AFB – Auto Form Builder with AI, Contact & Conversational Forms vs OpenStation

Support Watch the full overview video below. Auto Form Builder is a free drag-and-drop WordPress form builder for creating professional forms — contact forms, multi-step forms, surveys, file upload forms, and forms with conditional logic — without writing any code. It also brings AI to your forms. With the optional AI add-ons you can build a form from a plain-English description or an uploaded document, generate conditional logic automatically, summarize and draft replies to submissions, ask across all your submissions, and use an admin AI assistant that answers questions and even creates forms. You can also turn any form into an AI conversational form that collects answers naturally. The core builder and every non-AI feature are completely free, with no upsells hidden behind core functionality. The AI features are optional and off by default (see “External Services” for the full disclosure). Why Auto Form Builder? Unlike form plugins that lock their best features behind expensive subscriptions, Auto Form Builder gives you multi-step forms, conditional logic, surveys, form analytics, spam protection, submission management, webhooks, Slack notifications, import/export, and full visual customization — all free. Plugin Dashboard A command center with four KPI cards (total forms, total submissions, unread entries, and this week’s activity with a week-over-week trend), a 14-day activity chart, latest entries, a top-forms ranking, add-on status, and one-click shortcuts. New users get a guided onboarding card. Drag & Drop Form Builder Build a form in minutes: drag fields onto the canvas and you’re done. The builder supports undo/redo, a live preview (desktop, tablet, mobile), and instant shortcode generation to embed your form anywhere. Embed Forms on Any Website Every form comes with a ready-made embed code you can paste onto any website — including non-WordPress sites and page builders such as WP Bakery, Brizy, and Elementor. The embedded form keeps your design, auto-resizes to fit its content, and stays isolated from the host theme. Redirect thank-you pages can even break out of the frame. Popup Forms (Add-On) Show any form in a popup without installing a second popup plugin. Activate the free Popups add-on and create unlimited popups in a range of styles — modal, slide-in, sticky bar, full-screen, welcome mat, and a floating launcher button. Choose exactly which pages they appear on, trigger them by time delay, scroll depth, exit intent, element clicks, and more, cap how often each popup shows, and decide what happens after a successful submission. Duplicate a popup to reuse its setup, and edit safely with an unsaved-changes warning. Popups are fully keyboard accessible and load nothing on pages without an eligible popup. 15+ Field Types Every common field type is included: Text Input Textarea Email Phone Number Date & Time Month & Year Checkbox Radio Buttons Dropdown Name Field Address File Upload Signature Color Picker Page Break (multi-step forms) Tabular Survey (Likert grid) Star Rating NPS (0–10) Opinion Scale Signature Field Collect e-signatures inside your form. Visitors sign with a mouse, finger, or stylus; the signature is stored securely and shown as an image in the entry details — ideal for consent forms, agreements, and approvals, on WordPress pages and embedded forms alike. Survey Fields & Visual Results Build complete surveys with four dedicated question types, free: Tabular Survey (Likert grid) — rows of questions with your own answer columns (radio or checkbox), collapsing neatly on mobile. Star Rating — 3 to 10 stars, keyboard and touch accessible. NPS (0–10) — the standard Net Promoter Score scale with Detractor/Passive/Promoter answers. Opinion Scale — numbered buttons with custom end labels. The Survey Results screen gives visual, per-question reports: distribution charts, stacked bars, an automatically calculated NPS score, and a 30-day trend. Survey answers appear formatted in entry details and CSV exports, and conditional logic works with every survey field. Color Picker Field Let visitors choose a color with the browser’s native picker — ideal for design requests and product personalization. The value is validated, stored, and shown as a swatch with its hex code. Month & Year Field Collect a month and year (or year only) without a full calendar date — useful for card expiration dates, employment start months, and graduation years. Month & Year opens an easy custom picker with year arrows and a single month grid (no endless scrolling), and Year only uses a year dropdown. Set the earliest and latest allowed month or year, or switch on “Block Future Dates” so answers can’t be later than today — ideal for questions like “When was your business established?”. Values are validated, stored in a clear format, and shown correctly in entry details and email notifications. Pre-Built Templates Start faster with ready-to-use templates including Contact Form, Feedback Form, Support Request, Newsletter Signup, and Event Registration. Every template is fully customizable. Conditional Logic Show or hide any field based on earlier answers, using multiple AND/OR conditions per field — no code required. Logic also controls confirmations and emails: show a different success message or redirect, route the admin notification elsewhere, change its subject or message, skip it, or send a different confirmation email. The first matching rule wins; otherwise your normal settings apply. Multi-Step Forms Break long forms into short steps to boost completion. Enable multi-step mode, drop Page Break fields where each step begins, set step titles and button labels, and pick a progress bar