HTML Forms & Contact Form for WordPress vs Formidable Forms – WordPress Form Builder for Contact Forms, Calculators, Quizzes & More

The most powerful drag and drop WordPress form builder for contact forms, payment forms, calculators, quizzes, surveys, and data-driven applications. The Most Powerful WordPress Form Builder Plugin Formidable Forms is the most powerful drag and drop form builder for WordPress. Easily add contact forms, payment forms, survey forms, quiz forms, calculator forms, registration forms, custom forms, data tables, and complete web applications to your website, without any code. Whether you’re a beginner creating your first contact form or a developer building a complex member directory or data-driven application, Formidable Forms scales with you. Stop paying for a single-purpose contact form plugin. With Formidable’s drag and drop form builder, one plugin replaces five, so you can build forms, collect payments, run surveys, grade quizzes, generate online calculators, and build web apps, all inside WordPress without writing a single line of code. Watch the video overview for the Formidable form builder, calculator, and quiz builder Formidable Pro – The Ultimate WordPress Forms Plugin This plugin is the free version of Formidable Pro, which unlocks email subscription forms, multi-page forms, file upload forms, quiz grading, and conditional logic. Add repeater fields, payment integrations with Stripe and PayPal, cascading dropdown fields, calculated fields, front-end form editing, the AI form builder, and the powerful web application builder. Formidable Pro is more than a contact form plugin. It’s a complete platform for building smart forms and web applications. Upgrade to the most advanced premium WordPress form builder now! Or start with the Lite vs Pro comparison. Drag and Drop Form Builder for Every Type of WordPress Form Formidable’s drag and drop form maker makes it fast to create any form you can imagine. Start from one of 300+ pre-built form templates, design a completely custom form from scratch, or describe what you need and let the AI form builder generate it for you in seconds. Build a simple contact form in minutes, or layer in conditional logic, multi-step pages, and calculated fields to create sophisticated registration forms, quote forms, and price calculator forms. The form builder is optimized for outstanding speed and server performance, making it one of the fastest WordPress form plugins available. Unlimited forms are included in the free version, and every form you build is mobile-responsive out of the box. Whether visitors land on your site via desktop, tablet, or phone, your contact forms, survey forms, and payment forms look great and work flawlessly on every device. No other drag and drop form builder for WordPress gives you this depth of functionality starting from the free tier. Entry Management for Your Free WordPress Contact Forms Every form submission is stored securely in your WordPress database, so no lead is ever lost. Access entries from the form builder back-end, export to CSV for use in Excel or any other platform, and import leads directly to services like Mailchimp. Formidable is fully GDPR-friendly, giving you controls for IP tracking, saving submissions, and adding GDPR consent fields to any form. Automate follow-up with customizable email notifications and autoresponders. Set up redirect rules or success messages to guide visitors after form submission. From your first contact form to advanced payment forms and registration forms, every detail of the post-submission experience is in your hands. Built-in invisible SPAM protection keeps your entries clean from bots and spam submissions. The Only Form Builder Plugin with an Advanced Visual Form Styler Formidable is the only WordPress form builder with a built-in visual style creator. Match your contact forms, survey forms, and payment forms to your brand in just a few clicks, no custom CSS required. Adjust colors, fonts, layouts, and field styles to create online forms that blend seamlessly with any WordPress theme. For agencies and developers, the visual form styler means you can deliver beautiful, on-brand forms for every client without touching a line of code. Build Smart Survey Forms and Generate Insightful Reports With Formidable Pro, you get survey tools that rival SurveyMonkey, without the monthly subscription cost. Build survey forms and poll forms with Net Promoter Score (NPS) fields, Likert scales, star ratings, and image choices. Analyze survey results instantly and display beautiful graphs and charts directly on your WordPress pages and posts. Formidable’s survey form builder makes it simple to gather data, understand it, and act on it, all inside WordPress. Advanced WordPress Registration Forms for Teams and Events Formidable goes far beyond basic contact form functionality. The repeater field makes it easy to build comprehensive registration forms for sports teams, events, retreats, courses, and membership sites. Robust marketing integrations and API connections let you funnel registration data to your CRM, email platform, or any other tool in your stack automatically. Whether you’re building an event registration form or a complex multi-step membership