Best WordPress Form Plugin: Formidable Forms vs Gravity Forms vs Ninja Forms vs Contact Form 7 & More!

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1st
Gravity Forms logo
2nd
3rd
Formidable Form logo
Best Value
Quform logo

A website contact form is an essential element of any site. Folks, a simple customer service email address alone doesn’t cut it these days! For those of you using WordPress, you’re in luck.

There are a ton of plugins at your disposal that are easy to set up and won’t break your budget. Basic WordPress form builders are free, but if you want to spruce up your contact and other types of website forms, there are plenty of premium plugins on the market.

We’ve weeded through the bunch (we’re talking 1,500+ form plugins) to give you our best WordPress form plugin top winners and the pros and cons of each plugin.

Article Overview

Free vs Premium WordPress Form Plugins: What’s The Difference?

If you have coding knowledge and don’t need many advanced features, then a free WordPress form plugin could be just the ticket for your website. With that said, you’re going to be able to generate and manage the best WordPress forms with a premium plugin — especially if you want to go far beyond a basic contact form for WordPress.

Premium plugins give you a ton of flexibility, customization options, data management, conditional logic, and third-party add-ons to get the most out of your form submissions. Translation: if you want to use your site’s forms to achieve the highest level of customer interaction and to help drive sales, premium is probably the way to go.

Plus — you have a company keeping the form updated and compatible with the latest version of WordPress for you.

What’s The Best WordPress Form Plugin?

We based our review on several factors, including level of customization, data capture, advanced features, user reviews, ease of use, cost, and customer and community support/resources.

Gravity Forms Review

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Our winner, Gravity Forms, is one of the most popular and best WordPress form builders among our reviews — and for excellent reasons. If you’re looking for a “beyond the basics” WP form plugin, it’s hard to beat Gravity Forms for the level of customization you get and the ability to take your website forms to the next level.

With Gravity Forms you can easily create surveys, quizzes, user-submitted content  — features that go far beyond what similar WP form plugins can do. And you have a lot of helpful resources at your service, including FAQs, an extensive knowledge base, user forums and email support.

Pros

Cons

  • Intuitive drag-and-drop form builder
  • Unlimited number of forms and submissions
  • Built-in conditional logic
  • Customizable email autoresponders and notifications
  • Ability to schedule forms for a certain time period
  • CVS, PDF, Excel data export
  • MailChimp, AWeber, Dropbox, PayPal and many more integrations
  • Email support from Gravity Forms
  • No free plugin available
  • Only available via fixed annual fee

Price

Gravity Forms includes unlimited forms and entries, email ticket customer support, and regular plugin updates with every plan.

Basic License Pro License Elite License
Annual Price $59 $159 $259
Number of Sites 1 3 Unlimited
Add-ons Included Basic Basic & Pro Basic, Pro & Elite

Ninja Forms Review

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Ninja Forms, another hugely popular premium plugin, comes in a very close second in our best WordPress form plugin reviews. Unlike Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms offers a free basic plugin available for download. But where Ninja Forms really shines is in its advanced add-on features. Both Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms are fantastic form builders.

But if you’re looking for a lot of advanced features, Ninja Forms can get expensive. Most add-ons require an annual licensing fee (averaging $30 each). If you need multiple add-ons, especially on more than one domain, you can get into the hundreds of dollars quickly. Whereas, Gravity Forms charges a flat annual fee.

Pros

Cons

  • Free basic plugin
  • Easy to use drag-and-drop form builder
  • Unlimited number of forms and submissions (form submission via AJAX)
  • Conditional logic available
  • HTML editor lets you add photos, videos, and more to your forms
  • You can force required fields and correct data formatting
  • CVS, PDF, Excel data export
  • 40+ add-ons, including PayPal, Salesforce, Freshbooks and email marketing services
  • Email support from Ninja Forms
  • WordPress.org users rate Ninja Forms 4.5/5.0 stars
  • Plugin add-ons and paid packages can get very expensive if you want the same level of functionality Gravity Forms gives you
  • Only available via fixed annual fee

Price

All pricing below is for an annual license. Ninja Forms offers 50% off automatic renewals, and a 14-day money back guarantee, as long as you have an active license.

Personal Package Professional Package Agency Package A La Carte Add-ons (40+ Add-ons Available)
Pricing Per Year $99 $199 $499 $29-$129 each
Number of Sites 1 20 Unlimited Up to 20
Discount on Add-ons 20% 40% All add-ons included N/A

Formidable Forms Review

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Formidable Forms is a newer premium WordPress form plugin that’s gaining popularity. Like Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms offers a free basic plugin, but it’s pretty limited in customization and functionality. Formidable premium versions, however, offer a robust set of features for flexible form building.

Formidable is a good choice for beginners and developers alike with a simple drag-and-drop interface and front-end editing, as well as customizable form HTML and ready-made (or DIY) CSS classes for a stylish layout.

Pros

Cons

  • Free basic plugin
  • Drag-and-drop form builder
  • Conditional logic included in paid versions
  • More than 30 field types
  • HTML and CSS editing
  • Customizable email autoresponders and notifications
  • Track form submissions with Google Analytics
  • 20+ add-ons, including Zapier, PayPal, MailChimp, Bootstrap and more
  • Great tech support via email ticket, help center, community forum and more
  • WordPress.org users rating 4.5/5.0 stars
  • A bit pricier than Gravity Forms
  • Not as many add-ons as Gravity Forms or Ninja Forms
  • Only available via fixed annual fee (except Enterprise version, which comes with lifetime updates)

Price

For its premium versions below, Formidable Forms offers a 14-day money back guarantee.

