Looking to create a WordPress custom calculator? With a WordPress calculator plugin, make a shiny custom calculator in WordPress today! Here’s how.
Approximate read time: 6.5 minutes
When you think about calculators, what comes to mind?
Nightmares of tax season? Flashbacks to a high school math exam? If you connect calculators with awful math-based tasks, you aren't alone.
But we've got some good news: calculators don't have to be scary.
And in this post, we'll show you why.
So, let’s show you how to create a custom calculator for your website in a few easy steps.
How to create a WordPress custom calculator
Looking to build a web calculator customized to your needs?
Here’s a step-by-step guide on creating a calculator in WordPress using Formidable Forms, the best forms plugin for WordPress.
First, you’ll need a license key with Formidable to build your custom calculators. So head to our pricing page and grab the plugin at one of our excellent prices.
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you can start following the steps.
Here's how to create a WordPress custom calculator in three easy steps:
- Create a form and add number fields
- Create a Total field
- Add extra fields (optional)
Step 1: Create a form and add number fields
First, you must start a new form to build an online calculator.
To do this, go to your WordPress dashboard, and Formidable → Add New. Select Blank Form, then give it a name, and it will take you to the form builder.
Next, it’s time to add some form fields.
And it’s easy with Formidable’s drag-and-drop form builder. To start building, choose the field, and drag it to the form.
That’s it.
So, for a percentage calculator, add three fields: the number, the percentage, and the value.
You can add more, like radio buttons, dropdowns, and more. But, for now, we’ll stick with this.
No matter your calculator type, you want to set the number range for periods of time. This is great for things like the Loan Period for a loan payment calculator.
Then, it’s also a good idea to fill out the Default Value, Placeholder Text, and Field Description boxes. This helps guide the user on how they should enter their info.
Step 2: Create a Total field
Now that you’ve got the primary number fields to calculate what you need, it’s time to add a Total field.
This is where the final calculation appears. The calculated fields form gathers your totals.
First, let's go back to the percentage calculator.
In that example, the Total field represents the value (number * percentage = value).
Next, with this Total Number field selected, go to the Advanced tab and turn on the Calculator option.
Then in the Default Value box, enter the formula for your calculation.
The formula for a simple percentage calculator looks like this:
[NUMBER FIELD #1] * [NUMBER FIELD #2]
Then, you replace the field IDs in brackets with the field IDs of your form.
If you’re building a calculator for anything else, you must figure out the formulas or do some Googling.
Or, consider upgrading to use Formidable's pre-made templates.
Either way, don't let the math stop you from making your calculator.
Step 3: Add extra fields (optional)
Finally, add extra fields, like an Email field, to collect email addresses.
To add a new field, look through the All Fields tab and find the one you want. Then add it to your form.
And that’s how to create a custom calculator in WordPress.
But you’re not finished yet.
Now we need to display it on your website.
How to add a calculator in WordPress
Okay, so you’ve created your calculator, but how do you add a calculator to a website?
Simple.
First, go to the post or page on which you want to show the calculator and add a new WordPress block.
Next, search for Formidable, and add the Formidable WordPress block.
Last, choose your calculator from the dropdown menu, and you’re finished!
Update your page/post, and you’re good to go.
Give your calculators superpowers with Formidable Forms
Now that you’ve learned how to make a custom calculator in WordPress, you’re only scratching the surface.
No matter what type of simple calculator you need, all the power to make it is now in your hands.
Need to make a price calculator? How about a loan calculator?
It doesn't matter the type of online calculator for WordPress you need. Formidable is the WordPress calculator plugin for the job.
Here are a few examples.
Grow your business with Formidable Forms
Let’s imagine you run a real estate business.
A website calculator is one of the most helpful things you can offer customers. You can give them a way to calculate their monthly payment and interest rate to know if they can afford a house.
And this applies to almost all industries!
Here are a few more examples of how you can use a calculator:
- Physical trainers offering weight-loss or BMI calculators
- Real estate agents helping people with a mortgage calculator
- Businesses using PayPal order forms
- Companies using ROI calculators to get better results
- Business creating pricing based on large amounts with a measurement price calculator
- Quote calculator for estimates
A calculator is suitable for your website because it’s excellent for visitors. Helping them means helping yourself.
You can also collect users’ email addresses for email marketing and lead generation. All you need to do is require an email to get the results of your calculator, and you are set!
So, let’s show you how to make a calculator in WordPress with a plugin.
Read More: 6 Ways to Use Calculators on WordPress Sites
Use Formidable as a cost calculator builder
Do you have an eCommerce site and want an easy way to show prices to customers?
Then Formidable Forms is the perfect cost calculator plugin for WordPress for you.
A cost calculator builder is the only employee you need. And a good one simplifies things for you enough that you barely have to do anything.
Well, that’s exactly what you get with Formidable:
- Automatic price calculation
- WooCommerce integration
- Pre-made calculator form templates
- Visual Form Styler to create a stylish cost calculator
So, whether you’re selling 100,000 products a month or 10, Formidable is here to help you.
Help people manage finances with a WordPress custom calculator plugin
Imagine you own a car dealership and help customers find the best financing for their cars.
Formidable’s car loan calculator template helps you get a calculator on your WordPress website fast.
And that saved time means you start helping customers today.
You get a new business lead with each customer that fills out your car loan calculator.
And this applies to any investment calculator type you need!
Power up people’s fitness with a fitness WordPress custom calculator
Body Mass Index (BMI) is a term that gets thrown more than a football on Sunday.
But that’s because people are looking to find out theirs.
And what better way to attract people to your fitness website than with a BMI calculator that’s easy to use?