application, the form builder handles it. Payment Forms with Stripe, PayPal, Square, and More Accept credit card payments, subscriptions, and donations directly through your WordPress forms. Formidable integrates with leading payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.net. Set up a donation form, product order form, event registration payment form, or service booking payment form in minutes. WooCommerce store owners can build custom product configurator forms with dynamic pricing and calculation fields that feed directly into the WooCommerce cart. Stripe payment forms are available in the free version, supporting ACH, Cash App, Klarna, iDeal, and more. A transaction fee applies without a Pro license. For in-person events and hybrid businesses, payment forms can be set up for cash, manual payment recording, and on-site collection, giving you complete flexibility for online and in-person transactions. Build Data-Driven Web Applications with Formidable Views Formidable Forms is not just a WordPress contact form plugin. It’s a complete platform for building web applications. With Formidable Views, you can display submitted form data on the front-end of your WordPress site, creating searchable databases, directories, event calendars, job boards, real estate listings, member directories, and more. No additional plugin required. The form builder and application builder are tightly integrated, so you can go from form to full application without ever leaving WordPress. Quiz Forms, Online Calculators, and Calculator Forms Formidable’s quiz form builder and calculator form builder are industry-leading features that set it apart from every other WordPress form plugin. Build educational assessments, personality quizzes, scored tests, and viral BuzzFeed-style quizzes with ease. For calculator forms and online calculators, the possibilities are endless: mortgage calculators, loan calculators, BMI calculators, price calculators, instant quote calculators, ROI calculators, cost estimators, and more. These interactive calculator forms and online calculators give visitors instant results and give you a powerful lead generation tool. No other drag and drop form builder for WordPress combines quizzes, scored forms, and fully functional online calculators in one free plugin. WordPress User Registration Forms and Profile Forms For membership sites and community platforms, Formidable offers advanced customization options for WordPress user registration forms and user profile forms. Enable front-end profile editing so users can update their information without ever visiting the WordPress dashboard. From initial contact form to lead form to final payment form, every step of the user journey is covered by Formidable’s drag and drop form builder. Advanced Fields and Features for High-Converting Forms Formidable’s form builder includes everything you need to create professional, high-converting forms. Multi-page forms with progress bars boost completion rates. Save-and-continue lets users finish long forms on their own schedule. Cascading dropdowns, conditional logic, partial submissions, and invisible spam protection are all included. Calculated fields power your online calculator forms and instant quote forms automatically. For developers and agencies, Formidable is the premier WordPress form builder choice. Customize form HTML directly (similar to Contact Form 7, but with full drag and drop power on top). Extend with hooks and filters. Build complex data-driven web applications with low overhead. Formidable supports the most sophisticated projects while remaining approachable for beginners building their first contact form. With the AI form builder (Pro), you can describe any form in plain text and have it built for you instantly. Need a multi-step registration form, a quote calculator, or a patient intake form? Just type what you need and the AI generates a fully structured, editable form in seconds. You can also add an AI field directly inside any form to display AI-generated responses based on user input, then include those responses in confirmation messages, email notifications, or Formidable Views. Every form is WCAG-compliant and accessible by default, making your forms usable for all visitors. How to Build an Instant Quote Form Full Feature List Drag and Drop Form Builder – Create contact forms, payment forms, survey forms, and more visually Calculator Forms – Build mortgage calculators, loan calculators, BMI calculators, price calculators, online quote calculators Survey Forms – NPS, Likert scale, star rating, image choice fields for powerful survey forms Multi-Step Forms – Multi-page forms with progress bars and conditional logic Payment Forms – Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net payment form integrations online and in-person WooCommerce Form Builder – Custom product forms with dynamic pricing Formidable Views – Display form data: directories, job boards, event calendars, real estate listings Form Templates – 300+ pre-built form templates for every use case Conditional Logic – Smart forms that show and hide fields dynamically File Upload Form – Accept documents, photos, and files in any form Quiz Form Builder – Scored quizzes, personality quizzes, graded