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6 Best WordPress Contact Form Plugins for Seamless Communication

Last Updated on December 26th, 2023

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Searching for the best WordPress contact form plugin for your site?

To make your search easier, I’ve collected the best WordPress form plugins for any use. Sure, you can use them for simple contact forms. But you can also go further and accept payments, register users, and a whole lot more. Basically, there’s a lot of WordPress form fun in this post!

For each contact form plugin, I’ll show you what its interface looks like using real screenshots from my own test site. Then, I’ll share a bit more about the features and how much each plugin costs.

Finally, at the end of the post, I’ll recommend some plugins based on different use cases. Let’s get right into it, beginning with one of our favorites…

1. WPForms

Though it’s not as old as some of the other contact form plugins on this list, WPForms has rapidly grown into one of the most popular form plugins at WordPress.org.

From its functional free version to its simple drag-and-drop builder, there are a lot of reasons why it’s become so popular.

Let’s start at the beginning – with the form builder.

WPForms Form Builder Interface

When you go to create a new form with WPForms, it will let you select from some pre-made templates to speed up the process. For example, you could pick a template that already contains all the necessary fields for a contact form.

After that, WPForms drops you into the drag-and-drop builder, where you can design and customize your form without the need for any special technical knowledge. Here’s a look at the builder and the “Simple Contact Form” template:

WPForms interface

To add new fields, you just drag them over from the list on the left. Then, you can customize how a field works by clicking on it.

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Another nice feature is the ability to customize the email notifications that you receive. In the Pro version, you can even create different notifications based on how people fill out a form, including using conditional logic to dictate where and when a notification gets sent:

WPForms settings

Other Relevant Features

Beyond the drag-and-drop builder, the free version also has other helpful functionality like:

  • Built-in spam protection in the form of both honeypot fields and optional CAPTCHAs. I’ve been using just the honeypot fields on my own site and haven’t had any spam issues
  • Responsive design so that your forms work well on mobile too
  • Customizable form notifications so that you can know exactly when someone fills out a form
  • In-dashboard form submission management

And if you’re willing to pay for one of the premium versions, WPForms also helps you create tons of other types of forms with functionality for:

  • Payments
  • Surveys and polls
  • Front-end post submissions
  • Email marketing service integrations
  • Signatures
  • Conditional logic and multi-page forms
  • Form submission to PDF converter
  • Form lockers
  • Lots more

To learn more, check out our full WPForms review.

Price: Free / Pro starts at $39.50

Get WPForms

2. HappyForms

Let’s start with the bad news – HappyForms is not as feature-rich as most of the other form plugins on this list. But there’s a reason I still opted to put it so high up on our best WordPress contact form plugin list:

It has a super simple interface that’s really a joy to use. And if you just want to create a simple contact form, it’s got all the functionality that you need in a really nice package.

So – if you want to create custom forms, maybe look elsewhere. But if you just want a simple contact form so that your website’s visitors can get in touch with you, definitely give this one a look.

It’s also 100% free. That never hurts, right?

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HappyForms Form Builder Interface

Rather than giving you a new interface to use, HappyForms’ interface is built on the real-time WordPress Customizer, which is the same interface that you use to customize your WordPress theme.

Here’s what it looks like…

HappyForms interface

On the far left, you can change the layout of your form fields using drag-and-drop. You can use the middle option to add new fields if needed. You just click to add. Then, you can move them around using drag-and-drop just like a normal WordPress widget.

Finally, on the right side, you can see a live preview of your form. You can also click on the pencil icons to edit form labels.

Once you’ve added all the fields that you want, you’ll be able to configure other settings like email notifications, confirmation messages, and more:

HappyForms settings

While HappyForms will do its best to pull from your theme’s styling, the final step in the setup wizard also lets you manually adjust:

  • Colors
  • Layout
  • Text direction
  • Typography
  • Etc.

And again, you’ll be looking at a live preview of your form while you make these adjustments:

HappyForms styling

Other Relevant Features

Again, there aren’t very many deeper features with HappyForms, which I think can be both a good thing or a bad thing depending on your needs.

