Looking for an alternative to the Calculated Fields Form plugin? CFF is a very popular calculator form builder for WordPress, but a better option exists.
Approximate read time: 7.5 minutes
Do you need a tool capable of advanced calculations? You may have heard of the Calculated Fields Form WordPress plugin.
The Calculated Fields Form plugin is a popular tool for adding field calculations to your forms. It can even add contact forms and has multiple fields to build forms with.
But is it the only choice? Far from it! In today's article, we will look side-by-side at two WordPress calculator plugins that perform field calculations for WordPress sites: Formidable Forms & Calculated Fields Form.
Before you look around for a Calculated Fields Form WordPress tutorial, stick with us here as we break down these two solid plugins.
Calculated Fields Form Alternative
Our support team at Formidable gets several presale questions each week. We are often asked about using Formidable as a Calculated Fields Form alternative.
If you've tried the Calculated Fields Form and are looking for an alternative, Formidable might be the one. Let's compare these two form builders so you can decide for yourself.
What is Formidable Forms?
Formidable Forms is a WordPress form plugin that can handle calculations and math easily. Do you run an eCommerce business? Create quotes for potential customers? Offer price comparisons on your website?
If so, a form calculator could help you.
Instead of doing the math yourself, Formidable calculates it automatically. This is great for leads, sales, and customer loyalty. Plus, Formidable has a drag and drop form builder to speed things up. And math is made easy using a fully customizable WordPress calculator plugin. We've even created some pre-made calculator templates to get you started faster.
It also has other features to help your business or website.
You can create contact forms and quizzes or even use AI to help your customers. And its many integrations mean you can connect with services you already use.
So, Formidable is a WordPress form plugin. But it offers much more to your website than just forms.
What is Calculated Fields Form?
Calculated Fields Form (CFF) has a visual form builder.
It has templates that help users understand how the fields work. Plus, they help you get started faster. But once you learn it, this is a powerful plugin. And financial, date, and pricing calculations are all available to use.
CFF also has excellent features. For example, Calculated Fields Form email notifications are built-in and trigger after form submission. You can add a file upload and integrate it with PayPal for payments, so it's not short on features.
Now that we know what the plugins are, let's take a deeper dive.
Things to look for in a calculated fields form plugin
When measuring the value of a calculated fields plugin, we want to take a look at the following:
- Ease of use
- Support
- Price
- Integrations and features
Ease of use
CFF is a straightforward plugin to use.
With a visual form builder, it's easy to assemble your form. Plus, you have some styling options. But you must know some CSS. Otherwise, you're limited in what you can choose.
Formidable Forms has a drag and drop form builder, which is very easy to learn.
You drag your number fields to your form, then adjust the settings in the field options. Formidable has a built-in form styler, so you can customize your calculator form with a few button clicks.
Also, we can look at calculator form templates.
With Calculated Field Forms, you get 15 different templates to choose from. However, these templates change the style of the form, not the type of form.
On the other hand, Formidable gives you 45 different calculator forms for all types of uses. From pricing to financial, there's a calculator template to get you started quickly. And we're always creating more templates to help you out!
But don't take our word for it. Download our free form builder and CFF and give it a try.
Support
Online support boils down to two things:
- Knowledge base size
- A human support team
CFF gives you a great documentation library.
It handles all the basics. So, if you have problems, you'll likely find an answer.
The problem is when you can't find an answer. For example, CFF's most expensive plan only gives you 60 days of technical support. Outside of those 60 days? You'll have to rely on their documentation or submit a contact form.
Then we look at Formidable Forms.
There is a huge documentation library available to answer any question you have. We tried to cover everything From the basics to the more technical.
And if you can't find an answer, a team of humans stands by to help. They're ready to help you as long as you're a customer, whether that's one year or ten.
We all know how frustrating getting support can be. We don't need to make it harder.
Pricing
Formidable Forms pricing
Formidable Forms supports multiple field types. Its free WordPress plugin has 13 form fields, and its premium plans unlock 25 more, including pricing and calculated fields.
Besides form fields, Formidable has dozens upon dozens of field options and add-ons available for premium users. That’s the issue with Formidable, though. The free version does not have access to calculators.
