WPForms Review (May 2024) - Worth It? (2024)

Beginner-Friendly Drag and Drop Form Builder

Ever seen gorgeous formsand wondering how on earth they did that? While other WordPress sites’ formsshine, yours are bland, boring, and don’t perform as well as you want them to.

There’s one secret:WPForms.

WPForms is a WordPressplugin that lets you create beautiful drag and drop forms even if you’re anabsolute beginner.

Be it contact forms,opt-in forms, payment, or registration forms, WPForms can help you create onein a matter of minutes.

It’s not perfect, butit’s by far the most trusted WordPress form builder by 2 million+ people.

In this review, we’regoing to talk about:

1. WPForms: Overview
2. WPForms Lite: Key Features
3. WPForms Pro: Pricing and Overview of Features
4. WPForms Pro Unique Features
5. How to View Entries in WPForms
6. WPForms: Mobile Responsiveness
7. WPForms: Customer Support
8. WPForms: What I Like About It
9. WPForms: What I Don’t Like About It
10. WPForms: Final Thoughts

WPForms: Overview

Forms are an essentialtool for every website owner who are looking to maximize their website forbusiness purposes. Whether you’re a small business owner looking to build youremail list or a freelancer who wants to attract more clients, online forms area must-have.

Building WordPress formsused to be so complicated, with plugins that are hard to use and messy.

The guys befind WPForms decidedto change the standard and created a truly beginner-friendly WordPress formbuilder. They’re WordPress experts that have been around for a long time andare responsible for other brands including WPBeginner, OptinMonster, andMonsterInsights.

Since it was released in2016, it has redefined how WordPress forms are made and have added morefeatures that take online forms on a new level.

WPForms took the painsof building WordPress forms away, and I can honestly say that the plugin is ajoy to use.

WPForms has a freeversion (called WPForms Lite) and premium version (WPForms Pro). We’re going todive deep into the features of each version and help you decide which versionyou should get.

WPForms Lite: Key Features

The free version ofWPForms is available in the WordPress Plugin Directory. Although free, itprovides enough functionality to help you easily add beautiful contact forms toyour WordPress website.

Once installed andactivated, you can start adding new forms right away.

To add a new form, hoveryour mouse over WPForms in theleft-side panel of your WordPress dashboard and click Add New.

Then you can choose fromthe pre-made templates or create one from scratch.

There are four pre-madeform templates available in WPForms Lite:

1. Blank form
2. Simple contactform
3. Newsletter signupform
4. Suggestion form

Once you select anoption, you’ll be taken to the form builder interface. You’ll be able to addfields like text, name, and email, and change the order of fields by drag anddrop.

Each field can also beedited. You can change their label, add or remove placeholders, turn them intorequired fields, and more.

You can also modify thesettings for your contact form. In Settings> General, you’ll be able tochange the form name, form description, CSS class, the text on the submitbutton, and more.

You’ll also be able to change how you are notified whenever someone submits a form. Do note, though, that when I changed the Send To Email Address, the new email address didn’t receive notifications when I submitted forms, so that might be a problem that requires help from tech support.

You’ll also be able tochange what happens after someone submits a form. You can choose to display atext message, show a page, or redirect to a URL.

Once you’re happy withthe form and its settings, click Saveand </> Embed. You should thensee a shortcode. You need to copy this shortcode and paste it on the page youwant to display the form in.

Here’s how to do it:

You can also add a formdirectly from the Gutenberg editor:

Customizing your forms with CSS

I wasn’t really happywith how plain the form looked like and wanted to add a background color. I didthis by going to Customization > Additional CSS and pasted this code in:

.wpforms-form {
background-color: #F5F5F5;
padding: 20px 15px;
}

If you’re not familiar with CSS and would like to learn how to style your forms, check out WPForms’ guide on how to do so.

WPForms Pro: Pricing and Overview of Features

As your project expands,you might need more advanced features to create forms that truly meet your needs,and that’s when you need to upgrade to WPForms Pro.

WPForms Pro has fourpackages: Basic, Plus, Pro, and Elite, with Basic the cheapest one and Elitethe most expensive one.

As you can see here,each package differs in how many sites it can support and your access topriority support.

Each package also comeswith different features. As you may have guessed, the more you pay, the moreadvanced features you get. Here’s a partial snapshot of the different featuresof each package:

Every package of WPFormsPro lets you:

• create unlimitednumber of forms
• split long formsinto multiple pages
• enable fileupload
• set conditionallogic
• manage your leadsin one place
• create constantcontact forms
• create customcaptchas
• have more formtemplates
• add more confirmationand notification

But if you want thefollowing features, you’re going to have to avail the other packages:

• MailChimp,AWeber, GetResponse, Campaign Monitor, and Drip Forms (Plus, Pro, & Elite)
• PayPal and Stripeadd-on for one-time payment or donation or even recurring paymets (Pro&Elite)
• ConversationalForms that ask questions one at a time to be more engaging(Pro & Elite)
• Signature Add-onthat lets users sign their forms with their mouse or touchscreen(Pro &Elite)
• Form LandingPages to create distraction-free form landing pages (Pro & Elite)
• Post Submissionsthat allows users to submit guest posts and other content (Pro & Elite)
• Form AbandonmentAdd-on that allows you to capture partial entries from forms
• Bonus FormTemplates (Pro & Elite)
• Offline Forms(Pro & Elite)
• Surveys and Polls(Pro & Elite)
• WordPress UserRegistration Forms (Pro & Elite)
• Login Form (Pro& Elite)
• Geolocation (Pro& Elite)
• Integration withZapier and its alternatives(Pro & Elite)

These features arereally, really useful, and we’ll be going over some of the most notablefeatures WPForms Pro has to offer.

