The Best Forms Plugins for Your WordPress Website & How to Use Them

DMFB 2015, Raleigh, NC

What can forms be used for?

• Not just for “Contact Us” anymore• Applications, quizzes, sign-ups, surveys,

pre-screenings, registrations… • Be creative!

5 Parts to a Forms Plugin

• The form itself• The email notification sent to you• The email notification sent to the

submitter• Putting the form on your site• Other cool stuff

Safety & Security

• Known-safe plugins• No personal info (SSN, credit cards)• SSL certificates (can protect per-page)• reCAPTCHA

Old style

New style

Free vs Premium

Depends on what you need it for…the free version may be sufficient now, then you can upgrade later if you need to

Our Favorites

Free Free & Premium Premium Only

Contact Form 7The Form Itself

(requires additional plugin)

Contact Form 7The Email Notification to You

Contact Form 7The Email Notification to the Submitter

Contact Form 7Putting the Form on Your Site

Widget is also available in some themes (but not all)

Contact Form 7The Front-End

Notice that fields go all the way across…no easy way to format.

Contact Form 7Other Cool Stuff

No other cool stuff…just makes simple forms.

Formidable FreeThe Form Itself - Fields

Formidable FreeThe Form Itself - Layout

Formidable FreeThe Email Notification to You

Formidable FreeThe Email Notification to the Submitter

Other actions-on-submit are easily defined as well.

Formidable Free

Inserting a form onto a pageInserting a form as a widget

Putting the Form on Your Site

Formidable FreeThe Front-End

Notice prettier layout…can easily put multiple fields on a single line.

Formidable FreeOther Cool Stuff - Entries

NOTE: Can only view entries with Free…can’t export or report.

Formidable FreeOther Cool Stuff – Import/Export Forms

Can easily duplicate forms from one website on another.

Formidable FreeOther Cool Stuff - Built-In Form Styling (NEW!)

Formidable Free vs Pro

Formidable ProConditional Logic

Very powerful…can show or hide fields based on what a user chooses.

Formidable Pro

Third Party Add-Ons/Integrations:Stripe, Affiliate WP, Pro PDF Extended, ToolTips, Anti-Spam, GeoCoding, Email Shortcode, Customizations, Newsletter…more all the time…

Included Add-Ons

Formidable ProReporting

Gravity FormsThe Form Itself - Fields

Gravity FormsThe Form Itself - Layout

Not as easy as they suggest…must find, copy, and paste shortcodes to control form layout.

Gravity FormsThe Form Itself – Conditional Logic

Gravity FormsThe Email Notification to You

Gravity FormsThe Email Notification to the Submitter

Gravity FormsInserting a form onto a page

Inserting a form in a widgetPutting the Form on Your Site

Gravity FormsThe Front-End

Notice old-style Captcha…must use additional plugin for new style

Gravity FormsOther Cool Stuff – PayPal / e-Commerce

Gravity Forms is much easier than Formidable for e-commerce…more gateways, simpler setup

Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

http://denislam.com/formidable-pro-vs-gravity-forms/

Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

Choose Formidable Pro If: Choose Gravity Forms If:

• You’d like to style your forms without having to know CSS

• You need a simple PayPal option• You need a form with multiple

pages• You’re working with WP Multisite

• You need advanced and complex multi-page forms

• You’d like a bigger selection of field types

• You need advanced ecommerce• You’d like to code extra functions and

enhance your forms using the Gravity Forms framework

• You’d like to schedule forms to only be available during certain dates

Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

www.andisites.comandrea@andisites.com

@andisites