7 Best Free WordPress Form Plugins [2020]

Wondering which free form builder to use for your WordPress website? Wonder no more! Here's a list of the 7 best free form plugins for WordPress.

Approximate read-time: 8 minutes

Adding a contact form plugin to your website is a must for any business. It provides a convenient, familiar way for your customers to get in touch with you online, and it can help keep your inbox spam-free.

A contact form is also an effective lead-generation tool. When done right, it can be the most valuable part of your website.

Still not convinced? Perhaps this list of contact form benefits will help change your mind.

Luckily, there are plenty of WordPress form plugins that can help you design and build a contact form for free. They have different strengths and weaknesses, so the question becomes, which one should you use?

In this list, we'll take a look at seven of the best free WordPress form plugins available. We've also listed their pros and cons so you can decide which is the best for you. Read on - your best WordPress form plugin awaits!

1. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is a free WordPress form plugin that enables you to create perfect contact forms.

There's a unique built-in form styler, which lets you match your forms to your WordPress theme. With the styler, you can customize colors, fonts, borders, and more without writing any code. Your forms are fully responsive and mobile-friendly, so they look great on any device.

Formidable Forms is the most advanced WordPress form builder plugin available today, but that doesn't mean it's difficult to use. It has an intuitive interface with drag-and-drop functionality that makes building customized forms quick and easy.

If you're looking for more advanced features, such as building a calculator, you'll find them in the premium version of Formidable Forms, providing valuable tools for any business. Formidable can even be used as a WordPress directory plugin, with all the featured you’d need to create an entire directory website.

Ever worried about having too many plugins on your site? If so, Formidable is a great option. A flexible form plugin like this can be used in a variety of ways, allowing you to keep your plugin directory trim.

However, there's plenty you can do with the free Lite version of Formidable Forms. Here's a rundown:

• Build unlimited custom forms with the drag-and-drop builder.
• For quick or common forms, choose from a selection of pre-made templates.
• Build accessible WCAG/A11Y-compliant forms.
• Customize the look and feel of your forms using the styler.
• Create autoresponders.
• Get spam protection.
• Save form entries to a database.
• View your entries in your WordPress site's backend.
• Import and export forms and styles.
• Export entries to a CSV file.

If you need any kind of contact form for your WordPress site, Formidable Forms has you covered. Its robust features, ease of use, and powerful Lite version put it firmly at the top of any list of the best free WordPress form plugins.

The premium version adds many more features: calendars, quizzes, payment forms, and directories, plus more. It's also extremely customizable, with more than 125 hooks.

Pros

• The most powerful and advanced WordPress form plugin available.
• The simple drag-and-drop interface requires no coding knowledge.
• Customizable forms look great on all devices and complement your WordPress theme.
• Multiple features allow you to expand beyond basic contact forms.
• Integrates seamlessly with popular email marketing platforms.
• A Slack community for Formidable Forms allows you to "crowdsource" ideas and know-how.
• When your need for contact forms turns into a need for an application builder, you won't need to switch to another plugin.

Cons

• Complete beginners might be overwhelmed by all of the Formidable Forms options.

👉 Read More: Formidable Forms

2. WPForms

WPForms is a user-friendly, free WordPress form builder. Like Formidable Forms, it offers a drag-and-drop interface, meaning you don't need to be an expert in coding to create attractive and functional forms.

This plugin is particularly useful for those who are new to building forms. WPForms sacrifices some of the more advanced features you'll find with other plugins on this list in favor of overall ease of use.

That being said, if you're looking for more than just a basic contact form builder, you may be better off using a more flexible, full-featured option, like Formidable Forms.

The free WPForms Lite plugin offers pre-made templates for basic contact forms and suggestion forms. You can import and export forms, employ a reCAPTCHA field to block spam, and link the plugin with your Constant Contact account.

You can also customize the templates to suit your website's needs; however, some fields (such as a website URL field) aren't included in the free version. Also, the Lite version of WPForms doesn't save form submissions to the database. This makes the email notifications ultra-important, and you may not know if you miss some.

But if you're looking for a basic WordPress form builder that's free, WPForms offers an appealing and user-friendly choice.

The premium version adds a lot of great features like instant NPS fields, lots of email integrations, conversational forms, and more. And it's all in a very simple way with minimal options.

Pros

• Simple to use functionality is ideal for beginners.
• The free version includes premade templates for basic contact forms.
• You can use a reCAPTCHA field to block spam.
• Integrates with Constant Contact.
• It offers a premium version with some great features for beautiful forms.

Cons

• You can't save form entries with the free version.
• The free version includes fewer options than other form plugins.
• Forms are less customizable in order to keep the options minimal.

👉 Read More: WPForms Alternative: Formidable vs WPForms

3. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 may be the grandfather of all free WordPress form plugins. It's the oldest plugin on this list and one of the most popular too. This plugin is free, and you can install it on as many sites as you'd like.

