user-submitted content (post submissions), login and user registration for WordPress, and over 500+ pre-made form templates.

You can see all your form submissions right inside your WordPress dashboard as well as get customized email notifications. You can even setup conditional notifications, so the right person in your team gets notified.

They have built-in features to improve your workflow such as saving templates, form revisions, access control, and more.

WPForms surveys & polls addon is by far the best WordPress survey solution in the market. It comes with interactive survey reports, real-time polls for WordPress, and all smart survey fields like star ratings, likert scale, NPS, etc. This saves you from paying for extra subscriptions for expensive survey platforms like Survey Monkey.

They also have a form landing page solution to help you create distraction-free form pages in WordPress which makes WPForms the best Wufoo and Google Forms alternative for WordPress.

Recently WPForms also announced their signature Conversational Forms for WordPress which helps you improve your form completion rate by making your forms feel more human.

WPForms integrates with all popular email marketing services like MailChimp, Salesforce, HubSpot, and dozens more.

They also have integrations with payment platforms like Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net, so you can quickly create payment forms and accept one-time or recurring payments. There are documentation and guides available along with email support and Facebook group to help you when you need it.

Aside from that, they also have several conversion-focused features like User Journey, Form abandonment, Geolocation, and more.

WPForms is being used by over 5 million websites and have built quite a loyal following (See: WPForms user reviews).

Cons

While the lite version is free, you need to upgrade to WPForms Pro to unlock more powerful features.

Even though WPForms is powerful, the #1 goal of this plugin is to make it user-friendly. That’s why it doesn’t have the more complex features that some other form plugins offer.

Aside from that, WPForms is hands down the best WordPress form builder in the market.

You can use it alongside a WordPress automation plugin like Uncanny Automator to further automate your workflows.

Alternatively, you can start with WPForms Lite for Free which in our opinion is the best free WordPress form plugin.

Bonus: if you’re a registered non-profit organization, then you can qualify for WPForms non-profit discount which gives you 75% off the regular price. WPForms loves supporting non-profit organizations to improve the world.

 

2. Formidable Forms

 

 

 

 

Formidable Forms is the most advanced WordPress form plugin in the market. They specialize in helping developers build complex form-focused solutions quickly.

Pros

Formidable is an all-in-one WordPress form builder that comes with powerful addons to help you go beyond simple contact forms.

You can use the Formidable Forms drag-and-drop interface to create advanced forms like quizzes, surveys, payment forms, registration forms, profile forms, and more.

Advanced users will really love the Formidable Views feature because it allows you to format, filter, and display user-submitted data on the front-end of your website. You can use it to create form-focused solutions like directories, job board listings, event calendars, management systems, rating systems, and more.

You can use Formidable’s advanced calculation fields to create powerful order forms as well as smart calculators like Mortgage calculator, car payment calculator, request a quote calculator, and more.

Formidable integrates with all popular email marketing and payment platforms.

They also have a powerful WooCommerce integration to help you build product forms and even WooCommerce product configurator forms that ties directly to your cart.

The price point for Formidable forms is a real advantage for developers because to accomplish the same tasks with competing plugins like Gravity Forms, you will be paying at least 2 – 3x more since you’ll have to purchase third-party addons whereas those advanced features are built-in to Formidable.

Cons

The Formidable Forms builder is not as intuitive as WPForms because they focus on advanced users and developers.

But it makes up for it by being the most extendable form solution in the market. If you’re a developer or agency looking to build form-based solutions or data-driven web applications, then nothing in the market comes close to Formidable Forms.

3. HubSpot Forms

 

 

 

HubSpot’s WordPress plugin is a free all-in-one marketing plugin that comes with tools like WordPress form builder, live chat, analytics, CRM, and more.

Pros

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing toolkit that comes with a form builder, live chat, popups, analytics, and other marketing features for your website. The main appeal for HubSpot is their plugin seamlessly integrates with their powerful CRM and sales tools.

