Most WordPress sites we inherit have two or three form plugins installed. One for the contact page, one somebody added for a newsletter, and Contact Form 7 left over from 2016 doing nothing except loading its scripts on every page. That’s the first sign nobody chose a form plugin on purpose.
For a simple contact or quote form on an Elementor site, Elementor Forms is enough. Gravity Forms earns its place once a form takes payments, calculates prices or feeds another system, and WPForms or Fluent Forms suit owners who build their own. The choice matters less than people think for a simple contact form and more than people think for anything else.
What a form plugin has to do
Before comparing names, be clear on the jobs. A business form plugin needs to:
- Collect the right fields without annoying people
- Stop spam without blocking real enquiries
- Get the submission to the right inbox, reliably
- Keep a copy on the site in case the email goes missing
- Optionally, pass the data somewhere else: a CRM, a mailing list, a spreadsheet, a booking system
Number 3 trips up more sites than any plugin choice. WordPress sends email from the web server by default, and those emails often land in spam or never arrive. Whatever plugin you pick, send its emails through a proper SMTP or transactional email service. And number 4 is your safety net: if a plugin doesn’t store entries, one bad email week can cost you a month of leads without anyone noticing.
The main options compared
| Elementor Forms | Gravity Forms | WPForms | Fluent Forms | Contact Form 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Included with Elementor Pro | Paid licence only | Free Lite version, paid tiers | Free version, paid Pro | Free |
| Built in the page editor | Yes | No (own builder, embedded) | No (own builder, embedded) | No (own builder, embedded) | No (shortcode markup) |
| Stores entries on the site | Yes | Yes | Full entry management in paid tiers | Yes | Needs an add-on |
| Conditional fields | Needs an add-on at the time of writing | Yes, very flexible | Yes | Yes | Needs an add-on |
| Multi-step forms | Yes | Yes | Paid tiers | Pro version | No |
| Payments, calculations | Not really | Yes, with add-ons | Yes, paid tiers | Yes, Pro | No |
| Best for | Contact and quote forms on Elementor sites | Complex forms, workflows, anything data-heavy | Owners who want to build their own forms | A capable free option | Nothing new, in our view |
Features and tiers change, so check the current details before you buy. The table reflects what we see at the time of writing in late 2026.
Elementor Forms: our default for most sites
Because we build every site in Elementor, the Form widget in Elementor Pro is where we start. It’s already paid for, it’s designed in the same editor as the rest of the page so it matches the site exactly, and it doesn’t add another plugin to keep updated.
It handles the forms most small businesses need: contact, quote request, callback, simple booking enquiries. You can send to more than one email address, send an auto-reply, store submissions in the dashboard, redirect to a thank-you page (useful for tracking conversions), and connect to tools like Mailchimp or a webhook. Elementor’s help page on actions after submit lists what’s available.
Where it runs out of road:
- Conditional logic. Showing or hiding fields based on earlier answers isn’t built in at the time of writing. You can add it with third-party add-ons, but that’s another plugin to maintain.
- Calculations and payments. If the form needs to total up a price or take a deposit, it’s the wrong tool.
- Complex data handling. If staff need to work through entries, assign them, or export them regularly into another system, a dedicated form plugin does this far better.
For a trade quote form on a site like the Plumbing Elevation site we built, Elementor Forms is plenty.
Gravity Forms: when the form is the business process
Gravity Forms is what we reach for when a form is doing real work. It has no free version, which tells you who it’s aimed at.
Its strength is logic. Conditional logic in Gravity Forms can show or hide fields, whole pages, and even change which notification gets sent and to whom. That’s how you build a referral form for a health practice that routes to different clinicians depending on the answers, an event registration that adds a meal choice only when someone ticks “attending dinner”, or an application form with a dozen sections that only shows the relevant ones.
It also does calculations, file uploads, saving and continuing later, and payments through official add-ons. Developers like it because it’s well documented and predictable, which matters when a form has to feed a CRM or practice management system.
The downside is that it’s more than most sites need, its builder is separate from Elementor so styling it to match the site takes extra work, and the licence is an ongoing cost.
WPForms: friendly for owners who build their own
WPForms is the one you’ll see advertised everywhere. There’s a free WPForms Lite on the WordPress plugin directory, and paid tiers that add features. Its drag-and-drop builder is easy to pick up, and it comes with a large set of templates.
If you’re a business owner who likes to build and tweak your own forms without touching the page design, it’s a reasonable choice. The catch is that the useful parts for a business (stored entries, most integrations, more advanced fields) sit behind the paid tiers, and the plugin promotes its upgrades inside your dashboard fairly persistently.
The others, briefly
Fluent Forms is the most capable free option we’ve used. Conditional logic and stored entries are in the free version, with multi-step forms and payments in Pro. If budget is tight and you need more than Elementor Forms, it’s worth a look.
Contact Form 7 still runs on a huge number of sites. It’s free and it works, but it has no visual builder, doesn’t store entries without another plugin, and its default output needs styling. We don’t install it on new builds. If your site has it and it’s working, there’s no emergency, but replace it at your next redesign.
Formidable Forms and Ninja Forms are both solid and both sit in a similar space to Gravity Forms. Pick one heavy plugin and stick with it rather than mixing.
How to choose
Work through these in order and stop at the first yes.
- Is it a straightforward contact, quote or callback form on an Elementor site? Use Elementor Forms.
- Do fields need to appear or disappear based on earlier answers, but the form is otherwise simple? Fluent Forms, or Elementor Forms with a conditional logic add-on if it’s one form.
- Does it take payments, calculate prices, collect files at scale, or feed another system? Gravity Forms.
- Will you be building and editing forms yourself, often? WPForms or Fluent Forms, whichever builder you find easier.
Then, whatever you chose: remove the form plugins you’re not using, connect SMTP, turn on entry storage, add a honeypot plus a CAPTCHA such as reCAPTCHA or Cloudflare Turnstile, and send a test from your phone. Then send another one in three months, because forms break quietly after updates. A proper WordPress maintenance plan should include that test.
The plugin is only half the job. The other half is the form itself: how many fields, what you ask, what the button says. Our guide to contact forms people actually finish covers that side.
We set up forms, routing and email delivery as part of our Elementor web design builds. Stuck with three form plugins and no idea which one the contact page uses? That’s a quick WordPress fix, and we can untangle it for you.