No matter what your WordPress website is about, you need a contact form so that your visitors can get in touch with you.
To help you add a contact form to your site, I’ve gone hands-on with 5 different WordPress contact form plugins.
From simple plugins for basic contact forms to more advanced plugins that can help you accept payments and a whole lot more, you’ll be able to find the right tool for your website on this list.
1. WPForms
Active on over 1 million websites, WPForms is one of the most popular contact form plugins at WordPress.org.
Beyond the very popular free version that makes a good option for contact forms, there are also a few different premium versions that will let you use forms to collect payments, sign people up to your email list, plus more.
For a deeper look at this plugin, you can read my full WPForms review.
Price: Limited free version. Pro starts at $39.50.
Key Features
- Drag-and-drop form builder
- View form submissions in WordPress dashboard
- Pre-built form templates
- Anti-spam features (honeypot field and CAPTCHA)
- Custom confirmation message or redirect
- Custom email notifications
- 8 field types for free
If you’re willing to pay, the Pro version also offers a lot more field types, plus functionality for:
- Payments
- Surveys and polls
- Conditional logic
- Email marketing service integrations
- …a lot more.
How You Build Your Forms
When you go to create a new form, WPForms will first give you a selection of pre-made templates. These help you quickly get up and running with popular uses of forms:
Once you choose a template (or a blank slate), WPForms will take you to the drag-and-drop form builder.
To add new form fields or rearrange existing fields, you can use drag and drop:
Clicking on a field will let you configure more options, like the label and whether or not it’s a required field.
Then, you can use the Settings tab to set up:
- Confirmation messages
- Email notifications
- Etc.
Once you’re finished with your form, you can embed it via:
- Shortcode
- Block (in the new WordPress 5.0 block editor)
2. Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is another popular WordPress form plugin that comes in a free version at WordPress.org, as well as various pro versions.
While you can certainly use Formidable Forms for a simple contact form, this plugin really excels when you get into creating more complex types of forms. For example, maybe you want to let people submit a rating as part of the form, or purchase something. That’s where Formidable Forms does well.
Price: Limited free version. Pro starts at $49
Key Features
- Drag-and-drop form builder
- 13 field types in free version
- View form submissions in WordPress dashboard
- Style options
The Pro version adds 18 new field types and also lets you create a lot of different types of forms, including forms for:
- Payments
- Surveys
- User registration
- Email marketing
- Etc.
How You Build Your Forms
Like WPForms and Ninja Forms, Formidable Forms gives you the option to start from a pre-made template or a blank slate (though the templates are only available in the paid version):
Then, you’ll be able to use the drag-and-drop form builder tool to create your form.
One downside is that there’s no live preview. Instead, you’ll need to click the Preview button to see how your form will actually look to visitors:
There are also separate settings areas to configure confirmations and email notifications.
Once you’re finished, you can embed your forms via:
- Shortcode
- Block
3. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is one of the oldest, most popular contact form plugins in existence.
By itself, I don’t think it’s as good an option as many of the other tools on this list. The form builder interface is not drag-and-drop, and it’s probably the least user-friendly of any of the contact form plugins on this list.
However, it does have two big things going for it.
First off, it’s free.
Second, because it’s so popular, you can find a ton of free third-party extensions for it.
So even if it’s not as functional in the core plugin, the free extensions open up a lot of flexibility.
Price: 100% free
Key Features
The core version of the plugin is very limited, with just a few simple features like:
- 14 field types to choose from
- Email notifications
- Custom confirmation messages
However, with the third-party extensions, you can add support for:
- Styling options
- Storing form submissions in your WordPress dashboard
- Conditional logic
- Multi-step forms
- Redirect users after they submit a form
- Payments
- Google reCaptcha
- …plus a lot more.
How You Build Your Forms
As I mentioned, Contact Form 7 does not include a drag-and-drop builder.
Instead, you’ll basically build your form with shortcodes for the different fields that you want to include.