style. Step branching can skip steps or jump ahead based on earlier answers (forward-only and loop-safe), so every visitor sees only the steps that apply. Partial Entries — Capture Abandoned Forms Don’t lose a lead when someone doesn’t press Submit. With partial entry capture, in-progress answers are saved and reviewable on the Partial Entries screen. Abandoned entries auto-delete after a retention period you control (1–365 days). Full Visual Customization Make your forms match your brand perfectly. The Customize tab gives you control over: Theme presets — Corporate, Minimal, Modern, Eco, Friendly, Luxury, Neutral, Creative, Feminine, Fresh, and more Reusable saved themes — save your custom design once and apply it to any other form with a single click Header image / banner per form Background, colors, fonts, layout Field styling and button design Label icons and inside-the-field icons (see below) Visual effects Every change is previewed live across desktop, tablet, and mobile. Label Icons & Inside-the-Field Icons Add polish to any field with icons — no code and no external icon library required. Place an icon next to a field’s label from a built-in set of 40+ icons or upload your own PNG/JPG, and add an icon inside Text, Email, Number, Phone, and URL fields (shown at the start of the input, separated by a divider). Control each icon’s color, optional background chip, and size per field. Fields without an icon stay exactly as they were. Submission Management All submissions live in a clean inbox with Unread, Starred, Read, Spam, and Trash tabs. Search by any field value, filter by form or date range, sort, and print — right from the dashboard. Email Notifications Get notified instantly on submit. Admin and user confirmation emails are fully configurable per form — recipients, subject, and a custom message with placeholders like {submission_data} and {form_name}. Choose styled HTML or plain text, and use conditional rules to send different emails (or none). Form Analytics Track views, submissions, average conversion rate, and per-form breakdowns with a 30-day chart. Sync historical submissions or reset data anytime. Included free and activatable from the Add-Ons page. Spam Protection Two options are included free — Google reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile — activatable from the Add-Ons page. Use one or both on any form. User Registration & Login Turn any form into a registration form. Map fields to the account email, username, password, and first/last name (a single Full Name field is split automatically), choose the new user’s role (never Administrator), and optionally send a custom welcome email with placeholders like {username} and {set_password_url}. Passwords are handled by WordPress core and never stored with the submission or emailed. The add-on also provides an independent login form via the [auto_form_builder_login] shortcode — sign-in, lost password, and password reset all on your own page, styled to match your site. Import & Export Export forms and entries for backup or migration, and import forms onto any WordPress site in seconds — ideal for agencies. Slack Notifications Notify your team in Slack the moment a form is submitted. Activate the free add-on, paste a Slack Incoming Webhook URL, and choose which forms post to which channels. Only hooks.slack.com URLs are accepted, no credentials are stored, and passwords and file contents are never sent. Webhooks Send submission data to Zapier, Make, or any custom endpoint the moment a form is submitted. Extend with Paid Add-Ons The free plugin is complete on its own. For teams and agencies, premium add-ons are available to extend specific functionality. Auto Form CRM Integration Auto Form Builder integrates natively with Auto Form CRM, a dedicated WordPress CRM for managing leads and submissions in one place. AI Features (Optional Add-Ons) Two optional AI add-ons are available and off by default: AI Assistant (build a form from a description or document, one-click summaries and suggested replies, “ask across your submissions”, and an admin chat assistant that answers questions and creates forms) and AI Conversation (turn a form into a friendly chat, with optional appointment booking). These features connect to AIDA, our AI service at autoformcrm.com, and stay off until you opt in. See “External Services” below for exactly what data is sent, when, and to whom. External Services Auto Form Builder is privacy-first. By default the plugin does not contact any external service. Every service below is off by default and only runs after you actively opt in. AIDA — AI Assistant & AI Conversation (optional add-ons, off by default) Service & provider: AIDA, the AI service that powers the optional AI features, by Auto Form Builder / Auto Form CRM (https://autoformcrm.com/). Requests are processed by a third-party AI provider, Anthropic. When contacted: only after an administrator activates an AI add-on, connects an AIDA account, and then uses an AI feature. Otherwise nothing is ever sent, and the core form builder never contacts AIDA. Account & cost: the AI features need a free AIDA account (with free trial credits); continued use afterward requires one-time credit packs from autoformcrm.com. The core plugin and all non-AI features stay free and need no account. Your credit balance is shown in the plugin, and purchases always open autoformcrm.com in a new tab (no payment inside the plugin). Data sent (only for the action you trigger): the form description and any document you upload when building a form; the submission content when you request a summary, a suggested reply, or an “ask across submissions” answer, or when the admin assistant answers about your forms/submissions; the messages