How to Build a Custom WordPress Registration Form

Build a custom WordPress registration form that creates user accounts and assigns roles, using Formidable Forms.

Approximate read time: 7 minutes

Want a registration form that creates WordPress user accounts and assigns roles automatically?

With Formidable Forms and the User Registration add-on, you can build one in minutes. This guide shows you how.

Registration forms also work for events and memberships. This guide covers registering WordPress users.

That said, a WordPress user registration system can be very helpful in organizing your data. For example, you can create member-only pages, directories, or a community area for registered users.

Whatever your needs, you'll need a registration form that is closely tailored to your website and business. The example we’ll show you today is actually a template that can be customized to match your WordPress theme.

But before all that, let’s talk about the benefits of a WordPress registration form and a few more reasons why you’d want to use one.

The benefits of using an online registration form

• Create a membership website: To sign up new members, an online registration form is the first step to create a solid membership site and database. Then give users a WordPress custom login page if you need them to access your site.
• Get your data organized: Keep a record of all the important details you need from your users with a registration form. Keep your data on your WordPress site, as opposed to an event registration site.
• Specify permissions for users: Set the level of access each user will have after completing the form. The level of access could be determined by conditional logic triggered by specific answers.
• Earn money online: By making an online registration form with payments, you can collect subscription fees or dues right away! Or send new users to a thank-you page with an introductory offer while they're most interested.
• Match your brand: The default WordPress registration and login screens look nothing like the rest of your site. A custom registration form uses your colors and layout, so new users never feel like they've left your site.

Now that you know some of the benefits, here's how to create a registration form in WordPress with a plugin.

How to create a registration form in WordPress

Today we're going to show you how to make a registration form in WordPress using our form builder plugin, Formidable Forms.

If you want to create a registration form that doesn’t connect to a user registration system on your WordPress site, this can be done using our free plugin.

The free plugin has the required fields needed to build a solid registration form. But you won’t be able to collect users, host account pages, assign user profiles and allow users to login to your site. Depending on your goals, you may not need those features.

If you do want to use our WordPress user registration plugin, you'll need to download and install our user registration add-on. In order to do this, you'll first need to purchase and activate Formidable Forms Pro with a Business or Elite license.

Once you've done this, take a look in your WordPress admin panel. Go to the Formidable option in your menu bar and then click Add-ons. You should find a User Registration plugin option. Simply click to install it, as shown in the screenshot below:

Building your custom WordPress registration form

Once your add-on is active, click on Forms on the left and create a new form. You will then see a User Registration Form Template where you can click Create from Template.

And the template is great for most registration purposes. But if you want to know how to create a custom registration form in WordPress, we can do that too! In fact, starting with a template is probably the easiest way to make your customized WordPress registration form.

In Formidable Forms, adding fields is easy. From the form builder, start dragging and dropping from the left column to the right form building area. A powerful WordPress form maker like Formidable makes this process easy no matter what kind of form you are making.

For example, a user registration form typically includes name, email, username, and password, plus any profile details you want saved to the user, like company or role.

Register a new user

To register a new user, go into your form's Settings, then the Actions & Notifications tab. Open the Misc tab or search for "Register User." Then click the Register User icon to add a registration action to your form.

This is how it should look:

You may want to rename your Register User action so it's easier to refer back to. The action name is only visible to you in the back end of your website.

Connect form fields for user registration

Next, you'll need to connect your form fields with the relevant registration options.

Map User Email to your Email field. The dropdown only lists Email fields. Map Password to a Password field. This is what unlocks auto-login and email confirmation. Then, depending on whatever fields you have, you can map each one to the relevant registration option.

For example, map Username to a Text field, or leave it to generate the username from the email address.

Here's how it will look:

Other online registration options available for customization

Once you have got the basics of your registration form set up, you can then include other options if you wish.

We wanted to make it easy to create a form that's fully customizable and tailored to your specific needs. So, we made our user registration options limitless.

With our user registration add-on, you can also:

• Check the box "Automatically log in users who submit this form" if you want to support user login. This option appears once Password is mapped to a Password field. It isn't available if the password is set through an email link, or for repeater registration actions.
• Add extra User Meta for additional information you'd like to add to a user's profile.
• Check Allow logged-in users to create new users with this form and pick which roles can use it.
• Create a sub-site when a new user registers. This is handy for those with multi-site setups who want to make it easier to accept user submitted data.
• Use the Create admin email or Create user email buttons to add a ready-made email. Set the trigger to Successful user registration.
• Want to build a custom registration form? You can build custom fields for ultimate flexibility.

These are just some of the options you can use and customize to make your registration forms really yours. For more details and instructions on how to build a registration form and use additional options, take a look at our documentation.

What’s next?

You can also read our tips on avoiding registration form mistakes. And of course, creating a registration form may only be half the battle. Do you need to learn how to create a registration and login page? You can maximize security, branding, and optimize the user-experience.

Ready to build your own? Get Formidable Forms Pro and start with the User Registration template.

Read more of our user registration posts

• How to Create WordPress User Accounts [5 Steps!]
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  7 Best Ways To Stop WordPress Registration Spam
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  How to Enable WordPress User Registration [2 Easy Methods!]
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• How to Use the Best WooCommerce Profile Builder Plugin
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  How to Edit a WordPress User Profile on the Front End
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  How To Create a Members-Only Area in WordPress
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With Formidable Forms you can customize your WordPress forms and improve user experience. With our drag and drop form builder, it's easy to build the forms you need, even without the experience of designing website forms.