Well, Formidable helps you do that, too.
Formidable helps you create an online calculator that meets your needs. All of ‘em.
All your calculators. One simple WordPress plugin and custom calculator builder.
Get Your Ultimate Calculator Plugin!
Are you ready to create your WordPress custom calculator?
As you can see, using WordPress to create a calculator from scratch can be complicated. It’s possible, but it may involve figuring out formulas and doing some math.
But no checking lines of code, changing input types, and other difficult tasks.
If you’re wondering, “How do I add a mortgage to my WordPress calculator?” Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.
You can easily add a mortgage calculator to WordPress with Formidable.
And, Formidable doesn’t only handle calculators. Contact forms, quizzes, and anything else you can imagine are all possible with Formidable.
Now is your chance to make it happen. Get ready to make an online calculator!
So, wondering, “How do I create an interactive calculator for my website?” Well, we answered that question, too. And you can find all your interactive content needs in this guide. It’s time to get your page builder and create a calculator website!
Also, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for more great tips on how to make a calculator website!
Read more WordPress calculator blog posts
7 Best WordPress BMI Calculator Plugins for Fitness Experts!
9 Best Investment Calculator Plugins for WordPress
9 Best Mortgage Calculator WordPress Plugins for Real EstateDid you know that Formidable Forms is one of the fastest WordPress form builder plugins available today? If you're not already using it, get started with our free plugin or the full-featured pro version!
I definitely agree about not adding a bajillion plugins to your site. Conflicts aside, abandoned plugins and security concerns abound. Thanks for adding this to Formidable!
Formidable is our "swiss army knife" of plugins for WP. We install it on almost every site we develop. I'm not sure adding another small calc plugin is a big problem, but since we already have FF installed, it's easy enough to create things like calculators.
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you love Formidable Forms.
Do you have a solar energy calculator plugin?
Hi there, Thanks for your question. We don't currently have one, but our calculations are pretty powerful, so you could either create your own, or if you have an example to show us with the calculations involved, we could probably build a template to add to our library.
Whenever recommending Formidable Pro to other WordPress users on forums or Reddit I always say that the biggest advantage is that the team adds new functionality regularly and seems to listen to the community. And here we have additional functionality I can add. Thank you
Thanks so much for recommending Formidable Forms! We really appreciate that. We are always working on new features to add more value to our platform. We hope you love what is coming next!
My favourite calculator I created with Formidable Pro was a floor area calculator for a carpet company.
I love the computer functionality Formidable Pro.
Very useful article on how to build a calculator with wordpress. I've found the team quite responsive and helpful.
Thanks for the kind words…I’ll pass your praise on to our support team.
My company switched to Formidable Forms abot 2 years ago after being frustrated with the horrible interface of Gravity Forms. Formidable is beautiful enough that our designers love it, and feature full enough to keep our developers happy!
Thanks so much for sharing! We always love hearing about the things people love about Formidable Forms.
This is great. Thanks for the tutorial. Excited to try it out on a project!
Awesome! Calculators can add a lot of user engagement and make your site better! Best of luck on your project!
I think it could be a good idea to implement a calculator in the same page I have a real state offers, so the client could be calculate costs easily
Yep, we have many pre-built real estate and mortgage calculators as well to make your life a bit easier.
Nice!, love how versatile FF is!
I love the possibility to addvalue to my content with easy-to-use calculators! Thanks a lot!
You're welcome! Glad you are enjoying the calculator functionality built into Formidable Forms.
The sheer versatility of this plug-in continues to blow my mind. I'm amazed every time I find a new way to use it, pretty sure I'll end up using this on a new project I'm working on.
Formidable is one of the most powerful WordPress plugins, yet it is easy to use. The premium templates offer great functionality. These guys know what they are doing and they do it right. The documentation and support are superb.
Its great to see what the possibilitys are with Formidable and Im very curious about future features thats why I use an Elite subscription.
Great work guy's!
Thanks for the kind words...We have some big plans in the works. Should be a fun and exciting year.
An amazing plug-in to have. I usually install this plug into my clients website. Since most of them are not technology savvy, I believe it helps them a ton due to the lack of technology experience that they might have otherwise. Great job formidable team
Awesome! We always strive to make our customers look like rock stars for their clients. Part of this is making sure the transition when handing off a site to the client goes smoothly. Thanks for your Comment!
Hi team!
Well done on the amazing job! I love Formidable plugin so far.
Quick question: could you possibly help me create a template for the calculator I want to build?
It's a bit more complex than I can handle with the current options available. Do you mind if I run it by the team and you could point me in the right direction or help me create a bespoke template?
It's essentially an annuity type pension calculator which should be a CTA to lead into an option for my customers to make an investment or set up regular savings.
Can we make a Vaccine calculator. Its simple adding formula that add on no of days in Date of birth entered by a person. Outcome is displayed as vaccine required every age milestone...If yes plz let me know.
Hi Rajiv,
Our plugin can do limited date calculations out of the box. These typically include calculating the number of days between two dates, or calculating an age.
Our plugin can't currently add days to a date so I don't think it would be a good fit for your application. This functionality is on our feature request list, but it isn't on our current roadmap, so I don't have an estimate on when it would be available.
This blog is really helpful
Hello,
I want to create various calculators for my site, such as BMI, how much protein per day, how many calories per day, measure body fat at home, calculate calories burned RMR, etc.
My question is will I be able to do it with this plugin?
They should also be in Bulgarian, and I should point out that I have no coding skills!
Thanks in advance,
Rado
We have BMI calculators already built out and available as templates. You should be able to create calculators for these other items as well. No coding skills required.