HappyForms has:

  • Spam protection via both honeypot fields and/or optional Google ReCaptcha protection.
  • Option to redirect to a custom page after a user submits a form.
  • Responsive design
  • WYSIWYG form styling

Price: 100% Free

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Get HappyForms

3. Ninja Forms

Like WPForms, Ninja Forms is another popular freemium form plugin that’s available both for free at WordPress.org, as well as in a number of premium options.

If you just need a simple contact form, the form builder is probably the biggest differentiator. It has a nice drag-and-drop approach that I find quite intuitive.

However, if you need some of the more advanced features, you also might like Ninja Forms’ approach to premium features.

Rather than only having a few premium versions, you can pick and choose from the many add-ons as needed. Or, you can also grab a bundle if you want the whole shebang for a discounted price.

Ninja Forms Form Builder Interface

To help you get started, Ninja Forms includes pre-built form templates that make it easy to get up and running with common form types.

After that, Ninja Forms has a nice drag-and-drop builder, though it goes with a floating action button approach rather than an omnipresent sidebar.

To add a new form field, you click on a + button in the bottom-right corner to expand the sidebar in the screenshot below. Then, you can drag over the field(s) that you want to add:

Ninja Forms interface

Then, there are also separate areas to configure things like:

  • Confirmation messages
  • Email notifications
  • Etc.
Ninja Forms might be the best WordPress contact form

Other Relevant Features

Beyond the drag-and-drop form builder above, the free version of Ninja Forms also has:

  • Anti-spam protection via honeypot, Google ReCaptcha, and more.
  • AJAX form submission
  • Option to store form submissions in the dashboard
  • Responsive design

And like I mentioned above, Ninja Forms has a ton of different premium add-ons that can add new functionality like:

  • Payment processing
  • Conditional logic
  • Front-end post submission
  • File uploads
  • Email marketing service integrations
  • PDF form submissions
  • Slack notifications
  • Helpdesk integrations
  • User registration
  • …lots more.

You can purchase these add-ons individually on an a la carte basis. Or, you can grab one of the pre-made bundles to save some money.

Price: Free / $99 for cheapest bundle or $29-$129 per individual add-on

Get Ninja Forms

4. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms doesn’t have a free version, which might immediately put it out of your reach. But if you need something really flexible, it’s a good option because you can make it do pretty much anything and there are also plenty of third-party extensions that add on even more flexibility.

So – for a simple contact form? You might want to skip it. For payment forms, user registration forms, etc? Definitely give it a look.

To learn more about how it stacks up to competitors, check out our WPForms vs Gravity Forms vs Caldera Forms comparison (you’ll see Caldera Forms further down this list).

Gravity Forms Form Builder Interface

Like WPForms and Ninja Forms, Gravity Forms sets you up with a drag-and-drop form builder interface, though I don’t think the design is quite as polished as those two alternatives.

It also doesn’t give you templates, which is another small knock on the user experience for casual users.

However, once you get into the form builder, you can use drag-and-drop to add fields from the right onto the live preview on the left:

Gravity Forms interface

To customize a field, you can click on it to expand an accordion tab. And you can also click the Settings option at the top to configure basic form functionality, confirmations, notifications, and other functionality:

Gravity Forms settings

Other Relevant Features

One of the big pros of Gravity Forms is its flexibility. You can use it for:

  • Payment forms
  • Surveys and polls
  • Front-end post submission
  • Email marketing service integrations

In total, it gives you access to 30+ form fields, as well as universal features like:

  • Spam protection
  • Conditional logic
  • Multi-page forms
  • File uploads
  • Save & continue for long forms
  • Calculations
  • Etc.

If you need more functionality, there are also a ton of helpful third-party add-ons. For example, the GravityView add-on lets you display Gravity Forms submissions on the front-end of your site.