WPForms Pro Unique Features

Conditional Logic

The conditional logic ofWPForms lets you create dynamic forms where you can hide or show fields,subscribe to newsletter based on user selection, or provide payment choices,depending on the user’s preferences and responses.

For example, if you’re aconsultant or agency, you can show a customer the next question only if theirbudget is higher than X amount.

Or show an exclusiveoffer to upsell or cross-sell users who purchased a certain package or product.

To use conditionallogic, click the field that you wantto be conditional and go to FieldOptions. Click the Conditionals dropdown,click Enable conditional logic, andproceed to set the conditions for the field.

Here’s an example:

Conversational Forms Add-On

A common problem withforms, especially long ones, are they feel impersonal and often daunting tocomplete. This leads to users abandoning their forms.

Conversational Formsprovides a solution by showing one question at a time instead of all 30questions at once. This approach feels more like how face-to-face conversationstake place.

To enable ConditionalForms, you have to go to WPForms > Addons and install Conversational Forms Addon.

You can now startcreating your own conversational form. Note that you can turn any existing forminto conversational forms or create a new form.

Open the form builderand got to Settings. You will seethat there’s a new field called ConversationalForms. Click that, and tick the box beside Enable Conversational Form Mode.

You should then see theseadditional settings:

As you can see, you canchange the title, add a message, add your logo, and use your brand color. You canpreview the form by clicking the blue PreviewConversational Form button or even the Viewbutton beside the permalink.

Here’s a conversationalform in action:

NOTE: Theconversational form won’t work if your permalink structure is set to Plain. Change your permalink structureto anything other than Plain to make it work.

Form Landing Pages Add-On

Form landing pages isanother great tool that helps lessen form abandonment instances. Just likeconversational forms, your form will be published on a standalone landing pagethat eliminates distraction.

To use form landingpages, you have to install and activate it like how conversational forms areactivated.

You can now startcreating a form page. Like conversational forms, you can create a new form forthis or turn any existing form into form pages.

To turn an existing forminto a form page, open the form and go to Settings.

Click Form Pages and tick the box beside Enable Form Page Mode.

Additional settings willthen appear. You’ll see that the settings are pretty much the same as thesettings for conversational forms. You can add a title and message, use yourlogo and brand colors, and preview the form.

At the bottom of thepage, you’ll be able to choose a style between Modern or Classic Design:

Let’s see what eachstyle looks like:

I personally like themodern design, but it’s really up to you which design you want.

NOTE: Likeconversational forms, the form page won’t work if your permalink structure isset to Plain. Change your permalinkstructure to anything other than Plain to make it work.

Form Abandonment Addon

Not everyone who startsfilling up your form completes it. Maybe they lost their internet connection,their battery went out, or they got distracted. It’s fine, that’s normal, butit loses you the opportunity to get one more lead and possibly a customer.

What the FormAbandonment Addon can do is collect the partially complete responses they gaveso you can have a way to contact them later.

If this featureinterests you, all you have to do is go to the WPForms Addons and install the FormAbandonment Addon.

Open the form builderonce that’s done, go to Settings,and click Form Abandonment.

Tick the box beside Enable form abandonment lead capture,and you’re done.

You can choose to saveonly abandoned forms with email address or phone number provided or collect allabandoned forms.

Multi-Page Forms

Extremely long forms areavoided by users like a plague. No one likes doing something that they knowwill take too much. So if your form has many fields, like how job applicationforms often do, the Multi-Page Forms will help you split them into pages.

Create your form asusual, and in the Fields area, underFancy Fields you should see a newtype of field called Page Break. Dragand drop it to where you want to form to end. And that’s it.

Here’s an example:

Post Submissions Add-On

If you want to be ableto accept guest posts and have a streamlined submission process, this add-on isperfect for you. With this add-on, you will be able to create a specific typeof form called the Blog Post Submission Form and further modify the settingsfor accepting guest posts.

To start, install and activate the Post Submissions Addon:

Once that’s done, create a new form with WPForms. In the Setup area, you’ll see that the Blog Post Submission Form is already added in your templates:

Click that and proceedto edit your form. Here are the default fields included in the template:

You can add or removeany field you want. If you want the authors to submit a file instead of postingthe entire content on the form itself, you can do so by adding the File Upload field. You can set allowedfiles, maximum file size, and even make it conditional if you want the authorsto provide additional information first before they are allowed to submit apost.

NOTE: Users won’t be able to upload multiple files in one field. So if you want to allow them to be able to submit multiple files (e.g. blog post images), you have to create multiple file upload fields.

