Are you looking for an effective way to collect data on your WordPress website? Then Gravity Forms may be the perfect solution for your business. This premium WordPress plugin allows you to easily create custom forms, such as contact forms, surveys, and registration forms, in no time, getting you the data you need when you need it. Want to discover more of what it has to offer? Our comprehensive guide will provide an in-depth Gravity Forms review, from benefits and costs to competitors and pricing, to ensure you have the proper insights to choose the right form plugin for your website.
So, let’s get started.
Gravity Forms Overview
What is Gravity Forms?
Gravity Forms is a premium WordPress plugin that allows you to create both simple and complex custom forms quickly and easily. Whether you need a quiz, a contact form, or a survey, it can help you create it in minutes. The plugin also offers a drag-and-drop interface, which means you can create your form without writing any code. With Gravity Forms, you can email form results to one or many recipients or no one at all and check responses from your WordPress dashboard. Gravity Forms also integrates with various popular tools and services like Mailchimp, PayPal, and Stripe. With a fully documented API system, Gravity Forms is developer-friendly when it comes to advanced integrations.
Is Gravity Forms Safe to Use?
Yes, Gravity Forms is secure and safe to use. It was developed by Rocketgenius, a reputable company that has been creating WordPress products since 2009. The plugin is regularly updated to fix any security issues and to ensure compatibility with the latest versions of WordPress. However, you’ll want to keep in mind the security of this plugin, as with all plugins, is also reliant upon your WordPress installation and web server. Be sure to continually check for any vulnerabilities and security issues and keep plugins up-to-date.
Who Should Use Gravity Forms?
Gravity Forms is a powerful and flexible WordPress plugin. It can be used by a wide range of individuals and businesses who need to collect data from their users or customers.
Some examples of who might use Gravity Forms include:
Website owners – who want to create contact forms, surveys, registration forms, or other types of online forms to gather information from their visitors.
E-commerce businesses – who need to collect customer data such as shipping and billing information, order details, or product feedback.
Non-profit organizations – who want to create donation forms, event registration forms, or membership sign-up forms.
Educational institutions – who need to create application forms, event registration forms, or surveys to gather feedback from students or faculty.
Freelancers or agencies – who build websites for clients and need a flexible and customizable form builder to meet their client’s unique needs.
In short, if you need to collect data through your website, Gravity Forms is a great plugin option.
Benefits of Gravity Forms
There are several benefits to using Gravity Forms on your website. Here are some of the most significant ones we’ve identified in our Gravity Forms review:
Easy to use
Gravity Forms has a simple drag-and-drop interface that allows users to create forms quickly and easily. Users can add various fields to their forms, such as text fields, radio buttons, checkboxes, phone fields, email fields, URL/website fields, file upload fields, and drop-down menus.
Comes with templates to get you started
Gravity Forms offers up to 15 templates depending on your account level: basic, pro, or elite (more to come on account levels later). These templates often will meet your needs right out of the box but can also be edited to meet your needs. The templates are:
- simple contact form,
- advanced contact form,
- contest entry form,
- donation form,
- e-commerce form,
- Stripe checkout form,
- PayPal Checkout form,
- employee application form,
- event registration form,
- gift certificate form,
- newsletter signup form,
- request a quote form,
- survey form,
- user registration form, and
- webinar registration form.
Customizable
Gravity Forms allows users to customize their forms with different themes and styles. Users can also add custom CSS to their forms to personalize them further.
Integration
Gravity Forms integrates with various third-party services and applications, such as PayPal, MailChimp, and Zapier, which enables users to collect payments, build mailing lists, and automate workflows.
Conditional logic
Gravity Forms supports conditional logic, which enables users to show or hide fields based on user responses. Using conditional logic helps make forms more dynamic and responsive.
Security
Gravity Forms provides security features such as spam protection, honeypot fields, SSL encryption, and password protection, ensuring users’ data is protected and secure.
Overall, Gravity Forms is an easy-to-use and secure form plugin that offers great variability in the types of forms you create to collect data, automate workflows, and improve your website’s functionality. A true business booster.
The Pros and Cons
Like any other tool, Gravity Forms has its pros and cons. Here are some of the most significant ones we discovered in our Gravity Forms review.