Price: No free version / Starting price is $59

Get Gravity Forms

5. Quform

Quform is a premium-only WordPress form plugin sold through CodeCanyon, where it’s one of the best-selling form plugins and has maintained an impressive 4.74-star rating (out of 5) on over 2,100 reviews.

While there is no free version of Quform, you can play around with a full-featured demo to get a feel for it before you fork over your money.

One thing Quform does not do is the more advanced types of integrations. For example, there’s no payment processing, email marketing service integrations, etc. Keep that in mind if you like the interface.

Quform Form Builder Interface

With the Quform builder, you’ll see an abstract layout of your form on the left along with a live preview on the right.

To build your form, you can use the list of fields on the top navigation bar along with drag-and-drop:

You can also quickly preview your form on different devices from this interface.

For more advanced settings, like conditional logic, you’ll work in a popup:

Quform

Other Relevant Features

Quforms has all the functionality that you’d expect from a premium WordPress contact form plugin. You get:

  • Anti-spam options, including ReCaptcha
  • File uploads
  • Conditional logic
  • Multi-page forms
  • Searchable form submissions
  • Responsive design
  • Custom notifications

Basically, as long as you don’t need more advanced functionality like payments, Quform is pretty flexible in the types of forms that it can help you create.

Price: $29 for all features

Get Quform

6. Elementor Pro Form Widget

Ok, Elementor Pro isn’t just a form plugin, it’s a full page builder plugin – so why is it on this list?

Well, beyond letting you build design your entire website (including your header, footer, templates, etc.), Elementor Pro also includes a flexible Form widget.

In fact, the Elementor Pro Form widget is actually what we use here at WPLift. So if you want to see it in action, check out our Contact page.

Elementor Pro Form Builder Interface

Elementor Pro doesn’t have a dedicated form builder interface. Instead, you’ll build your forms in the sidebar of the regular Elementor interface (check out our full Elementor Pro review if you’re not sure what I mean).

You can add as many fields as needed using the sidebar. And you also get access to all of the normal Elementor styling rules, which are more detailed than you’ll get with anything else:

Elementor Pro form widget

Beyond that, Elementor Pro also lets you connect to some email marketing services, as well as Zapier webhooks. That latter option is especially interesting because it makes it possible to connect to any one of the 1,000+ apps that are available at Zapier.

Other Relevant Features

While there’s a lot of fun stuff in Elementor Pro in general, the key features for the Form widget are:

  • Zapier integration
  • Integrations with most popular email marketing services
  • Unlimited fields
  • Detailed styling via Elementor
  • Easy to integrate into Elementor designs

And Elementor Pro also has a few other widgets with forms. For example, there’s a Login widget to let you create a custom login page.

Price: While there is a free version of Elementor, you need the $49 Elementor Pro version to get access to the Form widget

Get Elementor Pro

Which Is The Best WordPress Contact Form Plugin For You?

Ok, decision time…

Out of these 7 options, which is actually the best WordPress form plugin for your own unique situation?

Well, there’s no single answer here, but I can help you make your choice by running through some scenarios and making recommendations based on that.

If you just want to create a very basic contact form and want something that’s simple and user-friendly, HappyForms is a great option for a basic contact form. It’s got all the features you need, and none you don’t.

If you still value having something user-friendly, but also want a bit more flexibility, then I think WPForms is probably your best bet, with Ninja Forms being another good option.

If you want the best free form plugin, I’d also say WPForms, or maybe HappyForms depending on your needs.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to pay and you want the most functionality when it comes to more advanced forms and what you do with those forms, I’d say Gravity Forms is probably your best bet, as its built-in feature list plus the many third-party add-ons opens up a whole new world of forms.

WPForms, Ninja Forms, and Caldera Forms can also create more complicated forms – it just depends on what you need.

Quform can also offer a more affordable option here, though you need to remember that it can’t handle payments.

And finally, if you’re already using the Elementor page builder, consider upgrading to Elementor Pro to enjoy that awesome form widget!

Do you have any other questions about picking the best WordPress contact form plugin for your site? Let us know in the comments and we’ll try to help!

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.