Our Review of the Best Contact Form Plugins For WordPress
When you are building a website, even if you’re going to use WordPress to build it you will need to include a contact page. You want people to contact you if they have questions, or for just about any reason. This can be done in a lot of ways, from hard coding it, or listing your email. It’s not advised to leave your email hanging. Do not let your email hang alone, instead, focus on using a contact form.
Contact forms are a standard in web development. You can have a simple form in place that will help you not only give people a platform to contact you, but keep your email safe. Now, not everyone that is using WordPress will be able to hard code a contact form. If you can’t do that, then you should look into the following plugins that are going to help you out. These are 9 plugins for WordPress that allow you to have a contact form, and keep in contact with your audience, without just putting your email in place. It’s a simple option that is well worth exploring.
Jetpack Forms Plugin
One of the most heavily reviewed, and promoted plugin is this one. Jetpack is a simple contact form that you can update in your WordPress install. It has a lot of features that you will no doubt want to explore, and will be easy to install and work with. You can add a form to contact pages, within your posts, or just about anywhere within your WordPress install. It doesn’t interfere with PHP, and doesn’t cause issues with your template. It’s straightforward, free, and simple.
Contact Form 7 Plugin
As far as WordPress is concerned, you will want to look into Form 7. This is a plugin that will help you get forms, without having to code on your own. This is a simple option that has a lot of features, and best of all, it’s free. Once you’ve installed this, you can add extensions if you’d like, or you could just add a form and make contacting you a lot easier for your audience. You can have a CAPTCHA in place for security, and filtering, as well as Ajax submission and more. This is a popular form that is ranked quite high amidst contact form plugins for WordPress installation.
Ninja Forms Plugin
If you want ease, you’ll want to look into Ninja Forms for WordPress. There is no option that will be easier than this. It’s a simple, easy to work solution that is drag and drop. No joke, you will be able to drag and drop the form into place, and edit it yourself. You can save everything as you go, export, and fix elements to ensure that you don’t have to code anything. You also get anti-spam protection, and much more. The simple free version is great, but if you really want to harness the power of this solution, you’ll want to look at the premium option. Upgrade to Ninja Forms WordPress pro, and you will get a big jump in terms of function, and add-ons, including an element that can help email marketing. Imagine the conversion rates you can get when you set your email marketing on auto pilot, and you’ll understand why Ninja Forms is quite good overall in terms of WordPress function.
Fast Secure Contact Form Plugin
This is one of the best WordPress plugins that are free to use, and integrate with a lot of different existing applications. You’ll be able to work with Skype, Google, Akismet, and CAPTCHA. If you are using these options already, then you will no doubt want to explore this option. This is a free solution that is going to help you get a proper form, whether you want one or multiple ones across your WordPress install. Go from a request to a video meeting, and you’ll no doubt see the power of this plugin. It’s free, simple to use, and basic in many ways. Perhaps the best thing about this WordPress plugin is the security customization elements.
Visual Form Builder Plugin
Another one of the easiest options that you are going to want to look into is this Visual Form Builder plugin for WordPress. There are two versions of this, but the simple free one is a good one. You can make forms without any code, and utilize the drag and drop solution. You can customize the CSS overall, and lets you have layout solutions that are very interesting. If you find that the free version is not enough, then you will want to look at the pro solution which costs upwards of 29 dollars. The basic one is good, however, but if you aren’t keen on the simplicity, then perhaps you should check out the upgraded option.
Formidable Forms Plugin
When you’re working with WordPress, you want to manage your time a bit more. With that in mind, you should look into the free option first. The free option here will give you an absolutely simple drag and drop visuals, and spam protection that you can customize. This is another simple form solution, and can help you combine forms with your theme. If you don’t want that many bells and whistles, you will do just fine with the free version. However, if you want to build more than just the basic option, then you’ll want to pay the premium cost of 34 dollars to get an upgrade. The upgrade of Formidable Forms is well worth it, if you’re going to pay for a professional version for forms. This plugin has been updated, so if you have an older WordPress plugin, you won’t have full functions.
Pirate Forms Plugin
Looking at WordPress plugins, you will want to see whether or not they are getting rave reviews. With that in mind, you are going to be surprised that Pirate Forms doesn’t seem to have a lot of reviews, despite the numbers nearing 50,000 installs. While there’s a lot of fanfare for this, you will find that the reviews are lacking. That doesn’t mean that this is a bad solution. This is a great option, easy to control, and can help send emails through SMTP. It’s secure, simple, and free. However, you’re going to find that it may lack some of the visual design elements and interface options that you have above.
Simple Basic Contact Form Plugin
Once again, simplicity matters when you’re working with WordPress. If you are going to work with this contact form plugin, don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles. The minimal presentation is great, if you like simplicity, but if you are expecting a full scale application, you are not going to get much. This is a simple, easy to work on element, and helps you get customizations in place with CSS. If you want to get a drag and drop option, because it’s easier, then you will no doubt want to get this option instead of some of the others. Remember, this is a free option, and one that offers no major frills. It’s easy to use, install, and customize, which will help you get forms on your site for free.
Contact Form Clean and Simple Plugin
At the bottom of this list, but not the least, is this simple WordPress contact form plugin. Contact Form Clean and Simple is just that. It’s absolutely free. It is minimalist in design, but you can customize it completely. If your existing CSS allows for contact forms, you can work on it and change things up. The plugin also allows Twitter elements so that you can streamline the contact form and allow for simple form placement, etc. It’s free to use, and offers no frills, which is a great thing when working with WordPress plugins.
The Harder Way To Do Things
Now, there are some people that have WordPress installations and don’t want to use any contact form plugins, you can. However, when you are setting up the code, make sure that you double check the security elements. There’s a lot of code that you can use to work on this simple form, but if it doesn’t protect your email, you could get a lot of spam. Don’t get spammed completely, use a plugin to help you move forward with the right elements. The hard way to work on this is NOT the best way. Don’t overthink this. Instead, use the WordPress plugins mentioned above and customize them if you would like. The CSS code updates that you can make will help you get the right code in place for WordPress contact forms, and security. If nothing else, use the plugins for protection, and security. Unless you’re a really good programmer, you won’t want to go the hard way into contact forms. There’s a lot of issues that can come with this, so don’t go for the hard way, when there are so many simple options that you can install, and go forward with. There are 9 solutions mentioned above, but they are certainly not the only ones that you will want to explore for WordPress.
