Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms

  • Features
  • Pricing
  • Resources
    • Docs & Support
    • Blog
    • Community
  • Solutions
    • Web Applications
    • Calculators
    • Surveys
    • Directories
    • Payments
    • Contact forms
  • Login
  • Get Formidable Forms

Formidable Team / Last Updated March 24, 2022

How to Add a Simple Contact Form in WordPress

Want to add a simple contact form to your WordPress website? Create one in a few easy steps using a drag-and-drop form builder!

How to add a contact form in WordPress

Approximate read-time: 4.5 minutes

Wondering how to create a custom contact form in WordPress? With the right drag-and-drop form builder, it's easy!

In this step-by-step guide, we'll show you how to make an easy contact form on WordPress sites. All you need to create a contact form from scratch is a WordPress website & the free version of Formidable Forms' WordPress forms plugin.

Let's get to it!

Why create a custom contact form in WordPress?

Subscribe on YouTube

Before we learn how to set up contact forms in WordPress, let’s talk about why it’s important.

Formidable Forms is the best WordPress Form Builder plugin. Get it for free!

Actually, there are many reasons to add a contact form to your WordPress site! Luckily, adding a contact form is easier than clicking the submit button. But why should you do it?

Ever heard of a little thing called spam?

Publishing your email address on your site is one of the best ways to invite spam. That's why many of the best WordPress contact form plugins have spam protection features like captcha & ReCaptcha.

Did you know?
Formidable Forms includes invisible spam protection in the free form builder plugin!

Besides spam prevention, it's also helpful to control how your audience contacts you. You can require users to submit the information you need by adding relevant fields.

One simple example: eCommerce. By asking customers for their order number in a contact form, you won't need to email them back to ask them for it. Unless you need to communicate with every user, a simple contact form is very helpful.

And eCommerce isn't limited to just products. You can sell your services with WordPress too. The first step? Creating a simple contact form.

Steps to creating a simple contact form

With our free WordPress plugin, creating contact forms could not be easier. Drag-and-drop form builder plugins add the ability to create forms with just a few clicks.

Here are the basic steps to creating a simple contact form:

  1. Install Formidable form builder plugin
  2. Create your first contact form
  3. Set up contact form notifications
  4. Embed the form on a contact page on your WordPress site

Follow the steps below to learn how to use our form maker on your WordPress site!

1. Install Formidable's form builder plugin

Formidable Forms WordPress Plugin

The first thing we want to do is install and activate a WordPress form builder plugin. We're going to go with user-friendly Formidable Forms.

The best thing about Formidable? For contact forms, it's completely free! Setting up a contact form on WordPress sites is easy with Formidable (as you’ll see below).

If you are looking for advanced features, you need to look no further than the Formidable premium plans. In this tutorial, all you'll need is the basic free WordPress plugin.

Here's how to install the free version of Formidable Forms:

  1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard, and go to the Plugins → Add New page.
  2. Search for 'Formidable' and click the Install button. After installing, click the Activate button.
Install Formidable Forms plugins

2. Create your first contact form

Now we are going to learn how to make a simple contact form. Since you've installed Formidable, creating a new form will be easy! Stay in your WordPress admin and look at the sidebar on the left side of your screen.

Create new form in Formidable Forms for WordPress

First, go to Formidable → Forms and click Add New at the top of the page. Then, choose Blank Form.

Next, Give your new form a name and click Create to start building your contact form.

Formidable Forms Create New Form

You can even use one of the pre-made form templates to help build your form quicker. And don't worry, if you want to customize your forms, we have all the tools you need and an excellent support team ready to help!

Once, you've created your form, you'll need to add the form fields you want.

Just choose the fields you need for a contact form then drag them over to the right. You can drag the fields around to adjust the order of the fields as you like.

WordPress Create Form - Add drag and drop Field

For a simple contact form, consider adding these field types:

  • First and last name
  • Email address
  • Message field
  • reCAPTCHA

As you can see in the image above, to add these fields, all you need is to click on your single-line text field, then change the Field Label in the Field Options section in the sidebar.

Using the above method, you could also add another text field so users could add a subject to their message.

And don't worry about making changes later! With our form builder, you can go back and edit your contact form at any time. Even after you have already published it!

3. Set up contact form notifications

What's one of the best reasons to use contact forms? The ability to send confirmation emails!

And frankly, a form that doesn't send a confirmation email is a lost opportunity. Why leave your potential customers wondering if you've received their message?

Besides, a confirmation email is statistically one of the most important emails you can send a client.

Confirmation emails matter most to consumers

In Formidable, setting up an email notification is very easy. Taking an extra minute to set this up makes it so you don't need to send email manually anytime someone submits a form. WordPress will do it for you!

