Gravity Forms makes it easier than ever to create and manage forms in WordPress. Most will agree that easy user interaction and data collection is important for most blogs, websites and web applications. Providing users high quality and intuitive input forms may be just what is needed to make your users take the time to fill in and submit the information you’re trying to collect. Gravity Forms is a fully featured forms management plugin for WordPress and it is really simple to use and maintain. It features a drag and drop interface, with an advanced notification routing, lead capture, conditional logic on fields, it has the ability to create posts from the external forms and much more. Basically it allows you to create any kind of form with WordPress in minutes. I have tried several form solutions, but honestly after trying Gravity forms I started to use it on tripwire magazine for contact forms and the community link submit service. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think in a comment.
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links (at no extra cost to you). I recommend that you do your own independent research before purchasing any product or service. This article is not a guideline, a recommendation or endorsement of specific products.
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Gravity Forms is a premium WordPress plugin and it shows. The features included in this plugin are really amazing and for most websites and blog you will find what is needed. On their website they have described all the features in a really cool and organized way and if you need forms on your WordPress website I recommend you go there and take a look. Just click the image or find it here.
When on the features page Clicking on one of the 28 feature feature highlights of Gravity Forms you are taken to a detailed description to give you an idea of how it works and how it is managed. It is one of the best feature documentation I have seen so far for a WordPress plugin. This is how the interface looks.
Lets look at Gravity Forms plugin interface
Gravity Forms adds a “Forms” section to the left sidebar of your WordPress admin area, from which you can easily access the large number of features Gravity Forms provides.
Clicking on the New form link takes you to the Form Editor in Gravity Forms. It is an interactive editor with drag and drop making optimal use of the limited space available inside the WordPress environment. Elements is only shown if needed or active and it makes the interface simple and easy to use. First thing you do is configuring the form with title, description, css, confirmation details (ex. mail, redirect to page etc.).
Once the basics is in place you can add fields to the form. The form properties area will then collapse and elements will be added below it when clicked to the right.
Clicking in a form element will unfold it and allow you to set it up. Changing the order of elements is done using drag and drop.
Form elements available in Gravity Forms
Standard Fields
In the Standard Fields section you find the typical HTML form elements and the ability to add text and HTML code. This is the basic stuff needed for most forms. With these elements you will have simple validation like input is required and duplicate checking. You can also set up conditional logic on when to show the elements.
Advanced Fields
The next section is Advanced Fields and it is where you find the more advanced fields that fx. makes setting up a contact form so simple. If you add an email or website field for example it will automatically do basic validation on emails and urls entered.
The address field adds a complete address setup and you can specify if you want an International, an US or a Canadian address layout.
Post Fields
The third type of fields is for creating WordPress content from whatever users fill into a form. You could use this to allow readers of your blog to create guest posts. There are really many interesting way you can use this functionality. The fields correspond to concepts you know from WordPress and it is quite strait forward to use.
Managing the forms and the submitted Entries
Once the forms are online users will start submitting information to you. Fortunately Gravity Forms have a great interface for viewing, marking and deleting entries. Each form has its own page with entries.
On the Edit Forms over view page you can see how well your forms convert and do bulk actions, and access configuration.
Notification is important for both you and the user of the form. Here you set up the message you get when the form is submitted and the message you are sending the to user, if any.
My conclusion is that Gravity Forms is an excellent forms solution for WordPress. I have used of for several month now and it just works for me.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That is all well and good but I noted that they said in their list of features that the forms validate with XHTML Transitional, which is a deal breaker for me if there isn’t a way for me to make their forms on my site validate with the Strict doctype. Another thing is that they are a bit over the top with the pricing. Now, if I wanted to use the plugin for just my site (as an example) and I pay $39 (which I think is reasonable) and have access to upgrades indefinitely, then I’d be happy. But as I understood it, it’s $39 per year if you want access to any plugin upgrades after the first year. To me that’s a teeny bit too much. Guess I’ll stick with free form plugins for now.
Thanks for your honest feedback. I agree that for some the price may be a problem, however I think $39 is nothing for a tool that does the job well on my site. I have several tools that require payment every month fx. aweber.com, basecamphq.com. Not sure if it is fair to compare these with a WordPress plugin but I think it is important to support the vendor of tools I like to use – to make sure they stay sharp and maintain it.
I agree it is important to support developers and I wouldn’t have an issue paying a flat fee of $39 for this plugin if it came with indefinite upgrades, but that’s not the case. It’s not the same as paying a recurring fee for a service. This is a plugin, and there are free plugins which do pretty much the same job as this plugin for a simple contact form. Or even on CodeCanyon there are much cheaper contact forms which are simple to set up which have pretty much all the functionality a typical user needs and AFAIK you’re not required to buy another license after a year for upgrades. I guess it boils down to individual preference and needs.
I like how it tells you a forms conversion rate that would be really useful to me. But, is this classed as ‘Campaign Monitor Integration’ and so only included in the Developer License?
Hi Jamie, I agree that showing conversion rate is cool. I have not worked with the Campaign Monitor Integration myself and yes as far as I can see it is only available for a developer license. I would recommend you to contact them and ask more into this specific area. To verify it I just logged in and tried to access the documentation for CM Integration and I can’t see it with my regular license.
Great review on usability aspects! But what about the security issues of Gravity Forms? Is it secure enough and how does it deal with spam and risks of XSS hackers?
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