East Bay WordPress Meetup organizer Sallie Goetsch provides an overview of form plugins for WordPress: Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Caldera Forms, WPForms, and Formidable Lite, with recommendations for the best free and premium form plugins to use on your WordPress site
7. Gravity Forms Was the First Commercial
WordPress Plugin of Any Kind
What Gravity
Forms Looked
Like in 2011,
when I first
started using it.
8. It Shows
The Gravity Forms editor
today. Six years without
significant UI changes.
9. You Saw It Here First
Dynamic Population: Populate a
field with a value. This value can
be passed via Query Strings,
Shortcode and/or Hooks.
Conditional Logic: Show or hide
a field depending on the values
of another field.
10. Gravity Forms: Form Settings
• Change submit button
label
• Show submit button
conditionally
• Enable save and continue
for long forms
• Limit entries
• Schedule form
• Enable anti-spam honeypot
20. Free Add-Ons in the Plugin Directory
Of Particular Note
• Gravity Forms + Custom
Post Types
• Gravity Forms Constant
Contact
• HubSpot for Gravity Forms
• Drip Email Campaigns
• Personality Quiz
• Infusionsoft Gravity Forms
21. Gravity Forms Pro & Con
• Flexible, extensible, and
well-supported
• Straightforward to use
• Huge ecosystem of
extensions & integrations
• Developer license for all
official extensions is
$199/year for unlimited sites
• Styling them is a bear.
• You need the developer
license to get most of the
add-ons, even if you only
want to use them on one
site.
• The UI has gotten dated.
31. Ninja Forms Pro & Con
• Slick Interface
• Solid Free Version
• Add Your Own CSS Classes
• Only buy and install the add-
ons you need.
• Conditional logic, entry
export, file upload, & multi-
part forms are paid add-ons
• Agency package with all add-
ons is $499
43. Caldera Forms Pros & Cons
• Templates & Layout Builder
• Advanced Features in Free
Version
• Good Free Add-Ons
• Third-Party Add-Ons
• All Add-On Bundle is $499
• Individual Add-Ons Are
Expensive
53. WPForms Marketing
Only Constant Contact is available for the free plugin.
Paid marketing integrations include Aweber, Campaign
Monitor, GetResponse, MailChimp, and Zapier.
66. Formidable Form Styling
Some people love
these things. I would
personally just rather
write CSS, because
you never really get
what you want with
these. You can only
have 1 style in the
free version.
67. Formidable Customize HTML
This looks a little
confusing, but lets
you use your own
classes and wrappers
for complete
customization.
68. Formidable Global Settings
Choose where to load form
styling & whether to use HTML5,
set user permissions for form
management, enter reCAPTCHA
keys, and modify the default
messages.
71. Formidable Official Add-Ons
These are available either
separately or as part of a
pro bundle. Some
interesting ones: action
automation, WPML,
Polylang, Locations, User
Tracking.
72. Formidable Third-Party Add-Ons
Okay, I was impressed with how many of these there were relative to the
comparatively small collection of official add-ons.
74. Formidable Pros and Cons
• Add-ons can be purchased
either separately or as part
of a pro package.
• Customize HTML
• Styling options (for those
who like them)
• Lifetime unlimited package
available.
• Views and many other
features are built in to Pro
• Great for data wonks
• Free version is very limited
• Styling options (for those
who don’t)
• Form layout and shortcodes-
for-everything are a bit
clunky
• Pro prices a little higher than
GF except for Lifetime
• Definite learning curve
76. Best Free Option: Caldera Forms
• Multiple free templates
• Terrific layout builder
• Great selection of field types
• Advanced features like
conditional logic
• Good free add-ons
77. Best Paid Option: Gravity or Formidable
Both are great in terms of features and add-ons, though neither has a
UI as slick as Caldera. Formidable has built-in views that GF needs
add-ins for. GF provides better pricing for annual licensing, but
Formidable has a good lifetime package. It’s going to come down to
personal preference and the specific requirements of the site you’re
building.
78. Don’t forget to watch Laura Steiner’s
presentation on Formidable Pro!
79. About Your Presenter
@salliegoetsch on Twitter
sallie@wpfangirl.com
(510) 969-9947
Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with ‘sketch’) built her first
HTML website in 1994. Since discovering WordPress in
2005, she hasn’t looked back. Sallie became the
organizer of the East Bay WordPress Meetup in
Oakland, California, in 2009. She runs her WP Fangirl
consulting and development business from her home
and appears regularly on the WP-Tonic Live panel.