you type into the admin assistant; and, only if you enable AI Conversation on a public form, the chat messages visitors type. Your AIDA token is sent server-side only to authenticate, stored encrypted, and never exposed to the browser. Data NOT sent: nothing for any AI feature you do not use, no form/submission content beyond the action you trigger, and never passwords handled by WordPress core. Purpose: to provide AI form building, submission summaries and replies, the admin assistant, and conversational forms. Terms / privacy: https://autoformcrm.com/terms and https://autoformcrm.com/privacy (Auto Form CRM / AIDA); Anthropic — https://www.anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms and https://www.anthropic.com/legal/privacy. Anonymous Deactivation Feedback (opt-in, one-time) Service & provider: Auto Form Builder feedback endpoint, https://autoformbuilder.com/afb-deactivation-feedback.php (https://autoformbuilder.com/). When contacted: only when an administrator clicks “Submit & Deactivate” in the optional dialog shown on deactivation. Skipping, closing, or dismissing it sends nothing. Data sent: the reason you selected, an optional explanation (max 1000 characters), your WordPress, PHP and plugin versions, and your site locale. The exact JSON payload is shown in the dialog before anything is sent. Data NOT sent: site URL, administrator name or email, user ID, IP address, or any form/submission data (the request User-Agent is neutralized so it carries no site URL). Purpose: to understand why users deactivate the plugin and prioritise improvements. Terms / privacy: https://autoformbuilder.com/ Anonymous Usage Data (opt-in, off by default) Service & provider: Auto Form Builder telemetry endpoint, https://autoformbuilder.com/afb-telemetry.php (https://autoformbuilder.com/). When contacted: only if you enable “Help improve Auto Form Builder by sending anonymous usage data” (in onboarding or Settings → General) — then a one-time “install” event on opt-in and an “uninstall” event on deletion. Turning it off stops all further requests. Data sent: a locally generated anonymous site ID (not derived from your URL), the plugin / WordPress / PHP / MySQL versions, the plugin version at install, your site locale, whether the site is multisite, days since install, approximate form and submission counts as ranges (never exact), active add-ons, and whether onboarding was completed. The full list is shown next to the opt-in checkbox. Data NOT sent: site URL, administrator name or email, user ID, IP address, or any form/submission content. Purpose: to measure the uninstall rate and which environments and usage levels correlate with leaving, so we can prioritise improvements. Terms / privacy: https://autoformbuilder.com/privacy/ Slack Notifications (optional add-on, off by default) Service & provider: Slack Incoming Webhooks, Slack Technologies, LLC (https://slack.com/). Only hooks.slack.com URLs are accepted; no other host is ever contacted. When contacted: only after you activate the add-on, set a webhook URL you created in your own Slack workspace, and enable it for a form — then on each submission of that form and when you click “Send Test”. Data sent: the form title and your site name; the values a visitor submitted only if you also enable “Include answers” for that form. Passwords, CAPTCHA values, file contents, and server file paths are never sent; uploaded files appear by filename only. Purpose: to notify your team in Slack about new form submissions in real time. Terms / privacy: https://slack.com/terms-of-service and https://slack.com/trust/privacy/privacy-policy

wp-admin forgets. OpenStation doesn’t. You know the moment. You’re deep in a post and you need one image from the Media Library. You click over, find it, click back, and everything you had going is gone. Your scroll position, your half-typed thought, the three other things you had queued up in your head. That’s not a bug you hit. That’s the design. wp-admin shows you one screen at a time, and every navigation throws the last one away. It has worked this way since 2003, like a fridge that empties itself every time you close the door. WordPress has rebuilt almost everything else. The editor, the site editor, the patterns, the styles. The admin’s one-screen-at-a-time model is the layer nobody touched. OpenStation touches it. Install it and admin screens become draggable, resizable windows. Edit a post while the Media Library sits open next to it. Drag an image from one window straight into the other. Keep comments open in the corner. Reload the browser and your window layout — open pages, positions, sizes, and window states — comes back where you left it. OpenStation itself is free, GPL, and opt-in per user. One click in the admin bar turns it on for you. One click turns it off. Nobody else on your site sees anything change, and deactivating the plugin restores the classic admin exactly. No Core patches and no lock-in. Optional AI providers may charge for their service. Built and maintained by Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce, and Tumblr. Work on more than one thing at once Admin pages open as windows, including pages added by most other plugins. Drag them, resize them, snap them, tile them, minimize them to a taskbar. The admin menu becomes a dock of icons. Two editors open at once is one click away. Never lose your place Moving between open windows leaves each page in place. Across reloads, OpenStation remembers your open pages, window positions, sizes and states, virtual desktops, and focus. Closing a window with unsaved changes warns you first. A desk you can actually put things on Drop posts, media, and links right onto the wallpaper. Sort them into folders. Trash