Personal Creator Business Elite
License Cost $49 Per Year $99 Per Year $199 Per Year $399 Per Year
Number of Websites 1 3 15 Unlimited
Number of Add-Ons Included Must Purchase Separately 6 12 All (20+)

Best Value: Quform Review

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Quform is an inexpensive premium WordPress form plugin that has an easy drag-and-drop interface. It’s the one we’ve decided on using ourselves here at We Rock Your Web, after extensive testing, and yes, we do pay for it.

Quform offers a lot of advanced features and gets rave customer reviews. It doesn’t come with as many bells and whistles or third-party integrations as some of the other options, but we feel it’s the best value.

Pros

Cons

  • Affordable pricing
  • Easy drag-and-drop interface to create forms
  • Conditional logic included
  • 15 customizable form elements
  • Supports spam filters like CAPTCHA and honeypot
  • File uploads and Excel export, and you can view submissions within WordPress admin
  • Built-in custom validators to force specific data
  • Active community support forum with quick response rates
  • No free plugin offered
  • No email support (only community forum)
  • Doesn’t offer third-party integrations

Price

$29 includes Quform plugin for one website, future updates, and 6 months of support (support can be extended for $9.38/year).

This plugin is offered on the popular WordPress plugin repository Code Canyon, which offers access to plugins (and updates) for a one-time fee. This typically includes 6 months of customer support, which you can extend for a nominal fee.

Other Best WordPress Form Plugin Reviews

There are a TON of fantastic WordPress form Plugins on the market, so we couldn’t just stop our reviews with our top picks. Click on a link below to jump to a specific WP plugin or just keep reading our reviews!

Contact 7Jetpack | Visual Form Builder

Contact 7 Review

View Contact 7 on WordPress.org 

Contact 7 is the oldest, most popular and most downloaded free WordPress form plugin to date. Like many free plugins, Contact 7 requires HTML coding knowledge, and what you can do with their forms is limited. Although Contact 7 is flexible for a free WP form plugin, users report buggy updates and a lack of keeping up with current technology compared to similar free WP form plugins.

Pros

Cons

  • Free plugin
  • Supports spam filters like CAPTCHA
  • Ajax loader easily customizable with CSS
  • 16 field types with decent configuration using CSS
  • 4.5/5.0 stars from WordPress.org users
  • Not for beginners; coding knowledge required
  • Additional plugins needed for email and data management
  • Users report buggy updates to plugin
  • No conditional logic included

Price

Free Contact 7 Download at WordPress.org

Jetpack Contact Forms Module Review

Jetpack Contact Forms logo

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Jetpack, the ever popular free WordPress plugin, includes a simple contact form module that’s easy to set up right on your post/page. The default form includes four fields (name, email, website, and comment), and you can add a few other fields, such as checkboxes and drop-downs.

If you only need a simple form plugin and are looking for a powerful multi-use WordPress plugin, consider Jetpack — it has excellent tools for managing visitor stats and security services, speeding up images, and helping you drive more traffic to your site.

Pros

Cons

  • Free WordPress form maker
  • Easy to set up forms right in your post
  • Ability to customize your email notifications
  • Customizable submit button
  • Doesn’t offer many field types or much customization
  • Lacks many form builder features other free plugins offer
  • Free version doesn’t come with a spam check

Price

Free Jetpack download at WordPress.org. You can also upgrade Jetpack for anywhere from $39 to $299 per year via their website.

Visual Form Builder Review

Visual Form Builder logo

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Like Ninja Forms and Formidable Forms, Visual Form Builder offers a free basic plugin in addition to paid pro options. Unlike other premium plugins, Visual Form Builder charges a one-time fee and doesn’t require you to renew an annual license.

The free version gives you 18 field types, an intuitive interface, automatic storage of form submissions to your WP database and more. Premium versions are affordable and give you a lot of advanced features, like conditional logic, unlimited fields, access to add-ons, etc. Visual Form Builder is a great option for beginners who don’t want to pay for a form plugin.

Pros

Cons

  • Free plugin
  • Easy drag-and-drop interface even with free plugin
  • Conditional logic included in premium
  • 18 customizable form fields with free version and unlimited with premium
  • Supports spam filters like CAPTCHA
  • Automatically saves form submissions into your WP database
  • File import and export
  • Email ticket support and community forums
  • WordPress.org users rating: 4.3/5.0 stars
  • Gets expensive if you want their premium plugin for more than one website
  • Far fewer add-ons available and no major ones like PayPal, Salesforce, Zapier, etc.
  • Users report poor customer support and unhelpful community forum

Price

Visual Form Builder’s premium versions include unlimited forms, unlimited fields, one year of support and many other advanced features.

VFB Pro VFP Pro+Add-ons Developer License Developer Bundle
One-time Fee $29 $69 $129 $199
Number of Sites 1 1 Unlimited Unlimited
Add-ons Included None 6 None 6

How Do Plugins Make Form Building Easy?

Check out the video below to see how easy it is to use Ninja Forms, our number two pick, when you’re creating WordPress forms.

Which WordPress Form Plugin In Best For You?

As we said above, we’ve based our rankings on a lot of advanced features, ease of use and other factors. But the easiest, most feature-rich plugin may not be what you need — especially if you’re a developer looking for a free, quick form plugin.

Choosing the best WordPress contact form plugin comes down to the functionality, customization and number of features you plan on using on your website to accomplish your ultimate business goals. We hope we’ve given you a lot of food for thought about which plugin could best suit your needs.

For other WordPress plugin suggestions, check out our plugin guide.

Which WordPress form plugin would you recommend and why?

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The information provided through this website should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease; it is not intended to offer any legal opinion or advice or a substitute for professional safety advice or professional care. Please consult your health care provider, attorney, or product manual for professional advice. Products and services reviewed are provided by third parties; we are not responsible in any way for them, nor do we guarantee their functionality, utility, safety, or reliability. Our content is for educational purposes only.

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