You can connect your forms, manage contacts, segment contacts into groups / lists, and see every interaction a visitor has had with your website. This gives you great insight for your marketing and sales performance.

If you’re using HubSpot’s email marketing and other sales tools, then using this form builder is a no-brainer.

Also keep in mind that HubSpot also easily integrate with other form tools in our list such as WPForms, Formidable, and more.

Cons

While you can use CRM, forms, live chat, and analytics for free in the HubSpot plugin, you have to upgrade to a Starter plan (starting at $45 per month) or above to use their other paid features which can get quite expensive for beginners.

HubSpot forms are not as powerful as WPForms or Formidable Forms, since they lack WordPress-specific features like custom user registration forms, login forms, post submission, and other advanced form features.

4. Gravity Forms

 

 

 

Gravity Forms is a paid WordPress form builder plugin that comes with a lot of advanced functionality and features. They also specialize in helping developers build complex form-related solutions.

 

Pros

Gravity Forms is a powerful drag-and-drop contact form plugin for WordPress.

With the help of additional add-ons, Gravity Forms can be used to create surveys, quizzes, user-submitted content, and even web directory.

It comes with premium support options like FAQs, knowledge base, forums, and email support. This means that help is available when you need it.

Cons

Gravity Forms does not have a free version, so it can be a bit expensive than other WordPress contact form plugins. However, if you are using it on multiple sites and projects, then the cost should not be a big deal.

Gravity Forms does not include powerful features like Views, Tables & Directories, and others by default. Instead, you will need to purchase these addons from 3rd-party developers like GravityKit and GravityWiz which further increases your annual costs.

Whereas similar features like Views, Tables, Directories, etc are all included in the Business plan of Formidable Forms at a fraction of the price.

5. Ninja Forms

 

 

 

 

Ninja Forms is a freemium contact form plugin for WordPress. It can be used to create highly interactive forms with very little effort.

 

Pros

The base plugin for Ninja Forms is available for free from the official WordPress repository. This means you can download and install it on as many sites as you like.

There are premium extensions that allow you to extend Ninja Forms functionality such as connecting with Campaign Monitor, Freshbooks, Salesforce, SMS notifications, etc.

There is a helpful community support option, as well as documentation, guides, and email support.

Cons

Even though the main plugin is available for free, the extensions are not. Buying two or more extensions or even the developer bundle will cost you nearly the same amount as WPForms or Formidable Forms.

Avoid: Contact Form 7

 

 

 

 

Although we don’t recommend Contact Form 7, this list cannot be complete without the oldest and most downloaded contact form plugin in the official WordPress plugin directory.

Pros

There are really no pros to this plugin except the fact that it’s free, and often beginners make the mistake of installing it since it has a high active install (because a lot of old sites are using it).

If you’re looking for a free WordPress form plugin, then WPForms Lite, Formidable Forms Lite, and Ninja Forms are all significantly better solutions than Contact Form 7.

There are several third-party plugins that act as add-on plugins for Contact Form 7. Most of them are available for free.

Cons

Contact Form 7 is a below-average solution for creating a basic contact form for your blog. It is very difficult to set up for absolute beginners. The user interface is not intuitive at all.

Since it is a free plugin, support options are limited.

There are several third-party add-ons available for Contact Form 7, but the official plugin website doesn’t have an add-ons directory which makes it difficult to find add-ons to extend the functionality of the base plugin.

Which is the Best Contact Form Plugin for WordPress?

The plugins we mentioned in this article can all help you create a contact form plugin. However, deciding the best WordPress form builder plugin varies based on your needs.

If you’re a beginner and don’t want to spend any money, then go with WPForms Lite.

If you’re a business owner and want to create powerful forms without learning code or hiring a developer, then go with the WPForms Pro version.

If you’re a developer trying to build more complex forms, then there’s no better solution than Formidable Forms.

