Forms are a way clients can communicate with the company, contribute to the website, buy, sell, improve products, and so much more. Perhaps this instrument’s real value is a bit underrated among plugin developers.
There is not such an extensive choice of really advanced form plugins (and I’m not talking about simple contact forms). Another thing that I’ve noticed is that some of those with a great list of features that are not so easy to find in the WordPress plugin directory.
So, this is a list of such plugins, and I will pay attention to such things as
- conditional logic;
- repeaters;
- multi-step forms;
- functionality for populating fields dynamically;
- post-submit actions and behavior (firing hooks, adding posts/users, checkouts, etc.).
Let’s get started
5 Free WordPress Form Plugins For Advanced Users
1. Gutena Forms
As the name suggests, Gutena Form is one of the most powerful Contact Forms plugins that enables you to create amazing forms in WordPress Block Editor. It is perfectly designed and developed by the developers of ExpressTech in order to let you create forms easily and quickly. This plugin enables you to create contact forms, registration forms, payment forms, inquiry forms, booking forms, appointment forms, and many more.
It includes multiple pre-built form templates so you can choose any of them to create your contact form. The best part is that you can start from scratch so design your forms and make them look and work as per your own requirements.
This plugin is fully responsive so contact forms in the WordPress block editor using this plugin will look amazing across devices of all sizes. Moreover, it also integrates with popular email marketing and CRM platforms, making it easy to manage and track your form submissions.
Pros:
- managing tasks can be done conveniently through the forms created using this powerful plugin
- created by using just Javascript rather than the JQuery library, which will make your website speed remain optimal
- provides its users with multiple form templates
Cons:
- Requires WordPress version 6.0 and above
- Works more perfectly with Gutena WordPress theme
Pricing: Free to Download
2. WS Form
WS Form plugin has a nice clear interface, where you can easily find all the settings you need, as well as fields. But if you need really advanced features, the Lite version is unlikely to be enough – calculated fields, conditional logic, and webhooks are available in the more expensive plans or as separate add-ons.
However, even Lite has what to offer. For example, the Data Source feature for Select fields, where you can not only add a list of options but use posts, terms, users, and post statuses as a source. In addition, there’s a massive list of presets, including colors and sizes, not to mention geographical lists – so you don’t have to bother adding them manually.
Also, it supports variables and Autocomplete to populate fields dynamically.
There are three paid plans from the single website with a minimal list of add-ons included in the Agency one. There are 44 add-ons that can be purchased separately, in addition to the Pro plan, such as Post Management or User Management for creating posts and users from the front end. But most of the add-ons are for marketing integrations.
There’s a small independent team of developers behind this plugin and four years of work. And they do a pretty good job.
Pros:
- a very user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, even for complicated settings such as Conditional logic;
- very detailed and accurate documentation (knowledge base);
- it supports repeaters, multi-step forms, frameworks, etc.;
- they have a sandbox (demo) for the Pro version.
Cons:
- the Lite version is limited;
- the plugin can be more on the pricy side if you need most of its functionality.
Pricing: a limited free version, Pro costs $59-$249 a year.
3. JetForm Builder
This is one of the JetPlugins (by Crocoblock); it offers an excellent toolkit for creating advanced forms, and the plugin is free but has a few paid add-ons, such as WooCommerce checkout, recurring payments, saving form progress, etc. However, their price is very budget-friendly, so it doesn’t even feel like a premium version, especially for what you get.
It uses the Gutenberg interface and blocks to create forms, yet they can be inserted anywhere and work with any visual site builder.
With 18+ form field types, 24 blocks, and a lot of settings, it covers pretty much everything you might need. There are also six templates that can be found in the Patterns Gutenberg tab.
Field values can be fetched dynamically from posts, terms, user’s meta fields, or URL query variables can be used. Also, there are a lot of conditions that can be applied.
Flexible settings, calculated, and repeater fields are another advantage of this plugin. This plugin also works great for users’ registration and has a tool to log in users automatically after the registration.
Another not-so-obvious advantage of this plugin is that it’s a mix of a block editor with a form editor, so you can add and mix the functionality of other plugins to power up your forms.
One more thing that makes JetFormBuilder a tool for advanced tasks is a Post-Submit Action section. There are 13 options, and you can add as many as you need multiple times to get exactly what you want.
For example, users can be registered or updated from the front end or posts submitted, and in settings, you will be able to choose a post status and map all the necessary fields to the relevant meta fields.
Also, calculated fields can be used as a Total for a payment form either with PayPal free add or WooCommerce Checkout paid add-on.
JetFormBuilder is created by the Crocoblock team, so the idea is to make all their plugins perfectly work together and extend each others’ functionality.
Pros:
- a lot of advanced features;
- it gives a lot of tools for developers, but not only;
- most of the functionality is free;
- budget-friendly price for premium add-ons.
Cons:
- it works at its best and offers a lot of dynamic flexibility with the JetEngine plugin;
- it could have more anti-spam integrations than Google CAPTCHA;
Pricing: free, $39 for one site, and $79 for unlimited per year.
4. Forminator
Forminator is a drag-and-drop plugin with polls and quizzes functionality, yet helpful in building all types of advanced forms. It has 27 fields and blocks, most of which can have dynamic visibility, a set of predefined values, calculations, and limited submissions.
You can create form presets and, of course, edit the CSS of each field. They also recently added a Repeater group with the ability to limit the number of fields and Save and Continue functionality. Also, there are some pretty useful integrations: Google Sheets, FortressDB, Trello, etc.
However, it has a very limited list of post-submit actions (behavior), so you can’t, for example, create or update users or posts with this plugin.
Forminator is a product by WPMU DEV, a company specializing in website management and support solutions, having freelancers and agencies as their target audience.
Pros:
- the plugin is almost entirely free;
- it has a friendly user interface and a lot of handy tools;
Cons:
- some advanced functionality is missing, such as built-in post/user submission, firing hooks action, etc.
Price: free or as a part of a WPMU DEV bundle, $5.25-$57.75 a year.
5. Registration Magic
As the name suggests, the main focus of this plugin is managing users’ registration, but it’s not the only thing it can do. You can switch off this functionality and use it to your liking. Also, there’s one interesting feature there, which is adding products, so it’s possible to set up a small shop based on this plugin. But it’s still a tool for dealing with users more than anything else, so the settings are mostly honed to do it.
It offers some conditional logic, popups, and integration with the plugin from the same developer to build users’ grids; also, a user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder is there, but the actual functionality comes with the Pro version.
Metagauss is the company behind this plugin. Their specialization is the development of user-centric niche products, not only for WordPress. They have a few products that extend each other’s functionality.
Pros:
- a lot of tools and integrations for managing users, paid membership, etc.;
- automation scenarios are possible;
- social login, offline payments, displaying users in the front-end directory, and many other interesting features.
Cons:
- the free version is very limited;
- some useful features, such as multi-step forms or calculated fields, are missing.
Pricing: free (limited), $89-$189 a year.
Conclusion
Creating efficient front-end forms that convert, attract attention, encourage communication, and also perfectly fit into the workflow is not as easy as it might seem to some people. That’s why choosing the right instrument is so crucial.
Also Read: Best Staging Plugins For WordPress