them to a Trash that actually holds things. The stuff you’re working on this week can just sit out where you can see it. One desktop per job Virtual desktops, the way your operating system does them. One for writing. One for the store. One for comment triage. One for that redesign you keep poking at. Switch between them without closing anything. Find anything with Cmd+K The full WordPress command palette, plus slash commands from your plugins, all under one keystroke. Turn on the optional AI assistant and you can ask it things like “which post had the comment asking for the recipe?” and it searches your own content to answer. (Requires an AI provider configured in Settings → Connectors on WordPress 7.0+. Details under “External services” below.) See how your site fits together The Corkboard is an interactive, zoomable map of how your posts, pages, and products link to each other. Pan around it. Find the orphans. Find the hubs. Running a store? Orders, Products, Coupons, and Customers become browsable folders with stock and sale ribbons. Open a customer to see their lifetime spend and what they buy most. Follow a product to its buyers, or a coupon to who redeemed it. Make it yours Wallpapers, from color presets to animated scenes to your own photo. Live widgets pinned to the desktop: drafts, stats, recent comments, a focus timer. Uploadable desktop themes, including a built-in Legacy theme that brings the old WordPress blue back in one click. And Mio, a soft-body desk companion that drifts across your wallpaper and gets bumped around by your windows. Off by default. You’ll turn it on. For developers Extend OpenStation through documented PHP and JavaScript APIs. Register windows, icons, wallpapers, widgets, commands, and settings tabs through stable openstation_register_* PHP APIs and a typed JavaScript API; customize dock items through documented hooks; add AI tools with the WordPress Abilities API. Copy-paste examples live in the developer docs on GitHub. External services No external service is required for OpenStation’s desktop interface. The optional AI Assistant and two user-initiated enrichment features make the external requests described below. AI Assistant The optional AI Assistant sends data to the AI provider you configure in WordPress’s Settings → Connectors (for example OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google). Generation is routed through WordPress 7.0’s built-in AI Client, which supplies the credentials stored in Connectors. The plugin never handles an API key itself. With no provider configured in Connectors, no external AI requests are made. When the AI Assistant is enabled and a user invokes it (via Cmd+K or the slash-command palette): What is sent: the user’s prompt, the conversation history for the active session, and tool-call metadata. The plugin’s built-in tools (search_posts, search_pages, search_comments) run WordPress’s native keyword search and may include excerpts of the matching posts/pages/comments in tool results, which are then sent back to the provider as part of the agentic loop. When it is sent: on user-initiated AI requests, and (if an administrator enables “Score new comments with AI”) on comment-save hooks for spam analysis. Posts, pages, and taxonomy terms are not sent automatically. Why it is sent: to obtain model completions and tool-call decisions that drive the AI Assistant. Who provides the service: whichever provider you configured in Settings → Connectors. Which provider (and endpoint) receives the data depends entirely on that configuration. Review the chosen provider’s own terms and privacy policy (e.g. OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google). URL shortcut favicons When an authorized user creates a desktop shortcut to an external URL, OpenStation asks that URL for its page HTML and favicon so the shortcut can display the site’s icon. The request is made from your WordPress server and sends the requested URL, the server’s IP address, an OpenStation user-agent string, and normal HTTP request metadata to the operator of that site. This happens only when a user creates the shortcut. The destination site’s terms and privacy policy apply. WordPress.org plugin information When an authorized user opens or refreshes parts of OpenStation’s Plugins window, OpenStation may request public plugin details, update metadata, and review excerpts from WordPress.org. These requests send plugin slugs, the site’s locale, and normal HTTP request metadata to WordPress.org. This information is used only to display and manage plugins. Review the WordPress.org Privacy Policy. OpenStation’s OAuth relay does not contact a service by itself. Third-party plugins that configure the relay may contact their own providers and are responsible for disclosing those services. Credits OpenStation is brought to you by Automattic. The plugin is open source under GPLv2-or-later; contributions are welcome on GitHub. Third-party libraries The plugin bundles the following third-party JavaScript library, loaded on demand only when a feature that needs it is in use: PixiJS (MIT License) — used by the Corkboard window, built-in canvas wallpapers (e.g. the animated WordPress logo), the Mio desk companion, and the Inkfall typing game. PixiJS is loaded from the plugin’s own assets/vendor/ directory; no CDN requests are made. Data files The Inkfall game’s word list (assets/games/inkfall/words.txt) is generated from the following sources (attribution also ships in the file’s header): FrequencyWords by Hermit Dave (CC-BY-SA 4.0) — English word-frequency ranking derived from the OpenSubtitles corpus. english-words by dwyl (Unlicense) — used as a validity filter. LDNOOBW English list (CC-BY 4.0) — used as an exclusion filter.