Download and setup

Install the premium version of Formidable Forms on your WordPress site. You need a Formidable license, which you can purchase on the Pricing page.

The premium version of Formidable Forms requires the Formidable Forms Lite plugin to be installed and active. Formidable usually adds it automatically during install. If your hosting security prevents this, add it manually. See how to install Formidable Forms Lite.

The recommended way

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Install Formidable Forms Lite

If you don't already have Formidable Forms Lite installed, do that first.

1. From your WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins → Add Plugin page.
2. Search for 'Formidable' and click the Install Now button. After installing, click the Activate button that appears.

Or, add your site URL here and we'll take you straight to the install page.

Install Formidable Forms Premium

1. After Formidable Forms Lite is installed, go to the Formidable → Global Settings page and click the Connect an Account button.
   
2. FormidableForms.com opens so you can connect your account. If you're not logged in, you'll see a login form first. Log in now.
3. After logging in, click Connect Formidable Forms Pro.
   
4. Wait a few seconds while we get your download package, install it, and link up your site with your license key. The page then displays your active license type.
   

Now your site is ready for you to start building advanced forms.

If FormidableForms.com is unable to connect to your site or install the plugin, you see an error message. This happens on localhost sites and other sites that are not publicly reachable. In this case, install manually.

The manual way

If your site doesn't allow for plugins to be installed automatically, you can set it up manually instead.

1. Download Formidable Forms from your Account page.
2. Upload Formidable Forms to your site through your WordPress admin or through FTP.

     To upload through WordPress:

   1. Go to Plugins → Add Plugin in your WordPress admin.
   2. Click Upload Plugin to upload Formidable Forms instead of searching for a plugin.
   3. Upload the Formidable zip file that you downloaded in step one, and then click Install Now.

     To upload through FTP:

   1. Unzip the Formidable file you downloaded in step 1.
   2. Upload the enclosed formidable folder to your WordPress Plugins directory.
3. Activate Formidable Forms Pro from the WordPress Plugins page.
4. Go to Formidable → Global Settings. Select 'Add a license manually', enter your license key, and click Save License to activate the premium features.
   
   You can find your license key on the Account page. Note: If you do not see the 'Add a license manually' link, then you are still running only the free version. Go back to step 1 and download the premium version.

If you have any issues with the installation process, please open a support ticket.

Install an add-on

To install a Formidable add-on included with your plan, go to your WordPress dashboard. After Formidable Forms is installed and connected, go to the Formidable → Add-Ons page. Use this page to download and activate any add-ons your Formidable plan includes with a single click.

The Stripe, Square, and PayPal Commerce cards on this page are payment gateways built into Formidable Forms. Their toggles are always on, so there is nothing to install. Click View Docs on a card to open its setup guide.

The Stripe Pro card is the optional Stripe add-on. You don't need it to take Stripe payments. Learn more about what the Stripe add-on adds.

The page also lists add-ons you don't have access to yet. To gain access, check the needed license level and upgrade or renew your Formidable Forms plan.

Install a previous version

To install a previous version of Formidable Forms:

1. Deactivate and delete both Formidable Forms (Lite) and Formidable Forms from your site, if currently installed. If a Deactivation feedback window opens, then choose a reason or click Skip & Deactivate.
2. Log in to your account and download the previous version of the premium Formidable version from your Account page.
3. Download the previous version of the Formidable Forms (Lite) at WordPress.org.
4. Go to your WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add Plugin. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top.
5. Select the Formidable Forms (Lite) zip file you downloaded in step 3 and click Install Now.
6. After the plugin finishes installing, click the Activate Plugin link.
7. Do the same for the Formidable Forms premium zip file from step 2.
8. Once the plugins are activated, the previous version of Formidable Forms is ready to use.

Install on a staging site

You can set up any number of local sites and a staging site with a specific subdomain. The URL options for a staging or development site include these conditions:

Contains one of these strings anywhere in the URL:

• .test
• .local
• .localhost

Starts with one of these:

• staging.
• test.
• staging-
• dev.