To do this, go to your Settings page and click on the Actions & Notifications tab. From there, you can create a notification email that fits your contact form.

send email form action

4. Embed form on a contact page on your WordPress site

In your WordPress dashboard, click on Pages → Add New. Create a new page and title it "Contact Us" or whatever you'd like.

Now that you’ve created one, we are going to learn how to embed a contact form in your WordPress site. You can use these methods to place a contact form on any page, post, or widget area.

To publish your new contact form you can either:

  1. Use a form block
  2. Insert the form shortcode manually

The easiest way to add a form is with the form block. If you use WordPress's super convenient block editor, simply click the + in your post editor and type in Formidable. The widget block will come up.

Formidable Forms block widget to add a contact form to a post

Select the widget and a dropdown will appear where you can choose the contact form from a list of forms you've created. And that's it!

If you don't have the WordPress block editor, never fear. You can follow these simple instructions to embed the form on any website using a shortcode!

One last thing: be sure to test out your contact form once you've published it. Check that the notification emails work properly and consider personalizing the default success message that displays after form submission.

What's next after simple contact forms?

Congratulations! In less than ten minutes, with zero coding knowledge & minimal computer skills, you made a beautiful contact form for your WordPress website. Simple contact forms have never been so simple.

But wait - there's more!

Even the simplest contact form can do MORE! Formidable Forms has many awesome features that make it stand out from the crowd. As your online presence grows, you can add the following features:

  • Views: Display form data in custom graphs, charts, and listings without any PHP.
  • Cascading Lookup Fields: Filter the options in the next field and automatically add values to fields.
  • Premium Form Features: Integrate with MailChimp and perform dozens of other actions with powerful form features.
  • Advanced auto-responders: Send out custom offers & promotions to users at set times each week or month.
  • Calculated Fields: Integrate instant price estimators and perform advanced calculations.
  • eCommerce Pricing Fields: Turn your site into an online store with Stripe forms, PayPal forms, Authorize.net forms (and more) payment options.
  • Conditional redirect: Direct users to products/information relevant to their query.

We hope you enjoyed today's article. For more WordPress tips, stay tuned to the Formidable blog.


If you're not already a part of the Formidable community, why not check out the free version of Formidable Forms today? Even better - take advantage of our 14-day money-back guarantee to try out Formidable Forms completely risk-free!

Read more about how to use forms

  • How to Link to a WordPress Form How to Link to a WordPress Form [4 Different Ways!]
    Read More
    How to Link a Button to a Form in WordPress How to Link a Button to a Form in WordPress [A Simple Way!]
    Read More
    How to Create a Lead Capture Form in WordPress How to Create a Lead Capture Form in WordPress [Easy & Fast]
    Read More

Using WordPress and want to get Formidable Forms for free?

Get Formidable Forms Lite Now

This article may contain affiliate links. Once in a while, we earn commissions from those links. But we only recommend products we like, with or without commissions.

Comments

  1. Jesus says

    December 3, 2021 at 4:48 pm

    hola

    Reply
  2. David Prescott says

    July 7, 2022 at 4:44 am

    using the lite version of formidable forms and whilst i can manually edit the form fields to the site language (Finnish) the submit button has no such option and remains in English.
    *** Absolutely useless! ***

    Reply
    • srwells says

      July 7, 2022 at 1:15 pm

      Hi David,

      You should be able to go to the Form Settings > Styling & Buttons
      and change the submit button text.

      We have plans to make this necessary setting easier to find and change.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Email Updates

Popular Resources

    • How to Create a Searchable Database on a WordPress Site
    • Create a WordPress Custom Calculator: Easy, Powerful Results
    • How to Create a Fitness Tracker in WordPress
    • Formidable Views: The Best WordPress Custom Application Plugin
    • How To Require Email To Download Files in WordPress
    • How to Create Conditional Drop Down Lists in WordPress Forms
    • Best Gravity Forms Alternative for WordPress: Formidable Forms vs. Gravity Forms
    • How to Make a Quiz in WordPress
    • WPForms Alternative: Formidable Forms vs. WPForms Compared

Take on bigger projects Right Now

Get the tools you need to revolutionize your workflow and architect a masterpiece. Build the most advanced WordPress forms and actually use the data you collect in meaningful ways.

Get the most advanced WordPress form plugin and the only form builder with integrated Views.

Get Formidable Forms Now

Resources

  • Community
  • Affiliates
  • Contact
  • Free Online Form Builder

Top Features

  • Application Builder
  • Calculator Forms
  • Surveys & Polls
  • Quiz Maker
  • Form Templates
  • Application Templates
  • Directories
  • Donation Plugin

Company

  • About Us
  • Giving Back
  • Careers
  • Newsletter
  • WP Tasty
  • Nutrifox

Copyright © 2023 Strategy11, LLC. Formidable Forms® is a registered trademark Strategy11, LLC.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Sitemap

Join 300,000+ using Formidable Forms to create form-focused solutions fast. Get Started See User Reviews