When we began to use WordPress some years ago, the only real WordPress Form plugin was Contact Form 7. There were no real templates to import, so you kind of had to know your coding and CSS a bit – even tho they said you didn’t.
These days, the two main plugins out there are WP Forms and Gravity Forms (there are others, but these are the two we work with). We now only use these for new websites as well, but why? Why for example is WP Forms better than Contact Form 7 – as they are both free (in the lower tier)? Gravity Forms is not free at all.
Let’s talk about Contact Form 7
This plugin does come with some template, but it’s all code based. There is no drag’n’drop format to it. IE if you want to move a field up or down, it’s in code only. But it does work, and has various settings, and we used to use it on our website too, but then we discovered WP Forms…
We forget how it was discovered by us, but most likely trying to do things that we couldn’t do with CF7, or perhaps it was part of an import of a theme we use. Alas, cannot say for sure.
We moved to WP Forms – drag’n’drop simplicity
With WP Forms you can drag across a field type, be that a text field, or checkboxes. They just appear and then you can edit how many items in the list, the fields and labels and so on. It’s all via a GUI, rather than ‘code’.
Plus there is an array of fields for free, from Text Area to Dropdowns and of course ‘recaptcha’ to help prevent spam emails. Then if someone asks you to move a field up, say Telephone before Email, you can do it easy. And this is all free.
WP Forms does have paid versions that allow you to take it further, such as conditional fields (show this field if Option B is chosen above), and conditional emails. This is where if you have 5 departments, if someone choses Sales, it will send the email to the sales@ email address. If it’s “technical” it can go to technical@ for example. But then it can go even further than that, and of course the costs go up.
But the basic form with the simple way to drag’n’drop is free.
WP Forms has a wide array of addons too, some are costed tho. Such as Zapier connectivity.
Then we move to Gravity Forms – but it costs
First off the bat here, Gravity Forms costs $59 for the basic one (at the time of this article). But it includes things that WP Forms free one does not, namely integrations with other platforms. We use this plugin on a few websites where they have very specific needs, and since then moving to another provider wouldn’t be worth the change. Plus it includes means to view the submitted data from the back end admin area. GF’s support is also very good.
GFs has a high number of add-ons as well. We do use a few of them. If you have a high level very of GFs, the add ons are free, such as integrating Cloudflare’s TurnStile to reduce spam.
Can you reduce spam on all these form plugins?
Yes you can reduce spam on WordPress Plugin forms, using one of three methods.
Honeypot: this is where a hidden field is in the form, that a “user” would not submit, but a “bot” would pick up in the code – if submitted with that field too, the form secretly doesn’t submit it.
Google Recaptcha: this is most common, where you click I Am Not a Robot, and it varies how it responds. Sometimes a simple checkbox, sometimes clicking all the busses and so on. While it works, it can be overly restrictive and prevent some submissions.
Cloudflare Turnstile: this is similar to the one above, but less restrictive, still has some interaction, but doesn’t slow you down as much.
Would we recommend one form over the other?
From our design experience, we would recommend WP Forms over Contact Form 7, purely for the easy of use with form layout, editing the dropdowns or radio buttons, and the settings. Even down to applying Recaptcha to a form is easier. Tho we do see good designs with CF7, it’s not a plugin we tend to use much these days.
We have had experiences where a client asks a form to do something specific, that we can’t see WP Forms is able. But today, for the most part, we use WP Forms. As is does most of what “general forms” need, without any fees. And if the clients asks to do something a little different, an upgrade is not too bad to do. Such as upgrading to Conditional Outbound Mail based on a dropdown selection. Moving from CF7 to WP Forms to do that, is a little awkward compared to starting with WP Forms.