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Main Program:
WordPress Form Plugins
Sallie Goetsch & Laura Steiner
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Forms Are Everywhere in WordPress
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Uses of Forms
• Comments
• Search Forms
• Email Signups
• Contact Forms
• Payment
• Registration
• Testimonials
• Quizzes
• Polls & Surveys
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WordPress Has No Native Form Builder
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Early Form Plugins Looked Like This
Oh, wait.
Contact Form 7
still looks like
this.
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Gravity Forms
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Gravity Forms Was the First Commercial
WordPress Plugin of Any Kind
What Gravity
Forms Looked
Like in 2011,
when I first
started using it.
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It Shows
The Gravity Forms editor
today. Six years without
significant UI changes.
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You Saw It Here First
Dynamic Population: Populate a
field with a value. This value can
be passed via Query Strings,
Shortcode and/or Hooks.
Conditional Logic: Show or hide
a field depending on the values
of another field.
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Gravity Forms: Form Settings
• Change submit button
label
• Show submit button
conditionally
• Enable save and continue
for long forms
• Limit entries
• Schedule form
• Enable anti-spam honeypot
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Gravity Forms Confirmations
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Gravity Forms Notifications
Send notifications to
different recipients
depending on field
values, or create
different emails.
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Gravity Forms: All Forms
• Toggle Active/Inactive
• Form Name & ID
• Number of Entries
• Number of Views
• Conversion Rate
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Gravity Forms Entries
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Gravity Forms Import & Export
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Gravity Forms Official Add-Ons
• Active Campaign
• Agile CRM
• Authorize.net
• Aweber
• Batchbook
• Breeze
• Campaign Monitor
• Campfire
• Capsule CRM
• CleverReach
• Coupons
• Dropbox
• Emma
• FreshBooks
• GetResponse
• Help Scout
• Highrise
• HipChat
• iContact
• Mad Mimi
• MailChimp
• Partial Entries
• PayPal (+Pro)
• Polls
• Quiz
• Signature
• Slack
• Stripe
• Survey
• Trello
• Twilio
• User Registration
• Zapier
• Zoho CRM
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Gravity Forms Third-Party Add-Ons
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More GForms Third-Party Add-Ons
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Still More…
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Free Add-Ons in the Plugin Directory
Of Particular Note
• Gravity Forms + Custom
Post Types
• Gravity Forms Constant
Contact
• HubSpot for Gravity Forms
• Drip Email Campaigns
• Personality Quiz
• Infusionsoft Gravity Forms
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Gravity Forms Pro & Con
• Flexible, extensible, and
well-supported
• Straightforward to use
• Huge ecosystem of
extensions & integrations
• Developer license for all
official extensions is
$199/year for unlimited sites
• Styling them is a bear.
• You need the developer
license to get most of the
add-ons, even if you only
want to use them on one
site.
• The UI has gotten dated.
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Ninja Forms
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Ninja Forms When I First Used It
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Ninja Forms Now
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Ninja Forms Confirmations
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Ninja Forms Notifications
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Ninja Forms Settings
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Ninja Forms Submissions
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Ninja Forms Import/Export
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Ninja Forms Add-Ons
• Layout & Styles
• File Uploads
• Conditional Logic
• Multi-Part Forms
• MailChimp
• PayPal Express
• User
Management
• Front-End Posting
• Stripe
• Webhooks
• Zapier
• Salesforce
• Campaign Monitor
• Constant Contact
• AWeber
• Zoho CRM
• Table Editor
• Capsule
• Insightly CRM
• PDF Form Submissions
• Trello
• Vimeo Uploader
• Excel Export
• WebMerge
• Emma
• Recurly
• Twilio
• ClickSend
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Ninja Forms Pro & Con
• Slick Interface
• Solid Free Version
• Add Your Own CSS Classes
• Only buy and install the add-
ons you need.
• Conditional logic, entry
export, file upload, & multi-
part forms are paid add-ons
• Agency package with all add-
ons is $499
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Caldera Forms
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Caldera Forms Form List with Entries
Hover over form
name to get edit
link. (This is a
little janky.)
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Caldera Forms: Form Templates
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Caldera Forms Layout Builder
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Caldera Forms Field Types
Yes, these are all FREE field types.