However, Contact Form 7 is not recommended for beginners. It lacks a simple drag-and-drop form builder, so you must have at least a basic knowledge of HTML to use the plugin. If you forget to add a character here or a bracket there, your form won't work at all.

There's also no way to see a live preview of your form, so you won't be able to see what your form is going to look like before it's published.

Despite these drawbacks, Contact Form 7 remains a popular contact form plugin for WordPress due to the availability of many free add-ons (though you'll have to download them from a third party). If you like to tinker with code and configuration, Contact Form 7 will do the job. But you can save a lot of time and trouble by using one of the more feature-rich plugins on this list.

Pros

• Totally free.
• Several free add-ons you can download to expand functionality.
• Infinitely customizable forms for developers.

Cons

• Requires some HTML knowledge to use, making it better suited for advanced users.
• Lacks the expansive functions and features of other form builders.
• No drag-and-drop form building.
• No live preview.
• You must rely on third-party developers for additional features.
• Since it's completely free, the chances of getting help when you need it is slim.

👉 Read More: Contact Form 7 Alternative: Formidable vs Contact Form 7

4. Ninja Forms

Like many of the other WordPress form builder plugins on this list, Ninja Forms is a "freemium" product. That means it's free to download and use, but premium options are available with additional functionality.

One of the biggest strengths of this plugin is its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy for users of any skill level to build forms. It can easily integrate your forms with popular email campaign services such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, and Campaign Monitor, as well.

With the free version, you can create forms with both reCAPTCHA and honeypot anti-spam options.

For creating more than just basic contact forms, the premium add-ons offer more functionality, such as conditional logic, multipart forms, and payment gateways. Once you've purchased all the add-ons you need, you may spend more than if you'd just bought a more comprehensive form plugin.

Pros

• The drag and drop form builder allows for easy side-by-side fields.
• Extensive add-on options cover direct integrations that other plugins don't provide.

Cons

• Add-ons for each individual feature can become expensive.
• Not all add-ons are compatible with versions 4.0 and up.

👉 Read More: Ninja Forms Alternative: Ninja Forms vs Formidable

5. Caldera Forms

Caldera Forms is also a free plugin for creating basic forms that you can expand with the purchase of premium add-ons.

You can drag and drop fields into your forms, making Caldera Forms easy and intuitive to use. It offers many more free features than many other form plugins including conditional logic, calculations, multi-part forms, and file uploads.

Pros

• Basic but robust free form builder.
• It offers many more free form options than most other plugins.
• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface.

Cons

• Based on many recent reviews, this may not be the most dependable option.

6. Everest Forms

Everest Forms is a free WordPress plugin that lets you drag and drop fields to create responsive forms. It boasts plenty of features, such as multiple column forms and reCAPTCHA for spam protection.

You can create a form from scratch or choose from a premade template. However, there are currently only two different template designs to choose from (some of the other plugins on this list offer many more).

If you need more features, the premium version includes features such as a form style customizer, integration with MailChimp and PayPal, and conditional logic.

Pros

• Easy drag-and-drop interface with two or three-column forms.
• Free with a variety of features.

Cons

• Only two template options to choose from.

👉 Read More: Everest Forms Alternative: Formidable Forms vs Everest Compared

7. Jetpack

Jetpack is a popular plugin for a good reason: it is made by Automattic, the same company that created WordPress. It offers a full suite of services for WordPress websites. If WordPress hosts your site, you already have access to all of the Jetpack features.

While it can't be considered one of the best form plugins for WordPress, you can add a basic contact form to your site with Jetpack. You won't find form builder options for things like adding custom fields, and if you want anti-spam protection, you'll have to install and use the Akismet plugin.

Pros

• A simple, free option that may already be installed on your site.
• Has a built-in suite of many different free services.

Cons

• No premade form templates.
• You must use Akismet for spam protection.
• No options for customization.
• It only allows for very simple contact forms.
• Since JetPack is like 50 plugins in one, it may be bulkier than you need.

👉 Read More: Jetpack Forms Alternative: Formidable Forms vs Jetpack Compared

Which Free WordPress Form Plugin Should You Use?

When you're looking at the best free WordPress form plugins, there are plenty of good options to choose from. Some focus on ease of use, others on functionality, or add-on options.

Providing a contact form to your site visitors will improve communication for your business or organization overnight. Whichever WordPress form building plugin you use, free or paid, making communication easier for your visitors will give you a competitive and professional advantage.

Read More from the Formidable Blog

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In evaluating the most popular WordPress contact form plugins, we've shown that Formidable Forms is the best option. It offers the most features and customization options while remaining easy to use and intuitive. Its drag-and-drop interface means you can fully customize your forms to suit your needs without writing a line of code. Download Formidable Forms and add the perfect form to your business website today!