WPForms vs Gravity Forms 2023 – Which is the Best?

As two of the best WordPress drag-and-drop form builder plugins, WPForms vs Gravity Forms is a frequent debate among website owners.

Both plugins can make a legitimate case for the best form builder WordPress plugin. For the veteran online marketer, it could be hard deciding which plugin to choose for web form needs. Since both form builder plugins offered advanced features that let you create any type of web form.

However, if you’re on the fence waiting to decide which WordPress contact form plugin is right for you, this article provides the answers to your questions.

Gravity Forms vs WPForms Review

In this best form builder comparison post, I’ll help you break down the core differences between the two WordPress form builders. What makes one better than the other for your WordPress site?

Pricing is another thing to consider since both plugins are priced differently and have unique features.

But first, let’s start with the basics…

Availability of Free Plugins

For many WordPress plugins dev, having a freemium version helps build awareness, downloads, and user base, and subsequently, increase paying customers.

But a few WordPress plugins do not have a free version, let’s see how both plugins play in this area…

WPForms

In terms of the freemium version of its plugin, WPForms is generous in this regard. For beginners with limited needs for web forms, the free version of WPForms is enough to serve your needs.

You have access to twenty-one pre-built templates and eight form fields. So, you can get started with creating your form in minutes.

The WPForms lite version is available for download at the WordPress.org plugins repository.

Gravity Forms

Unlike many of its competitors, Gravity Forms does not offer a free version of its plugin. You have to buy the basic plan to see how the plugin work.

To put it straight, Gravity Forms is a premium WordPress contact form plugin. Sorry, no free lunch here, you’ll have to buy yourself a snack.

But there is a 7-day free demo account to try the premium features. No credit card is required.

The demo account allows you to assess Gravity forms features to see if it’s the right web form builder for you.

You can access the demo account from this link.

Pre-Built Forms Templates

Reinventing the wheel or starting from nothing could be time-consuming and draining. Having a working template to build upon could lead to success quickly, save time, and more productivity.

Especially if you have one from a proven track record and people who have been successful in your field.

WPForms

With hundreds of pre-built form templates, WPForms has you covered. You can build any type of web form quickly.

You can customize each of these templates to fit your brand identity and message. The form builder panel makes it easy to edit any part of the form field and customize it to fit your business needs.

WPForms has done an excellent job in this regard. It makes it easy to build any type of web form without having coding knowledge.

All you need to do is to select the right form template, customize it, make it yours, and run with it.

You have guides for all kinds of web forms in most industries. According to the figure on the website, WPForms has over three hundred templates.

Here are a couple of web forms available in WPForms:

When you use any of these templates, you can import with one click. Add or remove a form filed, customize it, and add conditional logic with smart tags.

Also, you can customize the notification settings, and form submission button, and publish your form without writing a code.

If you like to test your creativity, you can start with a blank screen and build your web form from scratch.

For a list of all the WPForms available templates, check out this page.

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms also has some excellent pre-built form templates you can run with and make yours. But in terms of quantity, it cannot rival the likes of WPForms.

At the time of writing, there are thirteen, when you compare this number to what’s available in WPForms, it’s obvious that Gravity Forms lost the fight here.

Another thing to consider is that you cannot access the template directly from your user dashboard. You need to download the JSON file to your computer and upload it before you can use it.

With WPForms, they are readily available through your WPForms dashboard.

For Gravity Forms, here are the thirteen pre-made contact form templates now.

• Donation Form
• Contest Entry Forms
• Gift Certificate
• Webinar Registration
• Newsletter Signup
• Advanced Contact us
• Request a Quote
• Employment Application
• User Registration
• Survey
• Ecommerce web form
• Event Registration

If you’re creating a web form outside of these templates, you need to start with the blank canvas. Drag and drop form filed onto the area.

How Easy is it to Create Web Forms?

One of the primary reasons for buying a WordPress contact form plugin is to make it effortlessly easy to create your web forms. Part of the plugin’s job is to simplify the process and make it easy to publish your forms.

So, in this WPForms vs Gravity Forms, we will look at the user experience when creating a form. How easy is it to create and publish your forms?

We will look at things such as the user interface, design process, and overall experience.