Of course, like all ofyour forms, you can turn this into a conversational form or form page.

Also, if you want the notifications for blog post submissions to be sent to another email, say your content editor’s email, you can do so by going to Settings > Notificationsand change the email address under the “Send to Email Address” field. But, again, when I tried to do this the new email address didn’t receive notifications, so if you encounter the same problem, it’s best to contact tech support.

Survey and Polls Add-On

WPForms just recentlyrolled out this add-on that allows users to quickly create polls and surveysfor whatever purposes. Whether you need to know where employees want to go forthe company outing or you want to measure customer loyalty, this addon willsurely come in handy.

To start, install andactivate the Survey and Polls Addon:

Then create a new form. In the Setup area, you will see four additional templates:

Depending on what youneed to do, choose one of these templates and edit it as you normally would.

Let’s take a look at eachtemplate.

Poll Form

Polls are commonly usedto get a feel for what your customers think or feel. These are helpful to getto know your audience even better like what problems they want solve, what typeof content they’d like to see, where they found you, and more.

Here’s how the poll formtemplate looks like:

Survey Form

The survey form templatecomes with rating fields that you can fully edit and customize. It also has apreset conditional question which appears if the user rates their satisfaction1 or 2. Of course, you can change these fields and add or remove fields to suityour needs. It’s also advisable to enable reporting for ratings so you caneasily generate survey data.

NPS Survey Simple Form

The NPS Survey Simple Form template has one rating field and two conditional fields. The first conditional field will appear if the user chooses a rating lower than 7, and the second conditional field will appear if the user chooses a rating between 6 and 9. You can change these values or add more fields to gather more data.

NPS Survey Enhanced Form

The NPS Survey EnhancedForm also aims to measure customer loyalty but with additional fields. Aside fromrating customer loyalty and what exactly they didn’t like (if the rating islow), the form also asks what the users liked (if the rating is high) and ifthey are willing to provide a testimonial. This is a great option if you’relooking to get authentic testimonials to attract more customers or know whereyou can improve.

Additonal Templates Addon

The additional templatesadd-on is insane. It has industry-specific form templates like a mortgageapplication form, call for proposals form, family reunion form, sponsorshiprequest form, recipe catalog form, and many, many more.

With a template libraryas extensive as that, you should be able to create a form for any needs inunder 5 minutes.

How to View Entries in WPForms

So someone fills up yourform. Now what? How will you see their entries?

It’s pretty simple. On theleft-side panel, under WPForms, youshould see Entries. Click on that,and you’ll be taken to the Entries interface. First thing you should do isselect the form that you want to see the entries of:

Once you select theform, you’ll see every entry for that form. To view an entry, click View under Actions.

The way the results arepresented will of course differ according to the survey type. Here’s how theentry for a guest post submission looks like:

And here’s an example ofan NPS Survey Enhanced Form submission entry:

You can export theseentries for reporting and documentation purposes.

WPForms: Mobile Responsiveness

Forms created with WPForms look great on any mobile device. The fonts are big enough to see and the fields have proper spacing. Here’s how a form looks on a tablet:

And on a mobile phone:

WPForms: Customer Support

You can contact customer support on this page for tech-related questions and general or pre-sales questions.

If you have a tech-related question, you can first check out their documentation to see if you can find a solution there. If you still need help, you can submit a ticket.

WPForms: What I Like About It

• The free version has enough functionality to let you create a simple form in just a few minutes. Perfect for those just starting out or for creating simple contact forms.

• The drag and drop interface is so easy to use. There are enough options to customize each field. You can also style the forms with additional CSS.

• As your business and needs grow, you can upgrade anytime. Upgrading, depending on the plan, unlocks a lot of powerful features.

• The WPForms Pro has unique features like conversational forms, form pages, conditional logic, and more that enable users to create powerful forms for any purposes. These features make the premium version worth paying for.

• The documentation and how-to articles have enough information to help with setup and troubleshooting.

• The long list of templates included in the template addon is insane.

WPForms: What I Don’t Like About It

• If you’re using add-ons for the first time, it can be confusing what to do next after installing and activating it. It would be helpful to have short instructions or even links to documentation after installing the add-ons so users will know exactly what to do next.

• There is no option for users to upload multiple files in one field, so if users need to submit multiple files, e.g. multiple pictures, you can either add multiple File Upload fields or ask them to upload the files in a file-sharing software like Google Drive folder and give you the link instead.

• The form pages and conversational forms won’t work if your permalinks are set to Plain, so make sure to change your permalink structure first.

• Notifications are not sent to custom email address.

WPForms: Final Thoughts

Despite its minorlimitations here and there, WPForms is all in all an amazing WordPress formbuilder plugin that really lets you build any forms of any kind in a fewminutes. No coding or complex settings needed. It also has regular updates andavailable support.

Depending on your needs and resources, you can choose from the Lite and Pro versions, with more unique features for each paid package. If you need the conversational forms feature or their form templates, you may want to consider their pro version, but keep in mind that you license will renew at full price. For me it makes the Pro version a “nice to have” but not a “must have”.