assessments, viral quiz forms User Registration Form – WordPress registration and profile forms for membership sites PDF Forms – Generate PDFs, certificates, and invoices from form submissions Invisible SPAM Protection – Honeypot, Akismet, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile Customize Form HTML – Full control over form HTML like Contact Form 7, plus drag and drop Conversational Forms – One-question-at-a-time form experience like Typeform Landing Page Forms – Distraction-free form landing pages Repeater Fields – Add multiple rows of fields in registration and order forms Visual Form Styler – Brand your forms with colors, fonts, and layouts, no CSS required Cascading Dropdown Fields – Dynamic dependent dropdowns for complex forms Digital Signatures – Collect signatures in contract and booking forms Front-End Editing – Let users edit their own form submissions without logging in WCAG-Compliant Forms – Accessible form builder for all users AI Form Builder – Create entire forms from a plain text description in seconds Payment Forms, Marketing APIs, and Business Integrations Formidable Pro connects your WordPress forms to every major platform in your marketing and business stack. The form builder’s integration ecosystem means you never lose a lead or miss a workflow. Payment Forms: Accept online payments with Stripe Forms (one-time or recurring, with ACH, Cash App, Klarna, iDeal support), PayPal Forms (instant and recurring), and Authorize.net (one-time payments in order forms and calculator forms). Formidable charges zero transaction fees on all payment forms with a valid license. For in-person payments, cash, and manual payment collection, Formidable’s flexible payment form architecture supports hybrid billing workflows. Email Marketing: Direct integrations for Mailchimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, MailPoet, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Salesforce, GetResponse, and Campaign Monitor make lead collection seamless. Connect any contact form, survey form, or registration form to your email list in minutes. CRM and Automation: Zapier integration connects your WordPress contact forms and payment forms to thousands of apps. Use SMS notifications via Twilio, sync data to Zoho CRM, HubSpot CRM, Salesforce, Highrise, and more. Automate form-triggered workflows without writing code. WooCommerce Integration: As the only WordPress form builder plugin fully integrated with WooCommerce, Formidable lets you build custom WooCommerce product forms with variable pricing, configuration options, and calculated totals that flow directly into the cart. Multilingual Forms: Reach a global audience with WPML and Polylang integrations for multilingual WordPress forms. WordPress Form Builder for Every Industry and Use Case Formidable is the drag and drop form builder of choice across every industry. Small businesses use it for contact forms and lead capture. Financial services companies build loan calculators and quote forms. HR teams and researchers build survey forms. Schools and event coordinators build registration forms. Educators use the quiz form builder for scored assessments. Nonprofits build donation forms. Legal and medical practices use file upload forms for intake. Membership sites use it for user registration forms. Real estate and job sites build front-end directories. Service businesses use it for booking and appointment forms. Agencies and developers choose Formidable because it handles everything from a simple contact form to a complex web application in a single plugin. Formidable Forms Branding Guidelines Formidable Forms may also be referred to as Formidable, Formidable Form Builder, Formidable Pro, or Formidable Views. The Best Gravity Forms Alternative, WPForms Alternative, and JotForm Alternative for WordPress If you’re looking for an advanced WordPress form builder as a Gravity Forms alternative, Formidable Forms delivers more power at a lower price, with a completely free version that Gravity Forms doesn’t offer. As a WPForms alternative, Formidable goes deeper: beyond contact forms into calculator forms, web applications, and data-driven front-end displays that WPForms simply can’t match. Looking for a JotForm alternative or Typeform alternative that keeps your data on your own server? Formidable is the answer. All form data stays in your WordPress database, not on an external SaaS platform. Formidable is also the top Contact Form 7 alternative for anyone who has outgrown CF7’s limited feature set and wants drag and drop power on top. Compared to SurveyMonkey, Formidable Pro delivers professional survey forms, NPS forms, Likert scale fields, and real-time results directly inside WordPress, without a separate subscription. Ninja Forms users looking for more built-in power will find Formidable’s form builder offers calculators, Views, and a web application builder that Ninja Forms add-ons can’t replicate in a single plugin. Fluent Forms and Forminator users who need advanced calculator forms and a complete data display layer consistently upgrade to Formidable. Credits This online form and quiz builder plugin is created by Steve and Steph Wells and the amazing Strategy11 Team with Syed Balkhi as an Advisor.

