Forms are unavoidable to any type of website, be it a blog, portfolio or e-commerce. You might need booking forms, order forms, reservation forms, or even a simple contact form. The use cases can be anywhere from simple to complex. So, in this post, let us see some of the WordPress form builder plugins you can use on your website.
When it comes to forms in WordPress, Contact Form 7 is the most popular and oldest plugin. However, with its tag system for building a form, it comes nowhere near the drag-and-drop and visual form builders available today in terms of user-friendliness. So I haven't included it in the list.
Also, since we are looking only for plugins with free & paid versions, I haven't included Gravity Forms too, which is a paid only.
Usually, the following are the things I look for in a form plugin.
- Easiness to create different types of forms
- Performance
- How well is the design
- Ability to manage submissions from WordPress admin
- Features & integrations
Based on these factors, I have made the below list.
| Plugin | Rating | Installations | Min. price (normal) |
| HappyForms | 4 | 30k+ | $49 |
| WPForms | 4.9 | 3m+ | $79 |
| Ninja Forms | 4.4 | 1m+ | $99 |
| Caldera | 4.4 | 200k+ | $99 |
| Everest | 4.9 | 100k+ | $69 |
HappyForms
If you ask me to pick the simplest plugin from the list, it would be Happyforms.
Reason? Happyforms relies entirely on the WordPress Customizer interface for building forms. There is no separate section for that. So if you already have some experience customizing WordPress themes, you will instantly get familiar with this one too.
When I checked Happyforms initially in 2019, a lot of its features were available for free, including the Activity section and Google reCaptcha integration. But later, they made many of them pro only. Now the free version only supports basic text fields, email, number, select box, and radio inputs.
But for a simple contact form, I still think free Happyforms is the best option. Currently, it's the one we use on our contact page too.
Happyforms within WordPress Customizer - free version
The price for the premium version starts at $49 for one website. It supports a lot of form elements, including sliders, polls, and file uploads. From the Activity section, you can also check the inbox right from the WordPress admin. Here is the list of the extra features available with the premium plan:
- File upload
- Analyics
- Popup forms
- Multi-page forms
- Limit responses to a form
- Scheduled forms (useful for events)
- Password-protected forms
- Google reCaptcha integration
- Conditional logic
- Save responses to database & view it in the Activity section
HappyForms is created by Theme Foundry who has been developing WordPress themes for the past ten years. So if you are looking for a free and easy-to-use form plugin, give HappyForms a try.
WPForms
With over 1 million active installations, WPForms is the first result that shows up in the WordPress repo when you search for a form builder. It is one of the best and feature-rich form solution available right now in the WordPress market.
WPForms' user-friendly interface
However, the free version - WPForms Lite - lacks much of the features available in the premium versions, including the ability to manage messages inside the admin area. It's great for simple forms and gives a glimpse of how this awesome plugin feels before going for the Pro version.
Through add-ons, WPForms offers you most of the features you will ever need in a form plugin. There are four premium versions available, Basic, Plus, Pro & Elite. The Basic version includes necessary add-ons like multi-page form and conditional logic.
With over 3k five star ratings in WP directory and WPBeginner backing it, you can expect WPForms to be a quality product.
NinjaForms
NinjaForms is another plugin with 1 million+ active installations. It stands right behind Contact Form 7 & WPForms in terms of popularity.
NinjaForms' drag & drop UI
NinjaForms in its free version offers a couple of features not available in WPForms Lite like date picker fields and message management.
The premium versions of the plugin add features in the form of extensions. There are 40+ such extensions available right now. However, to get access to all these extensions, you have to buy the highest plan. Otherwise, you have to buy individual extensions. Either way, it can be a bit expensive if you need a couple of extensions.
Caldera Forms
Caldera Forms is probably the most powerful yet free drag-and-drop-form builder for your WordPress site. Unlike WPForms or NinjaForms, Caldera's free version includes many advanced features like file uploads, multiple pages, and conditions.
The feature-rich interface of Caldera
There are also three premium versions which offer additional integrations with third-party services. These integrations are categorized into three tiers - Individual, Advanced & Agency add-ons.
The form designs and user interface do not look as sleek as the plugins listed above. However, you can get around it if know a little bit of coding. So, I would like to consider Caldera Forms as a developer-friendly form plugin.
With over 200k+ active installations and 4.5 rating, Caldera Forms can satisfy most of your form requirements.
Everest Forms
Want to know about yet another free form plugin? Then check out Everest Forms from ThemeGrill. It has a nice-looking user interface and a powerful free version. The drag-and-drop builder has the following fields:
- First Name, Last Name, Email fields
- Single Line, Paragraph Text & Number fields
- Drop down Select
- Radio & Check Boxes
- URL Field
- DatePicker
The modern-looking interface of Everest Forms
The premium versions include nine additional fields like file uploads, phone, country, address etc.
However, I have noticed a few minor issue with Everest Forms. The plugin loads its files even on pages that do not include the form. So it creates two additional unwanted requests. Also, I couldn't find an option to preview a form from the user interface.
Otherwise, Everest Forms is a good plugin with enough features for most users. It has a nice built-in too.
Conclusion
For a simple and user-friendly form builder, HappyForms is one of the best which can be good alternative to Contact Form 7.
If you are looking for a very powerful & professional form builder solution, you can't go wrong with WPForms. NinjaForms is also equally powerful although pricing is a bit different.
At the same time, Caldera Forms stands apart with its feature-rich & solid free version. Everest Forms is another choice you can consider.
These are only a few plugins I have tried by myself. If you have experience with another form plugin which you found useful, please comment about it below.