This makes sense. There are limits to what you can do with calculators. One of the primary uses of calculators is for eCommerce. The free version of Formidable does not have payment gateways built in.
So essentially, if you want meaningful calculators on your site, you must get Formidable’s Basic plan. It costs more than CFF’s basic plan but is much more powerful.
Calculated Fields Form Pricing
The CFF plugin has about 23 fields. Although many fields are doubles (e.g., currency and number fields), the actual number is closer to 15. The Calculated Fields Form is focused on creating calculators that calculate submitted data.
And there’s nothing wrong with that! Check out Calculated Fields Form Pro (professional) before doing anything else. If it solves your problem, then you should go with it.
But in reality, the only thing that CFF professional has that Formidable’s Basic plan lacks is the PayPal payment gateway. Formidable Basic has a lot that CFF Pro doesn’t, however.
The Calculated Fields Form could work for you if you need a PayPal gateway. Can it compete with Formidable on value? If you need calculated fields, it beats Formidable.
The reason is that the free version of CFF allows for calculation, but the free version of Formidable does not. Indeed, the free version of Formidable offers more than CFF, but we are comparing apples to apples.
Integrations and features
Although Formidable has dozens more features than CFF, remember we are comparing calculator features.
So, while Formidable has add-ons that allow you to take your form data to new levels, we want to keep the comparison fair.
Both plugins can work in tandem with eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce. Allowing users to create a seamless shopping experience on their eCommerce website. Google Analytics is another platform that both play well with.
Both can use form calculations with payment processors such as PayPal or Stripe. This removes any hassle of collecting payment by having everything in one place. No more missed payments, delays, or inaccurate transactions to worry about.
They're also similar for payments, eCommerce, and calculation add-ons.
They're similar in other features, too: multi-page forms, shortcodes to insert the form, mathematical formulas, form validation, and connection to many external services (including Zapier and popular CRM platforms). Formidable Forms gives you views, which can be a page builder for your data.
So you're getting some excellent features from both plugins.
Formidable Forms vs. Calculated Fields Form: Which one wins?
You’d see that Formidable won in more categories if you read the previous section. Is that fair? Considering that the only features compared were calculator-based, it was fair.
We try to be humble. Many customers have tried CFF, and all say the same thing: Formidable is so easy to use!
Formidable can’t claim to be less expensive than CFF, but it can claim to be much better in every way. We would only recommend the Calculated Fields Form to developers who know exactly what they are getting when investing in the plugin.
Formidable has more advanced field settings and so many more features built-in. For example, if you wanted to perform conditional logic in CFF, you’d need to code that yourself. Yikes!
Why choose Calculated Fields Form?
Calculated Fields Form is a good choice if you know precisely what add-on features you need.
For example, if you need WooCommerce or SalesForce integration, CFF will be cheaper.
However, as discussed, the Calculated Fields Form is a partial form-building solution. It needs many features found commonly in virtually all WordPress form builders.
But if you are calculating prices using your forms, it could work well.
To be fair, Formidable Forms is even more developer-friendly but has removed the need for additional development in many areas. The most obvious example is that coding is required to install add-ons in Calculated Fields Form.
That said, the price is a massive advantage for Calculated Fields Form. If you know what you are doing as a developer, buying the platinum package entitles you to unlimited use of the plugin on as many websites as you want.
Factoring in the development hours required to get a solution could change matters, though.
Formidable Forms vs. Calculated Fields Forms: Final Verdict
After a very detailed analysis, the answer is relatively straightforward.
You should use WordPress’ Calculated Fields Form if:
- You have extra time to spend on development
- Do not need support
With Formidable, there are no limits when it comes to calculated fields:
- Apply discounts
- Compare prices
- Build online quotation calculators
- Make a custom cost calculator (with single or multiple goods) or use a template
- Collect payments by linking with Stripe or PayPal (and many other payment gateways)
- Automatically calculate fields (e.g., calculating the user's age based on birthdate)
We hope this article has helped you learn more about the Calculated Fields Form alternative, Formidable Forms.
Stay tuned to the Formidable blog and our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for more WordPress tips & tricks!
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