As someone who has first-hand experience with both contact form plugins, I would say WPForms is easier to use for beginners. But don’t just take me for it, let’s explore the steps.

Note: To read more about WPForms, read my extensive review here.

WPForms

First, the WPForms user interface is a modern one that combines simplicity with ease of use. If you’re a first-time user, you won’t find it hard to navigate through the form builder panel.

When creating a form, the first thing you will see in the form template options. Here, you’re required to select the prebuilt form option to get ahead quickly.

What’s available will vary depending on your WPForms license. But for most WPForms plans, there are over 150 packs you can choose from.

However, the basic plan doesn’t give you access to the payment forms. If you need the features of the payment, you either go for the Pro or Elite plan.

Let’s see how you can create a web form in WPForms.

On the options page, select the template best suitable for your web forms and give your form a name. From here you’ll be launched to the form builder panel.

Here you’ll see the settings option on the left and the form preview panel on the right.

Like Gravity Forms, to edit a form field, click on it to open its settings on the left side menu. This is where you can configure form settings like conditional logic, label, and form level settings.

To add a new form field, or re-arrange the existing one, move the required field from the left panel to your form field.

The settings tab allows you to configure confirmation messages and notifications. But you can do more here, depending on the add-ons in your account.

And you can also disable notifications if you don’t want to get disturbed. But I don’t see why you’d want to do that.

For the Pro account and above, you can set up conditional logic for email notifications and different messages based on the situation.

WPForms integrates with lots of services and tools.

In the marketing tab, you have a list of email services and customer relationship management (CRM) you can integrate.

If you can’t find your service on the list, use the all-catch Zapier integration. Alternatively, you can reach out to WPForms suggesting your service provider’s inclusion on the list.

Depending on your WPForms license, the payment tab allows you to integrate with the following payment gateways – PayPal Standard, Stripe, Authorize.net, and Square.

Once you’re done configuring your web forms, it’s time to publish it.

To publish your form, you can use an embed shortcode or the dedicated Gutenberg block editor. Either way works fine.

Here is how to publish your web form using the dedicated Gutenberg block editor:

To manage form entries, navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard and hover your mouse on WPForms, and click “Entries”. There you will see a list of your web form entries from users.

This is also one of the Pro license features in WPForms. Users on the Lite version can’t see their form entry info.

If you want to use the full features of WPForms, upgrade to a Pro version.

Gravity Forms

When you first log into your Gravity Forms dashboard, you only see a blank screen and a setting panel by the right.

Unlike WPForms, Gravity Forms do not include pre-built templates in the user dashboard. You have two choices here, you either start with a blank screen or download the pre-built form in JSON file to your computer.

Here are a typical Gravity Forms user dashboard (Gravity Forms 2.5)

However, to download the JSON file, click on the “import/export” link from the admin menu on the left. And choose the template you want. Or, rather, you can just download everything to save for future use.

Next, use the import feature to upload the JSON file to your Gravity Forms dashboard. Not a complex process but not as beginner-friendly as with WPForms.

Now, you can begin editing to fit your requirements.

To edit any form filed, click on it to open its setting on the right. This will allow you to edit and configure basic settings like label and validation rules.

You can enable conditional logic to set the rules for the form behavior based on user selection. When enabled, you get a slide-out panel to configure the rules.

If you’re happy with your form layout and field, the next is to go over the setting page to further fine-tune the form-level setting.

What you see here will depend on your installed addons.

But there are four settings to configure. Here you can configure basic form-level settings such as button text, form restriction, security, and form layout.

In the restriction section, you can define the form entry number. Required users to log in before they can use the web form. And schedule form visibility on the front end.

In the confirmation area, you can configure the confirmation message user sees after form submission. Here you can also use conditional logic to create different messages based on user input.

There are lots of settings you can play with here, it depends on the available addons in your plan. Based on the add-ons, you will see a list of settings on the left side panel.

One important setting not to ignore is the personal setting tab.

On this page, you can set the user data your form collects and stores. This is good to comply with the existing GDPR privacy policy law.

If you’re satisfied with your form, you can embed it with a shortcode or use the dedicated Gutenberg block.

Now your form is live on the blog for use.