Narrative Forms is the HTML form plugin for WordPress. Instead of dragging boxes around a builder, you write plain semantic HTML, or paste it straight from an AI like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and Narrative Forms turns it into a real form with fast AJAX form submissions and stored, exportable data. Any input with a name attribute is saved. That is the whole idea: forms are just HTML, so there is no field type registry, nothing proprietary to lock you in, and no ceiling on what your form can be. If you want a clean, fast, developer friendly HTML form plugin, a simple contact form, or a custom form that a heavy form builder cannot easily produce, this is it. It stays lightweight, loads its assets only on pages that contain a form, and is built to scale to millions of submissions. Why an HTML form plugin beats a drag and drop builder Most WordPress form plugins lock you into a drag and drop form builder and a fixed list of field types. If the builder does not offer a field, you cannot have it. Narrative Forms is an HTML form plugin with no field registry: a field is simply an HTML element with a name. Need a multi step layout, an unusual input, a custom widget, or markup your designer already wrote? Paste it in and it works. You keep full control of the markup, the classes, and the look, so your contact form or custom form renders exactly the way you built it. Drag and drop made sense years ago. Today you describe what you want or paste what you already have. No builder, no bloat, and no fighting a clunky UI to recreate a form you can already picture. That is why people who outgrow a drag and drop form builder move to a real HTML form plugin. Build forms with AI: paste from ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini Because forms are just HTML, any large language model can build one for you. Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or your favourite AI for a contact form with a name, email, a dropdown, and a file upload, copy the HTML it returns, and paste it into Narrative Forms. There is no proprietary field format to satisfy, so whatever the AI generates simply works as an HTML form. That makes Narrative Forms an AI friendly form plugin: you bring your own model, paste the markup, and ship the form. The free plugin is completely model agnostic, so you are never tied to one AI. Prefer it built in? AI form generation that writes the HTML for you inside WordPress is on the Narrative Forms Pro roadmap. For now, the free HTML form plugin already works with any AI you paste in. Everything in the free HTML forms plugin The free HTML forms plugin is a complete forms solution, not a teaser. Here is what every install includes: Fast AJAX form submissions. Forms submit without a page reload, and there is a graceful fallback when JavaScript is turned off, so the form never breaks for a visitor. AJAX form submissions also keep your pages cache friendly, because the page can stay static while the form posts in the background. A built in HTML editor. One click field buttons generate the markup for common fields, and a live preview shows the form as you type. Write the HTML by hand, scaffold it quickly with the buttons, or paste a form an AI wrote for you. The editor never hides your markup behind a visual builder, so what you see is what ships. Email notifications. Send a clean, readable email for every form submission, to yourself or any address, in plain text or HTML. Each field is formatted tidily, and you can route different forms to different inboxes with separate email actions. Webhook actions. Send form data to any URL when the form is submitted. Connect your forms to Zapier, Make, a CRM, or your own endpoint with a webhook, no code required, and add more than one webhook action per form so one submission can fan out to several services. File upload form fields. Accept a file upload field with a maximum file size and a maximum number of files per field. Uploaded files are stored safely in the WordPress media folder and recorded with the submission, so building a file upload form is one paste of HTML away. Stored form submissions and CSV export. Optionally keep every submission in a fast, indexed database table that you browse in the admin. Run a CSV export of your form submissions at any time; the export streams in batches, so it works even with very large numbers of submissions and never times out. Layered spam protection. Stop bots with a honeypot, a time trap that rejects instant submissions, a same origin referrer check, a limit on the number of links in a message, and an optional rate limit per IP. You can also switch on Cloudflare Turnstile for a privacy respecting CAPTCHA. This spam protection adds no third party tracking to your site. Custom messages and redirects. Set your own success and error messages, redirect to any URL after a successful submit, and use template tags so the form behaves exactly how you want. Clean, optional styling. A calm, minimal stylesheet ships with the plugin and is on by default, and you can switch it off in one click if your theme or custom CSS should own the look. Semantic wrapper classes keep your theme in charge of how your HTML form appears. Every output is escaped and every input is sanitised, following WordPress coding and security standards, so the plugin stays review safe and secure. Contact forms, custom forms, and every form in between Narrative Forms is a general purpose form plugin, so the same HTML first workflow covers almost any form you need to build. Use it for a simple contact form, a lead capture form, a support request form, a job application, an RSVP, a survey, a registration form, a file upload form, or a custom form with a layout that a drag and drop builder cannot easily produce. Because a field is just an HTML element with a name attribute, you can mix text inputs, email fields, dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons, date pickers, textareas, and file upload fields in any structure you like. Agencies and developers reach for this HTML form plugin when a client needs a form that does not fit a builder’s template: a multi column layout, a branded card, a stepper, a pricing calculator, or markup a designer handed over. You paste the HTML, give the fields names, and the form is live with AJAX form submissions, stored data, and CSV export. There is no template to fight and no field type you cannot add, which is the difference between an HTML form plugin and a