Pros:
- Easy to Use: It offers a user-friendly interface, which means you can create your forms quickly and easily without any coding knowledge.
- Customizable: Gravity Forms allows you to customize your forms’ fields, labels, and notifications, which can help you match your brand’s look and feel.
- Integrations: Gravity Forms integrates with various popular tools and services, such as Mailchimp, PayPal, and Stripe.
- Spam Protection: Gravity Forms includes built-in spam protection features – reCAPTCHA and honeypot fields – which can help prevent your forms from being filled out by bots or spammy submissions.
Cons:
- Price: Gravity Forms can be a bit expensive, especially if you need to use it on multiple websites or if you need access to all the plugin’s features.
- Learning Curve: Although Gravity Forms is easy to use, learning its features and capabilities can take some time.
- Limited Design Options: Gravity Forms’ design options are limited, so it may not be the best choice if you need highly customized or complex forms. However, the plugin does allow you to add custom CSS, which can help you achieve more advanced designs.
- No Free Version: Gravity Forms does not offer a free version, meaning you will need to pay for the plugin if you want to use it on your website. However, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee, which can give you some peace of mind.
How Much Does Gravity Forms Cost?
Gravity Forms offers different pricing plans depending on the features you need and the number of sites you want to use it on. Below are the pricing options offered:
- Basic: $59 per year for use on one site and basic features such as form creation, basic fields, and email notifications.
- Pro: $159 per year for use on three sites and additional features such as conditional logic, file uploads, and multi-page forms.
- Elite: $259 per year for use on unlimited sites and advanced features such as PayPal and Stripe integrations, survey fields, and user registration.
It’s worth noting that these prices may change, and Gravity Forms occasionally offers discounts and promotions.
Add-Ons
There are also several add-ons and integrations available that can extend its capabilities. Some of the most popular Gravity Forms add-ons and integrations include:
- PayPal Add-On: This allows you to integrate PayPal with your forms so that users can make payments directly from your website.
- MailChimp Add-On: This enables you to connect your forms to your MailChimp account so that you can automatically add new subscribers to your email list.
- Stripe Add-On: This allows you to accept credit card payments directly on your forms without needing a separate payment gateway.
- Zapier Add-On: This lets you connect your forms to hundreds of other web applications, allowing you to automate tasks and streamline your workflow.
- Survey Add-On: This provides a range of advanced survey features, such as conditional logic, multi-page surveys, and custom scoring.
- Quiz Add-On: This lets you create quizzes and assessments – complete with scoring and feedback functionality.
- Signature Add-On: You can add signature fields to your forms so users can sign documents or agreements online.
- Advanced Post Creation Add-On: This lets you create posts, pages, or custom post types directly from your forms, allowing you to automate content creation on your website.
These are just a few examples of the many add-ons and integrations available for Gravity Forms. By using these tools, you can customize your forms to meet your specific needs and take advantage of a range of powerful features to enhance your website’s functionality.
How Does It Match Up to Its Competitors?
While Gravity Forms is a popular WordPress plugin, it has competitors in the market that offer similar features and functions. Below we’ll look at some of the top Gravity Forms competitors and compare their pricing, features, and support to help you decide which option is best suited for your business website and needs.
WPForms
WPForms is a popular WordPress plugin that allows users to create drag-and-drop forms quickly and easily. It offers a user-friendly interface, pre-built form templates, and advanced features such as conditional logic, payment integration, and multi-page forms.
Pricing for WPForms starts at $79.50/year for the Basic plan, which includes all essential features, and goes up to $399.50/year for the Elite plan, which offers advanced features such as priority support, surveys, and polls.
Formidable Forms
Formidable Forms is another popular WordPress plugin that offers advanced form-building features, such as conditional logic, multi-page forms, and file uploads. It also provides pre-built templates and integrations with popular email marketing services and payment gateways.
Pricing for Formidable Forms starts at $49.50/year for the Basic plan, which includes all essential features. It goes up to $399.50/year for the Elite plan, which offers additional features such as priority support, surveys, and polls.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is a popular WordPress form plugin that allows users to create complex forms with drag-and-drop functionality. It offers pre-built templates, conditional logic, and multi-page forms.
The plugin has a free version with basic features, but more advanced features, such as payment integration and file uploads, are only available in the paid version.