Ends with one of these hosting-specific domains:

• .wpengine.com
• .wpenginepowered.com
• .instawp.xyz
• .cloudwaysapps.com
• .flywheelsites.com
• .flywheelstaging.com
• .myftpupload.com
• .kinsta.cloud
• .stage.site
• .dreamhosters.com
• .dream.press
• .mystagingwebsite.com
• .wpcomstaging.com
• .bigscoots-staging.com

Matches a host-specific staging pattern:

Newfold: URLs with staging/ followed by three or more numbers in the domain
Siteground: URLs that start with staging followed by one or more numbers (like staging00.abc.def)

Examples:

• staging.yoursite.com
• dev.yoursite.com
• yoursite.dev
• test.yoursite.com
• local.yoursite.com
• yoursite.local
• yourdomain.wpengine.com
• beta.yoursite.com

Install on a multisite

To activate Formidable Forms Pro network-wide:

1. Install the Formidable Forms Pro on the master site.
2. Go to Formidable → Global Settings → General Settings. Click Add a license manually and enter your license key.
3. Select the checkbox Use this license to enable Formidable Pro site-wide. It enables Formidable Forms Pro for all your subsites.
4. Click Save License.
   

How to switch the license on my site

If a developer owns your license, you can purchase your own license to keep more control of your site. To switch the license:

1. Choose the license type you want to purchase.
2. Go to Formidable → Global Settings and click the Disconnect site link. Click OK to confirm.
3. Click Connect Account and follow the on-screen prompts.

Switching the connected account doesn't affect your forms, Views, or other content. They stay on your site.

Troubleshooting

Download Failed. Unauthorized.

If an automatic plugin update fails with this message, the site you are updating has most likely not been authorized on your license. Go to your Formidable → Global settings page and save your license again. To do this, click Disconnect site and click OK to confirm. Then click Add a license manually and enter your license key. Click Save License. Now, return to your plugins page and try the update again.

If the update still fails, go to the WordPress Dashboard → Updates page and try the update from there. This page will include more detail about why the update is failing. You will see a long url used to download the plugin. Paste that link into your browser (without the trailing ...). What message do you see?

If the download works with no problem, your site may be blocking communication with our site. See how to whitelist our IP.

Missing database tables

After installing Formidable, you'll have at least one form template on your Formidable → Forms page. If you don't, there is a problem with your database. This is most often caused by DB_CHARSET in your wp-config.php being set to a value your server does not support. The best fix is to ask your web host to update the version of MySQL on your server.

The quick fix is to remove the DB_CHARSET line from your wp-config.php. Once you have done this, the table creation will need to be triggered again. Do this by uninstalling Formidable Forms. This will reset any Formidable settings, permanently delete any Formidable data that may be on your site and deactivate the plugin. Reactivate Formidable once more, and you'll see a form template now.

Please create a ticket in the help desk if you still have trouble or questions about your updates.

Formidable Forms Premium requires Formidable Forms

Since version 3.0, Formidable Forms Lite and the premium Formidable Forms have been two separate plugins to prevent issues with autoupdating on some web hosts. These two plugins run side by side and both are required.

Install Formidable Forms Lite by going to your Plugins page. Click Add Plugin and search for 'Formidable'.
Alternatively, download the free forms plugin directly.

Could not create directory

Sometimes an automatic plugin update fails with a message that WordPress was unable to create a specific directory. If you see this message, you may have a permissions or file length issue.

1. Confirm that your web server owns the WordPress directory and that the proper permissions are set.
2. If your permissions are set properly and your site is running on a Windows server, it's likely you're hitting a path length limitation. Your site's /upgrade directory, in combination with a tokenized key, may be hitting the 256 byte limit that Windows servers have. If you can shorten the path to your site's upgrade directory, do that. If you can't, update manually.

No .zip file found

After you download a plugin from our site, you'll have a .zip file. If you see a folder with files instead, this means your browser is automatically unzipping the files. To install, turn off automatic unzipping in your browser settings, then download the file again.

Turn off unzipping in Safari

To turn off automatic unzipping in Safari on a Mac:

1. Open Safari.
2. Click Preferences in the top menu.
3. Under the General tab, uncheck the option 'Open "safe" files after downloading.'
4. Once you have disabled automatic unzipping, download the plugin zip file again.

Wordfence blocking the download

If you see a message from Wordfence saying "A potentially unsafe operation has been detected in your request to this site," this is Wordfence running on your own site.

1. Go to your site's Wordfence → Tools → Live Traffic page and find the blocked request. Click it to see the specific rule that triggered the block.
2. If Wordfence shows an "Add Param to Firewall Allowlist" option for that request, use it.
3. If not, go to Wordfence → Firewall → Manage WAF and set the Web Application Firewall to Learning Mode. Retry the update, then switch it back to Enabled and Protecting once it succeeds.
4. If it's still failing, temporarily deactivate Wordfence, complete the update, then reactivate it.