WPForms Review: Is It the Best Drag and Drop WordPress Form Builder?

There are a lot of WordPress form plugins out there. But there aren’t a lot of user-friendly, feature-rich form plugins in the market. WPForms breaks that trend by offering a beautiful drag and drop form builder packed with features. Simple enough for beginners, powerful enough for advanced users. Owned by Syed Balkhi, the same guy behind WP Beginner and OptinMonster, WPForms offers an intuitive way to build all types of WordPress forms. Whether you only need a simple contact form or you need a detailed form complete with payment and newsletter functionality, keep reading for our comprehensive WPForms review.

WPForms

WPForms can be as simple or as complicated as you need them to be. If you just need basic forms, there’s a free version of the plugin which offers templates for basic contact and suggestion forms. As the drag and drop form builder for WordPress is the main highlight, you can still get access to the drag and drop builder and two templates, but you won’t get any of the advanced features like email marketing or payment integrations. You’ll also be severely limited in the number of form fields available to you. 

If you want to unlock the full functionality of the plugin, you need to upgrade from the free version. Fortunately, WPForms has different plans to choose from which will fit your needs.

• Basic – $39.50 per year good for 1 site 
• Plus – $99.50 per year which includes everything from the basic and can be used on 3 sites
• Pro – $199.50 per year which includes everything in plus and can be used on 5 sites
• Elite – $299.50 per year which includes everything in pro and use on unlimited sites

WPForms Key Features

• 6 pre-built form templates
• Custom CSS
• Conditional logic
• Multi-page forms
• Additional form fields, including file uploads
• Email marketing integrations (on Plus plans and above)
• Payment integrations (on Pro and Ultimate plans)
• Zapier integration (on Pro and Ultimate plans)

Pros 

• The pre-built templates are leveraged so you can create forms in the fastest and easiest way that suits everyone. 
• Easily adaptable to your website needs as it customizes WordPress forms with the use of HTML block, custom CSS, and section dividers.
• WPForms is localization ready through the wpforms textdomain. 
• Documentation is also available if you need some helpful articles to read on. 

Cons

• If you want to use WPForms to other niches, you won’t be able to do so as this plugin is dedicated only for WordPress.
• The inability to upload multiple files in a single form all at once.

WPForms Installation & Setup

You can install and activate the free version of WPForms through the WordPress plugins repository. Don’t worry as the drag and drop builder of WPForms on the free version is included. However, if you purchased the license, here’s how you can do it. 

Downloading the WPForms plugin

First, to download the WPForms plugin, you need to log in to your WPForms account through the website. Upon logging in, you can now proceed to the downloads tab

Upon selecting the Downloads tab, you’ll see all of the licenses you have purchased. 

Now, to download the plugin, click the Download WPForms button which can be found right next to your purchased licenses. 

By clicking that, it will now download the zip file of the plugin to your desktop.

The add ons can be easily installed and activated through the WordPress dashboard. 

Installing WPForms plugin

After downloading the zip files, you can now proceed to the site where you’d like to install WPForms. By doing that, go to Plugins then Add New, and 

By clicking the Upload Plugin, it will flash an option to upload it. Click Choose File and select the zip files you have downloaded. 

Now that the file is uploaded, click on the Install Now button. 

After uploading the plugin, click on the Activate plugin button to have WPForms on your site. 

Now that the WPForms is already activated, make sure that you already verify your WPForms license key for the automatic updates and support. In addition to that, your license key will easily install and activate the addons you have together with the WPForms plugin from the WordPress dashboard.

And there you have it. You can now set up your WPForms to make use of its drag and drop builder. 

Creating Form With WPForms

For the purposes of this review, we’ll be using WPForms Pro. While the process for creating a form is the same for both versions, we can have access to more templates and fields than the free version.

Selecting a Form Template

The first option you’ll encounter when creating a new form is template selection

These templates are a quick way to set up the skeleton for your form. Currently, the Pro version of the plugin includes 6 different templates:

• Contact
• Request a quote
• Donation
• Billing/Order
• Newsletter Signup
• Suggestion

You can always add or remove fields later, but they save you some time by eliminating the need to add basic fields. You can also choose to start from a blank canvas rather than using one of the templates.

