AndiSites presentation on "The Best Forms Plugins for Your WordPress Website & How to Use them" for Digital Marketing for Business Conference, Raleigh 2015

1. The Best Forms Plugins forYourWordPressWebsite
& How to UseThem
DMFB 2015, Raleigh, NC

2. What can forms be used for?
• Not just for “Contact Us” anymore
• Applications, quizzes, sign-ups, surveys,
pre-screenings, registrations…
• Be creative!

3. 5 Parts to a Forms Plugin
• The form itself
• The email notification sent to you
• The email notification sent to the submitter
• Putting the form on your site
• Other cool stuff

4. Safety & Security
• Known-safe plugins
• No personal info (SSN, credit cards)
• SSL certificates (can protect per-page)
• reCAPTCHA
Old style New style

5. Free vs Premium
Depends on what you need it for…the free version may be sufficient now, then you
can upgrade later if you need to

6. Our Favorites
Free Free & Premium Premium Only

7. Contact Form 7
The Form Itself
(requires additional plugin)

8. Contact Form 7
The Email Notification to You

9. Contact Form 7
The Email Notification to the Submitter

10. Contact Form 7
Putting the Form on Your Site
Widget is also
available in some
themes (but not all)

11. Contact Form 7
The Front-End
Notice that fields
go all the way
across…no easy
way to format.

12. Contact Form 7
Other Cool Stuff
No other cool
stuff…just makes
simple forms.

13. Formidable Free
The Form Itself - Fields

14. Formidable Free
The Form Itself - Layout

15. Formidable Free
The Email Notification to You

16. Formidable Free
The Email Notification to the Submitter
Other actions-on-submit are
easily defined as well.

17. Formidable Free
Inserting a form onto a page
Inserting a form as a widget
Putting the Form on Your Site

18. Formidable Free
The Front-End
Notice prettier
layout…can easily
put multiple fields
on a single line.

19. Formidable Free
Other Cool Stuff - Entries
NOTE: Can only view entries with
Free…can’t export or report.

20. Formidable Free
Other Cool Stuff – Import/Export Forms
Can easily duplicate
forms from one website
on another.

21. Formidable Free
Other Cool Stuff - Built-In Form Styling (NEW!)

22. Formidable Free vs Pro

23. Formidable Pro
Conditional Logic
Very powerful…can show or
hide fields based on what a
user chooses.

24. Formidable Pro
Third Party Add-Ons/Integrations:
Stripe, Affiliate WP, Pro PDF Extended, ToolTips, Anti-Spam,
GeoCoding, Email Shortcode, Customizations, Newsletter…more all
the time…
Included Add-Ons

25. Formidable Pro
Reporting

26. Gravity Forms
The Form Itself - Fields

27. Gravity Forms
The Form Itself - Layout
Not as easy as they suggest…must
find, copy, and paste shortcodes
to control form layout.

28. Gravity Forms
The Form Itself – Conditional Logic

29. Gravity Forms
The Email Notification to You

30. Gravity Forms
The Email Notification to the Submitter

31. Gravity Forms
Inserting a form onto a page
Inserting a form in a widget
Putting the Form on Your Site

32. Gravity Forms
The Front-End
Notice old-style
Captcha…must use
additional plugin for
new style

33. Gravity Forms
Other Cool Stuff – PayPal / e-Commerce
Gravity Forms is much
easier than Formidable
for e-commerce…more
gateways, simpler setup

34. Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

35. http://denislam.com/formidable-pro-vs-gravity-forms/
Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

36. Choose Formidable Pro If: Choose Gravity Forms If:
• You’d like to style your forms without having to
know CSS
• You need a simple PayPal option
• You need a form with multiple pages
• You’re working with WP Multisite
• You need advanced and complex multi-page forms
• You’d like a bigger selection of field types
• You need advanced ecommerce
• You’d like to code extra functions and enhance your
forms using the Gravity Forms framework
• You’d like to schedule forms to only be available during
certain dates
Formidable Pro vs Gravity Forms

37. www.andisites.com
andrea@andisites.com
@andisites