As you receive entries from your web forms, you can view the submission on your WordPress admin dashboard.

Add-ons

As a small business owner, you use lots of tools and services to grow your business. Some of these services include email marketing, payment services, customer support, CRM, analytics, etc.

For example, WPForms allows you to add leads to your Getresponse email list from your web forms.

Both WordPress plugins have an extensive list of native add-ons to add more functionalities to your web forms.

You will find lots of native add-ons to integrate with your web forms based on your business needs. But in this aspect, Gravity forms are ahead of WPForms.

There is an extensive list of native add-ons on the Gravity forms features page than you see on WPForms.

Let’s explore this list.

WPForms

The available add-ons in your WPForms account will depend on the license you purchase. For a list of available add-ons, I suggest you see the WPForms add-on feature page.

But let’s briefly walk through what’s in each WPForms license.

The Basic license does not offer such value in terms of available add-ons. You only have access to the multi-page addon, conditional logic, custom CAPTCHA, and constant contact form add-on.

In the WPForms Plus license, you have access to email services providers add-ons such as Getresponse, Aweber, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, and Drip Forms.

The WPForms Pro license is where you have access to payment processor features like PayPal, Stripe, and Square. You also have add-on features like offline forms, form abandonment, signature, Zapier, save and resume, geolocation, etc.

The WPForms Elite license gives you full access to all the features and add-ons.

You can integrate with Authorize.net payment gateway, webhooks, salesforce, Hubspot CRM, and ActiveCampaign forms. Also, the WPForms save and continue feature is available in the Elite plan.

Gravity forms

Gravity forms have a more extensive list of add-ons you can integrate with your web forms.

While both WordPress form builders integrate with the most popular payment gateways, Gravity forms go the extra mile to connect with 2checkout.

Gravity Forms Basic License gives you access to email marketing services such as Getresponse, Madmini, Mailgun, HubSpot, iContact, Postmark, reCAPTCHA, and Sendgrid.

The Pro License offers more add-ons such as Breeze, Trello, Slack, Pipe Video recording, Capsule CRM, Freshbook, Helpscout, Zoho CRM, etc.

It also gives you access to Payment add-ons – PayPal Checkout, Square, and Stripe,

The Gravity Forms Elite license gives you full access to all the add-ons and form features.

In addition to all the payment processors available in the Pro license, you can integrate with 2checkout and Authorize.net.

For a full list of Gravity form add-ons, see this page.

Integrations With Third-Party Services

Gravity forms and WPForms are exceptionally good at what they do, but obviously, they can’t provide customers with everything they need.

That’s impossible for any business or organization to do.

This is where integration with third-party services comes into play.

Personally, I will agree that both WPForms and Gravity forms need to do more in this area. They need to encourage developers to contribute to the functionalities of their web forms.

However, based on what’s on the ground today, Gravity forms have a slight edge over WPForms.

There are a couple of third-party extensions to further integrate with your Gravity forms. Though many of them are built by the Rocketgenuis staff which is quite understandable.

If you search through WordPress.org, you will find a few WPForms third-party extensions. These are plugins created by other Dev to bring more features to your WPForms.

For example, this plugin add-on lets you style your contact forms created with WPForms. It brings beauty to your form.

You can design stylish webforms with it. Change background color, button color, add images, radios, border, font size, font family, etc.

On the other hand, Gravity forms have a page on the website for third-party extensions as well as on the WordPress.org

You will find lots of extensions created by other dev to work with the plugin. For a quick view, here are some I find helpful.

Gravity Forms Constant Contact – Add leads to your list when users submit a form.

Event Tracking For Gravity Forms – Track events with Google Analytics. The plugins support GA4 and GTM (Google tag manager).

WPForms vs Gravity forms Pricing

When it comes to pricing, there a several options you need to investigate before making the choice.

And you have to put your option against your business needs to make the right decision. For example, do you want to create a conversational form, add spam protection, file uploads, etc

WPForms have forever free options for those with a simple contact form need. It comes with limited form features.

If all you need is a simple contact us form with email, website, name, and text area field, WPForms has the edge.

However, for the premium version of Gravity forms and WPForms, there’s the need to think it through before buying.

