Looking for the best form builder for WordPress? Find a form builder that truly matches your needs
If you’re looking for the best form builder for WordPress, we’ve got you covered. Read along to reveal the best online form plugin for your business.
📌 Also see: 2022 Version available too!
Looking for an updated 2022 version of the best survey plugins for WordPress?
There are plenty of reasons to publish an online form on your website. For instance, suppose you’re looking to grow your email marketing list? In that case, you'll need a simple email subscription form at the bare minimum. Or, perhaps you’re just after a simple contact form for your eCommerce store?
But you may want to go a step further...
Maybe you want to set up a CRM system and find out more about your customers? Or publish a quiz? Or permit website visitors to provide info to supply an accurate quote?
The truth is, while online forms may appear like simple website elements, the design and functionality that's available to you massively vary depending on the plugins you use. There's a vast choice of tools out there, and making the best decision for your specific needs is vital to ensure good results.
So, before rushing the decision, it’s best to invest some time looking around to find a plugin with a suitable suite of features for your business.
In light of that, we're revealing everything you need to know to evaluate prospective form plugins for your website. Despite the fact we think our plugin’s (obviously) the best on the market 😉 - this is an honest comparison. So hopefully, by the end of this review, you’ll have a better idea of what to look for.
First Things First: Know What You Want
To successfully assess the right contact form builder plugin for your WordPress website, you need to understand what your ideal solution looks like, according to your specific needs. However, there are some general traits that all of the best form builders for WordPress boast:
- It should be effortless to set up and use. Designing a form is part of developing the look and feel of your site and should be intuitive and painless. At the very least, the plugin should make the process more accessible than coding your own forms.
- It should fulfill your most important requirements. Do you need custom fields? Dropdown menus? The ability to auto-fill email addresses and phone numbers? Consider what you need, and allow these requirements to fuel your purchasing decision.
- You should be able to create forms that deliver a great experience to your end-users. As such, it should be easy to adopt best practices for form design.
- It should have an excellent price to value ratio - you want a decent bang for your buck!
If you’re looking at a form builder that fulfills all the above criteria, you can pass it into the next round.
Now it’s time to consider your site's specific needs to help determine a list of 'mandatory' vs. 'nice to have' features for your form builder. Ask yourself these questions to establish and prioritize your website's needs:
- What objectives are you trying to achieve? For instance, is your goal to capture the most entries possible? Do you want to minimize form abandonment? Will you need to save responses in a specific format?
- If you could only choose a couple of features, what would they be? These are the 'mandatory features' that you absolutely can’t live without. For example, do you need a plugin that:
- Reflects the aesthetic of your branding?
- Works perfectly with your current integrations?
- Has a free version with a wealth of features?
- Delights your users and increases for submissions?
- Provides end-users with a ‘file uploads’ functionality?
Once you’ve answered these questions and noted down what you want out of your form builder, you're a step closer to effectively evaluating potential plugins.
What Makes The Best Form Builder for WordPress?
In addition to the list you've already created, these are the main features any WordPress form plugin worth its salt should include:
Customization
The best WordPress form plugins offer plenty of customization options so that you're free to create beautiful and responsive forms that achieve your desired results. At the very least, it should be possible to construct a form that complements your WordPress theme.
But many form plugins go a step further and enable you to create customized welcome screens, end screens, custom fields, personalized messages, drop-downs, and more.
A high-quality plugin should also offer advanced styling options to ensure a decent amount of control over every aspect of your form. For example, does the plugin allow you to style the font, shadows, borders, and padding of each field? Can you create hover effects over buttons and customize the colors freely? These are the sorts of things worth considering before committing to a plugin.
Superb Usability and an Intuitive Visual Builder
It’s much easier to build a form using an intuitive visual editor than writing your own code - or, at least, it should be!
The best plugins enable you to preview different types of forms in real-time and build them using intuitive features from a drag-and-drop interface. In addition, they should make it easy to customize each element exactly how you envisioned.
Responsiveness
In 2021, mobile phones generated 54.52% of all web traffic, surpassing desktop computers. So, now more than ever, it's essential all your website's content is fully responsive. It should look as good on mobile devices as it does on desktops - and your online forms are no exception.
The best WordPress form builder plugin creates responsive forms (as standard) that look great on desktops, mobiles, and tablets alike. This might include more drop-down options, fields rearranging below one another, and simplified buttons.
Security and Spam Protection
Another often overlooked feature is the ability to protect your business from Spam. This should be possible without the annoying and time-consuming CAPTCHAs that might prompt visitors to click off your forms. Instead, look for a plugin that runs Spam protection and security in the background. Often, this provides a more enjoyable user experience while keeping your inbox focused, safe and tidy.
