Gravity Forms is one of the highly regarded premium WordPress plugins that simplifies the process of adding any type of form to your website. However, its pricing starts from $39 (yearly subscription) which is a bit expensive if you don’t need any of its advanced features.
I have looked through the WordPress repository to find six of the best free form plugins that can serve as great alternatives if you do not want to spend money on Gravity Forms.
1. Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is easily the most popular form plugin on the WordPress repository with over 1 million active installs largely due to its simplicity and ease of use. It’s completely free, so you can install and set up multiple forms on your website within seconds. The form supports AJAX submission, Askimet spam filtering, CAPTCHA, and also has several third-party add-ons that can extend the plugin’s base functionality.
2. Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms gives you many functions of a premium WordPress plugin, and it is available to install for free on the WordPress repository. With Ninja forms you can use its drag-and-drop interface to create subscription forms or contact forms without having to write a line of code. There is no limit to the amount of form fields you can give your forms, and it integrates well (using extensions) with popular mailing list tools such as Mailchimp, Aweber, GetResponse and much more. The plugin also gives you the ability to receive payments through Paypal Express and some other payment gateways.
While the core plugin is free, there are several premium extensions which you can purchase to add more features, although the costs may run into nearly the same amount as Gravity forms.
3. Pirate Forms
Pirate Forms is a simple and highly-customisable form plugin that will help you create user-friendly forms for your website. It gives you the option to add required form fields and adds a reCaptcha feature so that spam messages are prevented from going through. Once you’ve configured a form for a specific purpose, you can easily embed it on a post or page using its shortcode or widget. Overall, it’s a great option you should try for free!
4. JetPack by WordPress.com
Jetpack is a very useful utility plugin that brings a host of WordPress.com’s features to self-hosted installs, all for free. Included in its arsenal of tools is a simple form solution which should be enough to get you up and running if you need just the basic functionality of a contact form. You also get a comment form, subscription forms and more – all of which are backed by Askimet for spam filtering.
5. Fast Secure Contact form
Fast Secure Contact form is yet another form plugin that will help you easily create and add forms to your WordPress website. It supports all the most common form fields such as text, text area, checkbox, multiple checkboxes, radio, select, select-multiple, attachment, etc., and has adequate spam protection via Askimet. You can also redirect visitors to any URL after the form is filled and submitted.
6. Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is a freemium plugin that allows you to create beautiful forms quickly and easily simply by dragging and dropping fields into place or generating them from a template. Askimet and reCaptcha is well integrated for spam control, and there is a built-in autoresponder feature that allows you to send an unlimited number of email notifications to the form submitter. You can also embed the forms on any post, page or sidebar widget by using a short code.
The pro version adds more features such as form field types, integration with mailing list tools (Mailchimp, Aweber, etc.), Captcha and support. A single site license costs $47 while the unlimited license costs $117.
Bottom Line
Getting a good form plugin is the first step to interacting with your website visitors. I have never met anybody who enjoys filling out form fields online, so if you hope to have people filling them out on your website, make them attractive enough and functional. All the above plugins will help you add contact forms and other types of forms to your website. Just check out each one and let us know your pick in the comments below.