Let’s walk through some of the options…

WPForms

There are four standard plans or licenses on the WPForms website. Each plan comes with unique features that separate it from the other.

Here they are:

• Basic – $39.50
• Plus – $99.50
• Pro – $199.50
• Elite – $299.50

Basic License – The WPForms basic license priced at $39 for the first year gives you access to premium basic features like conditional logic, file upload, multi-page form, etc.

Plus License – In the WPForms plus license, priced at $59 the first year, you have access to more premium form features like Captcha spam protection.

Pro License – In this plan, which is priced at $199 for the first year, you have access to premium features like Zapier integration, payment gateways, conversational form, offline form, signature, and more.

Elite License – Priced at $299 the first year, it gives you access to every WPForms feature and additional tools like Salesforce integration, HubSpot form, webhooks, Authorise.net, and active campaign form.

Note, all the price above is for promotional sales and comes at a 50% discount. If you choose to renew for the second year, you’ll pay the regular price.

Here are the full WPForms pricing details.

Gravity forms

Gravity forms offer three pricing plans. Each plan has what makes it different from the others.

For example, the Gravity forms Basic plan can be used on one website only. The Pro license allows the use of up to three websites. While the Elite license gives you the unlimited installation of Gravity forms on any WordPress blog.

• Basic – $59/year
• Pro – $159/year
• Elite – $269/year

Here is a brief breakdown of what’s available in each license.

Basic License – You pay $59 per year and get access to basic web form features like conditional logic, multi-page form, automatic updates, file upload, and standard Gravity forms customer support services.

You also have access to email services and CRM to collect leads.

Pro License – The Pro License costs $159 per year, used on three websites.

You have access to more advanced features like PayPal checkout, Stripe payment, dropbox, Zapier integration, Slack, CRM, and more.

Elite License – This is the Gravity forms top-tier license that gives access to unlimited website use. It costs $159 per year.

You have access to Features such as webhooks, Authorise.net payment gateway, 2checkout, Quiz, Poll, signature, etc.

Unlike WPForms, the Gravity forms price above is the same as the renewal. If you decide to renew your Gravity forms license for the second year, you’ll pay the same entry-level price.

When you look at the pricing from what’s available in the starter plans, WPForms seems a bit cheaper in the first year. But if you choose to renew your license, Gravity forms are cheaper than WPForms.

To have the same features offered by Gravity forms basic license in WPForms, you have to purchase the WPForms Plus license which is a bit costlier.

If email marketing is one of the reasons, you’re deciding between WPForms and Gravity forms, Gravity forms win here.

WPForms’ basic license only offered constant contact integration. If you want to integrate with other marketing services, you need the WPForms Plus license.

Money-Back Guarantee Policy

Sometimes, for unknown reasons, no matter how good it is, the product won’t just fit in.

You need to be sure that if by any means you don’t like the product, it does not work for you, or is not exactly what you’re looking for…you can get your money back.

How do WPForms and Gravity Forms manage customers’ refund requests? What sort of refund policy do they offer?

Let’s find out…

WPForms

No question asked 14-days money-back guarantee policy. WPForms offers a 100% full refund within the first 14 days of your purchases.

To request a refund, go to the WPForms support page and choose my account from the options. Describe the reasons or nature of your request and submit it.

Thereafter, a support rep will respond to your request with the steps to get your money back.

Gravity Forms

There is a 30-day refund policy window. You can request a full refund for a new purchase, renewal, or upgrade account.

So, you have a full 30 days to try out Gravity Forms if it’s the perfect WordPress form builder for your business.

You have nothing to lose but all to gain.

However, when requesting a refund for upgrade accounts outside of the 30days window, only the upgrade fee will be returned.

Refund requests are processed within seven business days.

Conclusion…WPForms vs Gravity Forms

All being said, choosing between the two WordPress form builders depends on your business needs. Therefore, you have to carefully look at the available features in each plugin before making a buying decision.

If your need for a WordPress contact form is basic, I suggest you opt for WPForms. For a simple contact us form, the WPForms Lite plugin is enough.

But if your business requirements include advanced features like payment gateways, user selection, surveys, polls, etc. Both Gravity Forms and WPForms are exceptionally good options to try.

The one you take will depend on the budget, features, and ease of use.