drag and drop form builder. It is also a great fit when you want to keep your stack lean. A single lightweight form plugin handles your contact form, your file upload form, and your custom forms, with email and webhook actions for routing, layered spam protection to keep out bots, and stored form submissions you can export to CSV whenever you need them. Whether you collect a handful of submissions a month or millions over time, the same plugin scales with you. Developer friendly HTML form plugin Narrative Forms is built for people who like control. Prefill fields with template variables such as {{ user.email }}, {{ get.utm_source | default:’direct’ }}, or {{ site.name }}, using providers like user, URL parameters, post, site, and date, each with filters such as default, upper, lower, date, and truncate. On the front end, public JavaScript events (nrfm-submit, nrfm-submitted, nrfm-success, nrfm-error) let you push conversions to Google Tag Manager or your dataLayer, show a toast, or run any custom logic with a tiny nrfm.on() helper. Filters and actions sit at every decision point, including the form HTML, validation, and webhook request arguments, so you can extend this HTML form plugin without forking it. Built to scale to millions of form submissions Narrative Forms is engineered for sites that collect a lot of data. Form submissions live in a dedicated, indexed database table rather than bloated post meta, so lookups stay fast as the table grows. Repeated reads are cached, queries are paginated and bounded, CSV export streams in batches, and heavy work can run in the background so the front end stays quick. Whether you collect ten form submissions a month or millions over time, this lightweight form plugin is designed to stay responsive. Scaling to millions describes the architecture, indexed storage, caching, and bounded queries, rather than a benchmarked guarantee. Who this HTML forms plugin is for Developers and agencies who want a contact form or custom HTML form they fully control, without a heavy builder. Anyone who uses an AI assistant: generate the HTML, paste it, and you are done. Site owners who need reliable form submissions, email notifications, file upload forms, and CSV export without the bloat. Teams that have outgrown a drag and drop form builder and want a faster, lighter way to build forms. Common uses include contact forms, lead capture, support requests, job applications, RSVPs, surveys, file uploads, registrations, and multi field custom forms that a drag and drop builder cannot easily produce. Upgrade to Narrative Forms Pro Narrative Forms Pro keeps the same lightweight, HTML first core and adds the power features that busy sites and agencies need: Conditional logic: show or hide fields, and trigger actions, based on what the visitor enters. Save and resume: let visitors save a long form as a draft and finish it later from where they left off. Submission notifications: a badge for unread form submissions in the admin so a new entry never slips by. Require login: restrict any form to logged in users only. Schedule windows: open and close a form automatically on the date and time you set. Advanced webhooks: reusable webhook templates, automatic retries with backoff, and a delivery log for every call. REST API: read form submissions programmatically and connect your forms to anything. Share links: generate a hosted, shareable link to any form. AI form generation, which writes the HTML for you from a plain language description, is on the Pro roadmap. Today the free HTML form plugin already works with any AI you paste in. Learn more at https://narrative-forms.com/?utm_source=wordpress.org&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=free Publish form submissions with Frontend Submissions (Views) Most form plugins keep submissions locked in the admin. The Narrative Forms Frontend Submissions add on turns your form submissions into front end content with reusable Views: display any form’s submissions as a public directory, a testimonial wall, a photo gallery, a job board, an event timeline, or product reviews, with instant search, pagination, single pages, per field privacy, and approval moderation. Frontend submission display is a paid add on that requires the free Narrative Forms plugin. Collect with the form, publish with a View. Learn more at https://narrative-forms.com/?utm_source=wordpress.org&utm_medium=readme&utm_campaign=free Privacy Narrative Forms uses the Appsero SDK to collect some telemetry data, but only after you confirm it. This helps us troubleshoot problems faster and make product improvements. The Appsero SDK does not gather any data by default. It only starts collecting basic telemetry when you allow it through the admin notice. We collect the data to ensure a great experience for all of our users. Integrating the Appsero SDK DOES NOT IMMEDIATELY start gathering data, and never without your confirmation. Learn more about how Appsero collects and uses this data. External services This plugin connects to external services only in these optional cases, and each is off until you enable or allow it. Cloudflare Turnstile (optional CAPTCHA). Used only if you enable Turnstile. When a page with a form loads, the browser requests https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/api.js to render the widget; on submit, the server sends the Turnstile token, your secret key, and the visitor’s IP address to https://challenges.cloudflare.com/turnstile/v0/siteverify to verify it. Terms: https://www.cloudflare.com/website-terms/ Privacy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ Webhooks (optional, configured by you). Used only if you add a Webhook action. After a successful submission, the submitted form fields plus limited metadata (timestamp, IP address, user agent, referrer) are sent as JSON or URL encoded data to the exact URL you configure, on a domain you choose. Example URLs in the UI are placeholders and receive nothing. The destination is your choice, so consult that service’s terms and privacy policy. Appsero (optional usage analytics). Off until you allow it through the admin notice; nothing is sent before that. It then sends basic environment details (site URL, WordPress and PHP versions, active theme and plugins, locale, and the admin email used to confirm) to https://api.appsero.com, plus an optional survey if you deactivate. No form submissions or visitor data are sent. Privacy: https://appsero.com/privacy-policy/