WordPress Advanced: Form Builders

Name: WordPress Advanced: Form Builders
Author: Chrissy Rey

Learn how to use form builders to create forms in WordPress

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Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Chrissy Rae, and in these lessons, I will show you how to use Form Builders to add forms to your WordPress website. Let's start off by answering the question, what are Form Builders? Form Builders are typically going to be plugins that allow you to add form functionality to your website. By default, WordPress doesn't have a way to add forms. So if you wanted to create a page or post and then add a contact form or a newsletter subscription form, you would have to add some code to do that. And these Form Builders add that code for you. There are a lot of Form Builder plugins out there, and there are a few factors that I want you to consider when you're deciding which one to use for your website and some factors that we'll look at in this quick overview of five of those Form Builders. And those include things like the price, the functionality, and how well supported the plugin is. The first one we'll look at is Contact Form 7. And this plugin is available in the free WordPress plugin repository. So you can install it directly from your WordPress installation. You can see that it has over 5 million active installations. That's quite a bit. I think it's the most popular Form Builder plugin that's out there. And you can see it was last updated only a month ago. Now, this plugin is completely free. You don't have to pay for anything. They would love it if you gave them a donation, but you don't have to pay for it to use it. So that's a pretty good bonus for a lot of folks. Now, one downfall of this plugin is that it is not a visual Form Builder. You need to use shortcodes to create your form. So it's a little bit trickier to use. So that is another thing to keep in mind. Another Form Builder that you can download for free from the WordPress plugin repository is Formidable Forms. And this plugin is what's considered a freemium plugin. So there is a free version that you can install from the WordPress plugin repository. And you can see that that one has over 300 ,000 active installations. It was last updated six days ago as of the time of this lesson. So it's pretty well supported. It's pretty widely used. And it is freemium. So that means that there is a paid version of it that you can download from FormidableForms . com. This plugin is a visual Form Builder. So it's drag and drop. It allows you to create some advanced forms using things like radio buttons and dropdowns and adds things like date fields and phone fields and other stuff like that. So if you needed a visual Form Builder, this might be a good way to go. Another plugin that you can use for building forms is Gravity Forms. And this one is completely premium. There is no free version of it. You would have to pay for it in order to use it. This plugin has a lot of the same features that Formidable Forms has. It also has a very robust add -on community. So there are a lot of developers that create add -ons to work specifically with Gravity Forms. And they allow you to do things like connect with HubSpot, Active Campaign. We've got a few other things. You can add an advanced phone field. You can connect with Agile CRM. So there's lots and lots of add -ons that you can use here. You can see there's 10 pages of add -ons that you can use with Gravity Forms. But again, it is a completely premium plugin, which means that the only place that you can buy it is at the GravityForms .com website. You would need to download it and install it on your website. Another freemium plugin is NinjaForms. So this is another drag -and -drop form builder. And this one, you can see there is a free version at the WordPress plugin repository. You can see that it was last updated seven days ago. It has over 900 ,000 active installations. So it's pretty well supported and pretty widely used. And it does have a premium or a pro edition that you can download from NinjaForms .com. So this one also has a lot of add -ons. And we're not going to go through every single one of them, but you can see that you can add some additional functionality when you have the pro edition of it. Another form that you can download for free, or it's a freemium version, is WPForms. And this one is very widely used. It's one of the most widely used, if not the most widely used visual form builder. You can see that it has over 5 million active installations. It was last updated three weeks ago. So it's pretty widely used, pretty well supported, and it is drag -and -drop. So like the Formidable, the Gravity Forms, and NinjaForms, it's drag -and -drop. But they do have a freemium model. So you can use the free version from the free plugin repository, or you can go to the WPForms . com website, and you can get the premium edition of it. Now typically with the premium edition for all of these form builder plugins, you can do some really basic functionality with the free version. And then the premium edition lets you add additional fields like phone address, additional verification, notification, and other types of functionality for it. So as you can see, there are a lot of form builder plugins. These are just five of them. There are many others out there. And you can also add forms using things like JotForm or even a Google Form on your WordPress website. You can add the code for those as well. So you have a lot of options when it comes to building your forms. So thanks for watching, and stay tuned for the next lesson where I will show you how to use Contact Form 7.

Advanced Provider : Chrissy Rey 6 Lessons · 51m in Arabic, English

Course Description

Many websites use forms to handle various requests from users, such as submitting questions, subscribing to newsletters, and accepting payments. However, WordPress does not include this functionality with a standard installation. Creating a form requires additional programming. As a result, the WordPress developer community has created several form builder extensions that allow administrators to create forms for their websites. Knowing how to select and use form builder extensions is essential for a WordPress developer. So what’re the different form options? How do you use them effectively?

In this course, you will learn how to extend WordPress functionality by using plugins to create forms. We will explore evaluating, installing, and using several popular form builder plugins. The plugins we will evaluate include free, freemium, and premium options. By the end of this course, you will be able to select an appropriate form builder plugin and create a contact form for your WordPress website.

What You'll Learn

Identify different form builder plugin options available for WordPress
Evaluate free, freemium, and premium form builder plugins
Use form builder plugins to create forms for a WordPress website
Select an appropriate form builder plugin for your needs
Create a contact form for your WordPress website

Key Takeaways

WordPress does not include form functionality in a standard installation, so creating a form requires additional programming.
The WordPress developer community has created several form builder extensions that let administrators create forms for their websites.
Knowing how to select and use form builder extensions is essential for a WordPress developer.
This course evaluates popular form builder plugins including Contact Form 7, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and WPForms, spanning free, freemium, and premium options.
By the end of the course you will be able to select an appropriate form builder plugin and create a contact form for your WordPress website.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is for WordPress developers and administrators who want to add form functionality to their websites, since knowing how to select and use form builder extensions is essential for a WordPress developer.

What form builder plugins does the course cover?

The course explores and evaluates Contact Form 7, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and WPForms, including free, freemium, and premium options.

What will I be able to do after completing this course?

By the end of the course you will be able to select an appropriate form builder plugin and create a contact form for your WordPress website.

Why do I need a form builder plugin in WordPress?

WordPress does not include form functionality with a standard installation, and creating a form requires additional programming, so form builder plugins let you create forms without building that functionality yourself.

What kinds of forms can WordPress forms handle?

Forms are used to handle various requests from users, such as submitting questions, subscribing to newsletters, and accepting payments.