Smart Features
If you're looking to achieve specific goals with your forms, intelligent features to help you achieve them will come in handy.
Great plugins capitalize on different types of logic to display things like real-time calculations and messages. Users should also be able to skip unnecessary questions and benefit from file uploads.
Smart features are especially important if you're using forms to provide website visitors with quotes or recommendations. Unfortunately, few visitors have the attention span or desire to sit through a multi-page form, so it's vital you streamline the process as much as possible if you require lots of information.
Automation and Seamless Integration
One final aspect to consider is that your form plugin should make your workflow more accessible, not harder. For example, it should offer the possibility to connect to webhooks like Zapier and create automated processes. Or, if you’re using an email marketing service (like Mailchimp) an integration will come in handy for coordinating your mailing list and email marketing efforts.
This matters, especially if you already have an existing tech stack, and the info collected in these user registration forms is vital to other operations, like customer service ticketing or order fulfillment.
Smart form builders should also notify you when a form is filled out. Some plugins do this by sending automated emails or Slack notifications. That way, you and your team can get back to the sender as soon as possible.
The Best Form Builders for WordPress on The Market
While we think that our Tripetto WordPress plugin checks all the boxes, we also appreciate the importance of balance. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the most popular form builder plugins on the market and listed them below for your comparison.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is a user-friendly form builder with an intuitive user interface and anti-spam management. In addition, it offers dedicated form fields, pre-built form templates, and more.
Ninja Forms also provides a free version, where you can create unlimited forms and questions, store form entries in your admin area, and embed forms on your WordPress site.
However, with the freemium package, you can’t create conversational forms or forms with logic jumps. For more features and flexibility, you’ll need to upgrade to its premium version.
Gravity Forms
Gravity Forms is another WordPress contact form plugin that lets you create powerful and accessible forms using a simple drag-and-drop form builder.
Designing forms feels smooth and intuitive, and the plugin comes with over 30 ready-to-use form fields. It also features conditional logic to show and hide field types as necessary, sends automated email notifications, and presents front-end forms.
However, the biggest drawback is that there isn't a free version of the plugin. In other words, testing this one out is a bit of a hassle.
WPForms
And finally, WPForms is another beginner-friendly form builder that allows you to drag and drop fields inside the form template. With the free plugin, you can embed forms on your site and create unlimited forms. Unfortunately, you can’t store form entries in your WP admin or share forms with a link, which might make it trickier to score higher conversion rates with WPForms.
Tripetto: The Best Form Builder for WordPress
As we’ve mentioned, we think Tripetto is the best of its kind for suiting all your online form-building needs. Of course, we might be biased 😉 - but, we would be remiss not to introduce the plugin to you in this article.
Tripetto ticks all the boxes we discussed earlier - so it’s no wonder we’ve scored so many five-star ratings.
For starters, you can create unlimited forms with as many questions as you like, and it comes with an intuitive, highly customizable editor. It’s different to any other form builder, as you can build forms on a drawing board, providing a whole new level of customization freedom.
In addition, you can access the form builder directly inside your WordPress dashboard. This means that unlike services like SurveyMonkey and Typeform, you can manage all your form-related tasks without leaving WordPress.
It also features advanced features that empower you to build forms and surveys as a flowchart. This comes in handy for creating and fine-tuning a more compelling customer experience. Plus, Tripetto comes with real-time previews of your form designs and allows you to customize every aspect of the style.
Tripetto allows you to create unlimited logic jumps per form. You can also hide or show specific fields, store entries in your admin area, and share forms with a link. In addition, you have unlimited 24/7 access to the help center and can upgrade whenever you want as your business grows.
Upgrading to Tripetto’s pro version unlocks Pro Features and removes Tripetto's branding. It also enables you to use action blocks (like calculations, email messaging, etc.) and automate Slack notifications. It also allows you to connect to webhooks like Zapier and Integromat to create more complex forms.
Are You Ready to Start Using The Best Form Builder for WordPress?
There are loads of valid options when it comes to picking a WordPress form builder. While many fulfill your basic requirements, you need to choose the form plugin that works best for you and your audience.
Usability, responsiveness, and conditional logic should be high on your list of priorities. But you, too, should benefit from a great user experience and a plugin that makes it easy and even fun to create beautiful-looking forms.
The choice is yours: Create forms and surveys like everyone else or build an incredible custom form experience using Tripetto. So, what are you waiting for? Now's the time to get started with the best form builder for WordPress today!