Using the Drag and Drop Form Builder

Once you select your preferred template, you can go straight to the drag and drop form builder

The drag and drop builder is one of the main features setting WPForms apart from much of the competition. Not only is it drag and drop, but it’s also actually a user-friendly drag and drop builder. Some plugins tout “drag and drop” as a synonym for “simple”. WPForms actually backs up that claim. The form builder is a breeze to use. For example, if you want to add a “Website” field to your contact form, you just drag it over and drop it where you want. Convenience is high on this. 

Now, to customize that field (or any other field), simply click on the field you want to customize.

Rearranging existing form fields is a simple matter of dragging them to the spot where you want them to appear.

Additionally, it’s easy to place fields where you want them – no need to hit the “sweet spot” like some drag and drop builders. Overall, the WPForms builder is a pleasant, intuitive experience. We can absolutely recommend this to beginners and advanced users alike who will enjoy the interface. Next, let’s move into the more high-level settings you can configure for your form. 

Spam Protection via Honeypot

If you’ve ever used an unprotected contact form, you’re probably familiar with how much spam is out there. So what’s the solution? CAPTCHA? Unfortunately, NO. CAPTCHA is a horrible user experience. You’re making your users do the work of eliminating your spam problem. That’s never good.

Instead, WPForms includes our preferred option.

Honeypot fields

Honeypot fields are invisible form fields that catch spam bots without affecting real humans. While you can still add CAPTCHAs to WPForms if you want, what we like about it is that the default spam protection is honeypots.

Configuring Form Submission Notifications

Notifications are emails sent to you whenever someone submits one of your forms. For example, you can configure the email subject, from the name, message, and more. This is a pretty standard concept for any contact form plugin.

But here’s what we like about notifications in WPForms. You can create multiple, different notifications.

For example, you can choose to send a full summary of the form submission to yourself, while sending a different version to your virtual assistant for processing. Solo webmasters probably won’t need multiple notifications, but we think that this is a great option for anyone running a multi-member organization.

Embedding Contact Forms

Once you’re finished creating your form, all you need to do is click on the Embed button and the plugin will generate a shortcode for you to use anywhere you want

Just pop the shortcode in a page or post and you should see your embedded form.

Customize Your Contact Forms

To choose the general style preference for your forms, you have to go to the general settings menu of the plugin, which is a bit odd. Here, you can choose whether you want your contact forms to just use the base WPForms style, or to also pull styles from your theme to fit with your design

You can also add custom CSS classes to any form elements if you want to style things further.

Managing Form Submissions

In the Pro version of the plugin, you gain access to an Entries tab that allows you to view all of your form submissions directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Fortunately, the search box is now made easy for your hundreds of entries. Thanks to the continuous update and support that WPForms have given us. It is really important to hear out the client’s feedback. 

Taking it Further – Payments and Marketing

With the premium plans, you’ll also unlock the ability to integrate payments and email marketing software into your forms. For example, you can create a list of products for a user to select from.

Then, you can configure a payment processor like PayPal to handle the payments.

However, if you are doing heavy-duty selling, we recommend that you’d want to look into a dedicated plugin. But for basic payments, this is a nice feature. You can also use WPForms to create newsletter signup forms thanks to the email marketing integrations.

WPForms can integrate with:

• MailChimp
• AWeber
• Get Response
• Campaign Monitor

But to be honest, we suggest using a dedicated opt-in plugin if you’re trying to build your list. WPForms is limited when compared to the other email opt-in plugins out there. 

Wrapping Up!

If all you need is to create a basic contact form for your site, then WPForms Lite is one of the nicest free options we’ve come across. You are limited in what you can do with your forms in the free version. But the interface is much nicer than most of the alternatives. For most other WordPress users, we suggest that the Basic plan offers the most value. You can unlock all of the templates and form fields at an affordable price.

Basically, it gives you the flexibility which is lacking in the Lite version without breaking the bank. If the email marketing or payment features tickle your fancy, you’ll need to go with a higher plan. But unless you have a specific need for those features, we recommend sticking to the Basic plan. Honestly, having the drop and drag builder makes the experience on a new level. We didn’t experience any lags or any difficulties around. In fact, it is indeed, easier to navigate and convenient to have in any plugin. WPForms really not just offering their products but giving the clients the most innovative solution. By reading this hands-on WPForms review, you can give this plugin a try and see it for yourself! Let us know how it goes!

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