Contact Form 7 vs Formidable Forms
Updated 5 Oct 2026. 36 features compared side by side.
Free, lightweight WordPress contact form plugin with a tag-based editor, Stripe, reCAPTCHA and Turnstile built in and a large third-party add-on ecosystem.
Drag-and-drop WordPress form builder with a visual styler, calculators, quizzes and Views for turning entries into directories and listings.
Choose Contact Form 7 if…
- You prefer the more widely used option
Choose Formidable Forms if…
- You need drag & drop builder and conditional logic
- You also want multi-step forms and calculations
- You want the more complete feature set (98/100 vs 40/100)
- You weigh user ratings (4.8 vs 4.0 on WordPress.org)
Formidable Forms has 27 that Contact Form 7 lacks, including Drag & drop builder, Multi-step forms and Conditional logic. Both include 9 of the 36 features we track.
At a glance
Feature comparison
Click a screenshot to see both plugins side by side.
Contact Form 7 Formidable FormsBuilding1/1414/14
Forms are built by typing form tags in a text editor.
Drag-and-drop builder in the free plugin.
Via third-party plugins such as Multi-Step Forms for Contact Form 7.
Multi-page forms with progress bars on all paid plans.
Via the third-party Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 plugin.
Show/hide logic is a paid feature from the Basic plan.
Not in core; Conditional Fields Pro (third-party) adds calculated fields.
Lite handles basic calculations; advanced math fields need a paid plan.
File upload tag with email attachment support.
File upload field is included in all paid plans, not Lite.
Repeaters come from the paid Conditional Fields Pro add-on.
Repeater fields included from the Basic plan.
Only a default contact form; no template library.
30+ templates free; full library of 300+ on Business and above.
No save-and-continue feature in core.
Drafts for logged-in users on all plans; logged-out drafts need Business.
No one-question-at-a-time mode.
One-question-at-a-time forms from the Business plan.
Third-party signature add-on exists but is no longer maintained.
Digital signature add-on included in Business and Elite.
The quiz tag is an anti-spam question, not a scored quiz.
Scored and personality quizzes on Business and above.
No survey or poll functionality.
Surveys and polls with charts on Business and above.
No styling interface; appearance follows the theme or custom CSS.
Visual styler for colours, fonts and spacing is available in Lite.
Third-party CF7 Apps plugin includes an AI form generator.
AI form generation with monthly credits from Business; more credits on Elite.
Payments1/44/4
Built-in Stripe integration for card payments.
Stripe in Lite with a 3% application fee; fee removed on Business+.
Via the third-party PayPal & Stripe Add-on.
PayPal Commerce works in Lite; 3% fee applies below Business.
No Square integration in core.
Square payments are included in the free Lite plugin.
Built-in Stripe module handles one-off payments only.
Subscriptions via Stripe, PayPal Commerce and Square, even in Lite (with fee).
Entries & workflow2/77/7
Free official Flamingo plugin stores submissions in the admin.
All submissions saved to the database with CSV export.
Configurable Mail plus optional second autoresponder email.
Email notifications and autoresponders in the free version.
Via third-party CF7 to Webhook or CF7 Apps plugins.
Formidable API add-on with webhooks from the Business plan.
Via third-party plugins such as User Registration Using Contact Form 7.
User registration add-on from the Business plan.
Via the third-party Post My CF7 Form plugin.
Front-end post creation included on all paid plans.
No abandoned-form capture.
Form abandonment tracking captures unfinished entries on Business+.
Via third-party plugins such as PDF Forms Filler for CF7.
Forms to PDF add-on on Business and Elite.
Integrations0/55/5
Core supports Brevo only; Mailchimp via third-party connectors.
Mailchimp add-on from the Plus plan.
Via the third-party CF7 to Webhook plugin.
Zapier add-on from the Business plan.
Via third-party connectors such as CF7 HubSpot.
HubSpot integration is Elite-only.
Via the third-party CF7 Google Sheets Connector.
Google Sheets add-on from the Business plan.
Via third-party connectors such as CRM Perks' Salesforce plugin.
Salesforce integration is Elite-only.
Spam & compliance3/44/4
Built-in reCAPTCHA v3 integration.
reCAPTCHA v2 checkbox, invisible and v3 in Lite.
Built-in Cloudflare Turnstile integration.
Cloudflare Turnstile supported in the free plugin.
No core honeypot; added by the third-party CF7 Apps plugin.
Invisible honeypot and JavaScript token checks built in.
Acceptance checkbox tag and no data stored by default; no export/erasure tools.
Consent fields, option to not store entries and IP tracking controls.
Developer2/22/2
Actions, filters, DOM events and REST endpoints for developers.
Hooks and filters free; REST API add-on needs Business.
Contact Form 7 block for the block editor.
Gutenberg block for embedding forms.
Statuses: Yes Pro Add-on Partial 3rd-party No ?
Pricing compared
Contact Form 7 Free
| Free | $0 |
|---|---|
| Free | Free lifetime, Unlimited |
Formidable Forms Freemium
| Free | $0 |
|---|---|
| Basic | $79 per year, 1 site |
| Plus | $199 per year, 3 sites |
| Business | $399 per year, 7 sites |
| Elite | $599 per year, Unlimited |
Downloads trend
Contact Form 7
2,091,736 downloads last week
Formidable Forms
37,463 downloads last week
Verdict
Formidable Forms scores higher on our feature checklist (98/100 against 40/100) and includes drag & drop builder, conditional logic and multi-step forms that Contact Form 7 does not. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.
Biggest differences
Contact Form 7: not included. Formidable Forms: included. Drag-and-drop builder in the free plugin.
Contact Form 7: third-party. Formidable Forms: paid version (Basic). Show/hide logic is a paid feature from the Basic plan.
Contact Form 7: third-party. Formidable Forms: paid version (Basic). Multi-page forms with progress bars on all paid plans.
Contact Form 7: third-party. Formidable Forms: partial. Lite handles basic calculations; advanced math fields need a paid plan.
Contact Form 7: not included. Formidable Forms: included. Visual styler for colours, fonts and spacing is available in Lite.
Contact Form 7: third-party. Formidable Forms: included. PayPal Commerce works in Lite; 3% fee applies below Business.
Written from the feature, pricing and install data on this page, not from hands-on testing. How we compare.
Which would you choose?
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FAQ
Which is better, Contact Form 7 or Formidable Forms?
Formidable Forms scores higher on our feature checklist (98/100 against 40/100) and includes drag & drop builder, conditional logic and multi-step forms that Contact Form 7 does not. Check the features you rely on in the table below before deciding.
Which has more features?
Formidable Forms includes 36 of the 36 features we track, against 9 for Contact Form 7. Feature count is only part of the picture; check which of the differences matter to you.
Is Contact Form 7 free?
Contact Form 7 has a free version on WordPress.org.
Is Formidable Forms free?
Formidable Forms has a free version on WordPress.org. Paid plans start at $79/yr.
Feature data last changed 5 Oct 2026. Spotted something wrong? Suggest an edit to Contact Form 7 or Formidable Forms. Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no cost to you; it never affects our data or rankings.