Pricing for Ninja Forms starts at $99/year for the Personal plan, which includes all essential features, and goes up to $499/year for the Agency plan, which offers additional features such as priority support and client management tools.
Typeform
Typeform is a form builder that allows users to create conversational forms that feel more like a conversation than a traditional form. It offers pre-built templates, conditional logic, and advanced features such as payment integration, file uploads, and analytics.
Pricing for Typeform starts at $35/month for the Basic plan, which includes all essential features, and goes up to $70/month for the Pro plan, which offers additional features such as priority support, advanced reporting, and integrations with popular marketing tools.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, WPForms, and Formidable Forms offer the cheapest plans, while Typeform is the most expensive. Basic Gravity Forms is only $10 – $20 more but comes packed with more free add-ons – integrations to link your form submissions to powerful marketing campaign systems like MailChimp, Constant Contact, ActiveCampaign, Hubspot, and more.
Gravity Forms also has better-advanced controls for what happens when forms are submitted. Lastly, if you’re a developer looking for a form solution that is easily extendable, then Gravity Forms offers a wide range of action hooks and filters to tie in to.
Features
In terms of features, all of the competitors offer similar features, such as pre-built templates, conditional logic, payment integration, and the types of fields available. Each solution has its own unique item right out of the box that the others do not. For example, Ninja Forms offers PDF generation from form entries, while Gravity Forms does not. That being said, a free 3rd party PDF add-on offers this feature for Gravity Forms.
Features missing from Gravity Forms are generally available from third-party developers for free in the WordPress Plugin Repository or sometimes as paid add-ons. This shows where Gravity Forms really outshines its competitors: it provides a much larger number of free add-ons out of the box and an extensive 3rd party library of add-ons extending its features.
Support
When it comes to support, all of the competitors offer extensive documentation, tutorials, and a knowledge base. However, only Gravity Forms, WPForms, and Formidable Forms offer priority support in their higher-tier plans, which can be helpful for businesses that need immediate assistance.
Ultimately, the best form option for your website will depend on your specific needs and budget. WPForms and Formidable Forms are great options for businesses on a tight budget, while Typeform offers unique features for businesses that want a more conversational form experience. For businesses that need more advanced features, such as file uploads and client management tools, Formidable Forms, Ninja Forms, and Gravity Forms are the best options.
Gravity Forms is the best option for developers who want to integrate a form system with a custom third-party API. Gravity Forms is fully documented and provides a large number of examples of how to extend functionality and integrate form submissions into other applications.
How to Use Gravity Forms
Using Gravity Forms is relatively straightforward. In our review of Gravity Forms, we mapped out the four basic steps to create a form using this premium WordPress plugin.
Install the plugin
Gravity Forms must be uploaded to your server as a premium plugin. Once you’ve purchased the plugin, you can download the plugin from the official website. From the “Add Plugins” screen, use the “Upload Plugin” feature. Make sure to upload the .zip file you downloaded.
Create a new form
Once the plugin is installed, you can create a new form by going to Forms > New Form. You can choose a pre-built template or start from scratch.
Add fields
You can add fields to your form by dragging and dropping them from the right-hand panel. Gravity Forms offers various fields, including text, email, checkboxes, and more.
Customize your form
You can customize your form by changing the field labels, adding notifications, and configuring the form’s settings.
Embed your form
Once your form is ready, you can embed it on your website by clicking the “Add Gravity Form” button on the editing screen or copying the form’s shortcode and pasting it into a page or post.
Getting Started with Gravity Forms
In our Gravity Forms review, we’ve covered the benefits, pros & cons, pricing, and more to ensure you’re confident in choosing the best form plugin for your website. As a premium WordPress form plugin, it can help you create custom forms quickly and easily while offering a user-friendly interface, various customization options, and integration with popular tools and services. It’s a useful tool to help drive user engagement, gather data, and boost your business.
However, while it’s a simple plugin to use, having experts on hand can ensure you’re designing the right forms for your business – especially if you don’t have experience. If you’re new to this plugin and need assistance, we highly recommend connecting with a trusted website development company with Gravity Forms experience, like Oyova. We can guide you on the right approach, provide the proper aesthetic, get the data flowing to the right people – and grow your business. Contact us today to learn more!
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