Our overall pick for the best WordPress contact form plugin is WPForms.

Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Contact Forms

 

Where is WordPress contact form data stored?

Most WordPress form plugins will store the contact form data in your WordPress database. This means that the data is self-hosted on your server, and you have full ownership of everything.

You can also configure the WordPress form plugin like WPForms to automatically route every contact form submission to your email address, store the data in Google sheets, send to your CRM, or add the subscriber to your email marketing service.

Are WordPress form plugins GDPR compliant?

Yes, most popular WordPress form plugins like WPForms are fully GDPR compliant because the customer data is stored on your server, not any third-party platform.

Furthermore, WPForms have also built-in GDPR enhancements that add the option for you to disable cookies on forms, prevent the storage of user IP, add a GDPR agreement field, etc.

Which WordPress contact form plugin is best for surveys & polls?

In our research, we found WPForms to have the best survey and poll features as part of their online form builder. The reason for that is their survey reporting which can be enabled retroactively. Furthermore, they let you customize the data visualization to match your needs.

Formidable Forms would be our second pick.

Can I automatically add WordPress form plugin data to Google Sheets?

Yes, you can easily configure most WordPress contact form plugins to automatically add data to your Google sheets.

For example, WPForms has a Google Sheets integration that lets you connect any form to Google Sheets, map form fields to specific columns, use conditional logic, etc.

But even if a form builder doesn’t have a native Google sheets integration, you can use a WordPress workflow automation plugin like Uncanny Automator that lets you connect WordPress form plugins like WPForms, Formidable, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, etc to Google Sheets, Airtable, and basically over 100+ other services without the middle-man fees of Zapier.

Which is better WPForms or Contact Form 7?

WPForms is far better than Contact Form 7 because it has a beginner-friendly drag & drop form builder interface whereas you have to build a contact form using code in Contact Form 7.

Even when comparing just the WPForms free version, WPForms comes with better spam protection, customization options, and more.

How do I create a beautiful contact form in WordPress?

The appearance of your WordPress contact form is controlled by your WordPress theme. However, some WordPress form builders give you options to make your form stand out.

For example, WPForms allows you to configure your form field layouts using a drag & drop interface. You can also use their conversational form addon to create a beautiful modern full-page contact form that’s mobile-friendly.

 

Formidable Forms and others also offer similar conversational form features now that lets you create beautiful WordPress contact form.

 

Which is the best WordPress form plugin for non-profits?

Almost all major WordPress contact form plugins come with features that lets non-profits accept donations on their website, so it ultimately comes down to the price. WPForms offers non-profit organizations a 75% discount on their normal pricing, so in our opinion, that’s the best choice.

If you’re looking for a completely free WordPress payment form plugin to accept donations, then we recommend taking a look at WP Simple Pay.

Which is the best free-form plugin for WordPress?

The top three best free form plugins for WordPress are:

1. WPForms – over 5 million active installs.
2. Formidable Forms – over 300,000+ active installs.
3. HubSpot Forms – over 300,000+ active installs.

Are there other WordPress form builder plugins that are not included in this list?

Yes, there are literally hundreds of online form software out there, but our goal is to help readers avoid choice paralysis. In our research, we also looked at Typeforms, Survey Monkey, Wufoo, Formstack, Google Forms, Elementor Forms, Fluent Forms, Forminator, Everest Form, Jetpack forms, Jotform, and WeForm, but we believe that the top 5 WordPress form builder that we have mentioned in our list are the absolute best.

Which is the best WordPress form builder in your opinion?

Our top choice for the best WordPress form builder plugin is WPForms. It truly is a WordPress form plugin that’s both easy and powerful. There’s a very good reason why over 5 million websites are using WPForms, and it’s the fastest-growing form software on the planet.

If you’re just getting started, you can try the WPForms free version and upgrade later as your business grows. The free version is plenty powerful.

We hope this guide helped you choose the best contact form plugin for your WordPress site.