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Caldera Forms
Page Navigation
Email Settings
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Caldera Forms Conditions
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Caldera Forms Settings
• Enable or Disable Entry
Capture (storing entries in
database)
• Edit Success Message
• Anti-Spam Honeypot
• Custom Callbacks
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Caldera Forms Responsive Settings
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Caldera Forms Free Add-Ons
• Custom Fields
• Run Action
• Verify Email
• Slack
• Conditional Fail
• Easy Digital Downloads
• Translations
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Caldera Forms Paid Add-Ons
• Easy Pods
• MailChimp
• Stripe
• Users
• Entry Limiter
• Geolocation
• Nexmo
• Mail Templates
• Easy Queries
• Connected Caldera
Forms
• Braintree
• Authorize.net
• Dwolla
• Ingot
• ConvertKit
• Aweber
• Members
• YouTube
• Zapier
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Caldera Forms Pros & Cons
• Templates & Layout Builder
• Advanced Features in Free
Version
• Good Free Add-Ons
• Third-Party Add-Ons
• All Add-On Bundle is $499
• Individual Add-Ons Are
Expensive
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WPForms
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WPForms Welcome Page
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WPForms Form List
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WPForms General Settings
Of note here is the
ability to choose an
email header image
and background
color.
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WPForms Form Templates Not surprising
that the makers of
OptinMonster
include a
newsletter signup
among their free
templates.
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WPForms Form Fields
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WPForms Form Settings
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WPForms Notifications
Note frequent and
prominent up-sell
messages.
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WPForms Confirmations
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WPForms Marketing
Only Constant Contact is available for the free plugin.
Paid marketing integrations include Aweber, Campaign
Monitor, GetResponse, MailChimp, and Zapier.
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WPForms Payments
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Embedding a Form in WPForms
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WPForms Entries
This is the deal-breaker:
WPForms Lite does not store
form entries in the WP database.
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WPForms Paid Add-Ons
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WPForms Pros & Cons
• Easy to use
• Decent UI
• Marketer-friendly
• Pricing structure matches
GravityForms: $39 basic, $99
pro, $199 developer, $499
lifetime VIP
• Email formatting
• Free version is extremely
limited
• Very few free add-ons
• Endless upsells
• Fewer integrations than
Gravity Forms (no polls or
quizzes)
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Formidable Forms (Free)
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Formidable Add Form
Helpful prompts
and option to load
template. Most
fields are limited
to pro version.
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Formidable Contact Form Template
This is the only template
available for the free version
of Formidable.
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Formidable Field Options & Layout
Though there are
many options for
form field layout,
the interface is a
little kludgy.
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Formidable Form Settings
“Show message” is the
only confirmation
option in the free
version.
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Formidable Form Actions
Email notification is
the only free option,
but you can create
several emails.
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Formidable Email Notification
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Formidable Form Styling
Some people love
these things. I would
personally just rather
write CSS, because
you never really get
what you want with
these. You can only
have 1 style in the
free version.
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Formidable Customize HTML
This looks a little
confusing, but lets
you use your own
classes and wrappers
for complete
customization.
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Formidable Global Settings
Choose where to load form
styling & whether to use HTML5,
set user permissions for form
management, enter reCAPTCHA
keys, and modify the default
messages.
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Formidable Form Export/Import
Entry export and
import are available
in the pro version.
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Formidable Insert Form
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Formidable Official Add-Ons
These are available either
separately or as part of a
pro bundle. Some
interesting ones: action
automation, WPML,
Polylang, Locations, User
Tracking.
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Formidable Third-Party Add-Ons
Okay, I was impressed with how many of these there were relative to the
comparatively small collection of official add-ons.
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Formidable Pro-Only Features
Laura demonstrates these
in her presentation.
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Formidable Pros and Cons
• Add-ons can be purchased
either separately or as part
of a pro package.
• Customize HTML
• Styling options (for those
who like them)
• Lifetime unlimited package
available.
• Views and many other
features are built in to Pro
• Great for data wonks
• Free version is very limited
• Styling options (for those
who don’t)
• Form layout and shortcodes-
for-everything are a bit
clunky
• Pro prices a little higher than
GF except for Lifetime
• Definite learning curve
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Tying It All Together
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Best Free Option: Caldera Forms
• Multiple free templates
• Terrific layout builder
• Great selection of field types
• Advanced features like
conditional logic
• Good free add-ons
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Best Paid Option: Gravity or Formidable
Both are great in terms of features and add-ons, though neither has a
UI as slick as Caldera. Formidable has built-in views that GF needs
add-ins for. GF provides better pricing for annual licensing, but
Formidable has a good lifetime package. It’s going to come down to
personal preference and the specific requirements of the site you’re
building.
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Don’t forget to watch Laura Steiner’s
presentation on Formidable Pro!
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About Your Presenter
@salliegoetsch on Twitter
[email protected]
(510) 969-9947
Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with ‘sketch’) built her first
HTML website in 1994. Since discovering WordPress in
2005, she hasn’t looked back. Sallie became the
organizer of the East Bay WordPress Meetup in
Oakland, California, in 2009. She runs her WP Fangirl
consulting and development business from her home
and appears regularly on the WP-Tonic Live panel.