To insert a new shortcode, you can click the various field types in the form builder interface:
That will open a popup where you can configure more about that field’s settings:
You can then use the other tabs to set up:
- Email notifications
- Confirmation messages
- Etc.
4. HappyForms
HappyForms is the simplest, most limited contact form plugin on this list.
However, if all you want to do is make a simple contact form, that simplicity is actually a good thing as it makes it very easy to create your form.
HappyForms is also 100% free, which is another attractive feature of this contact form plugin.
Price: Free
Key Features
- Embed forms anywhere on your WordPress site
- Log all form submissions in your WordPress dashboard
- Mark fields as required
- 19 different field types that you can use to build your forms
- Anti-spam functionality via honeypot fields and/or Google ReCaptcha
- 50+ built-in style controls
- Redirect users to a custom page after they submit the form
- Send confirmation emails
- Multi-column forms
- Preview form before submission
How You Build Your Forms
Rather than giving you a visual drag-and-drop interface like WPForms, HappyForms uses a simple interface based on the same WordPress Customizer interface that you use to customize your theme.
When you go to create a new form, you’ll see a live preview of your form on the right, and you’ll be able to build your form using the sidebar on the left.
To add a new form field, you just click on it. Then, you can use drag-and-drop to change the order of fields, much like you’d move around WordPress widgets:
Once you’ve added all the form fields, you can set up the message and/or email confirmation that will be sent to form submitters.
You can also choose to redirect users after they submit the form, as well as anti-spam settings and some other options:
Then, you’ll be able to use the 50+ style options to control how your form looks:
Once you finish building your form, you can embed it via:
- Shortcode
- Widget
- Block
5. Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is another popular WordPress contact form plugin with a great visual drag-and-drop builder.
Like WPForms, you can create basic contact forms for free, but then the paid versions also offer a lot of extra functionality, like payment processing, email marketing, and a lot more.
However, whereas WPForms only offers a few different premium versions, Ninja Forms lets you pick-and-choose individual add-ons as needed.
Price: Limited free version. Purchase individual extensions, or bundles start at $99.
Key Features
- Drag-and-drop form builder
- 20+ different field types, even in the free version
- Detailed settings for each field
- View form submissions in WordPress dashboard
- Anti-spam functionality, including reCAPTCHA
And with the many paid add-ons, you can add extra functionality for things like:
- Conditional logic
- Payments
- Email marketing services
- Zapier
- …and a lot more.
How You Build Your Forms
Like WPForms, Ninja Forms gives you a chance to choose from pre-made templates when you create a new form:
Then, it will drop you into the drag-and-drop form builder interface.
If you want to add new fields, you just click the + icon in the bottom-right corner:
And you can also customize individual fields using this same sidebar:
The settings area also lets you set up confirmations, email notifications, and some other features.
Once you’re finished with your form, you can embed it anywhere on your site via:
- Shortcode
- Block
What’s The Best Contact Form Plugin For You?
If you just want something simple and free that will help you create a basic contact form, you might be happiest with HappyForms. It’s not as full-featured as the other plugins, but it offers everything you need for a basic contact form in an easy-to-use interface.
If you want more functionality, or if you just prefer WPForms interface, WPForms is a great option – its 4.9-star rating (out of 5) is proof of that. It can also grow with you if you decide you need more functionality in the future.
Ninja Forms is another great option that could be cheaper if you only need some individual extensions. Ninja Forms also offers more field types than WPForms in the free version.
Formidable Forms is a great option if you want to create more complex types of forms. And Contact Form 7 is always a viable free option with the many third-party extensions out there -it just doesn’t have as nice an interface.
Do you have any questions about these contact form plugins? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment!
Here are more WordPress resources you should check out next:
- WP Advanced Ads Review: A Powerful WordPress Ad Management Plugin
- 6 Best WordPress Translation Plugins For A Multilingual Website
- Attention! Never Buy Premium WordPress Plugins Without Reading This
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