Contact Form 7

by Jan 5, 2018Wordpress Plugins, Contact Form Plugins

Contact form 7 Plugin

Contact Form 7 is essentially considered the grandaddy of WordPress contact forms. It is a rock solid plugin that is working correctly on thousands of sites with no problem.  Contact form 7 is relatively easy to install and configure, and for a basic form that just works, this is a solid choice.

How long has it been out? Out since January 2010 – Long track record.

How many installs? Contact Form 7 has over 1+ Million installs

Quality of support? They have a FAQ Page which provides answers to any questions that you may have about the plugin. There are also Contact form 7 tutorials and screen shots on how to use the plug in. If you run into any problems they also offer a support form through WordPress and they are very active in answering questions.

Dedicated support site?

They have a dedicated site at https://contactform7.com

Do you have to pay for it?

Contact Form 7 is a free plug in but they do take donations.

Support Fourm active?
Very active support forum which has questions that were answered within hours

How many add ons? 50+ addons and 2 recommended Plugins called Flamingo and BOGO .  This is important because it allows the plugin to be extended for more than just the base configuration.  It also shows that alot of other developers and companies want to keep this plugin going strong.

Recaptca or Honeypot support without plugin? 

This Plugin Offers a Recaptcha Code; it can give you honeypot support but you must install an additional plug in that works with contact form 7.

How easy is it to make a simple form ? 

Contact Form 7 comes with a pre-made form ready to use.  Even a relative beginner can get a basic contact form done within minutes of install. (screenshots below)

 

Contact form 7 config options.

A view of Contact Form 7’s tag system. You can add or delete items here or use the buttons above the box to insert fields.

Graphical Interface or Code?
Contact Form 7 has it’s own tag system that is similar to html, this isn’t the easiest for beginners, but you can add a graphical interface using plugins that extend it’s functionality.

Does it save form entries in a database without an extra plugin?

 It does not save form entries in a database but it does send all entries to the email that you set it up with in settings. To save form entries in a database you must install a plugin that works with contact form 7

How easy is it to style the form? 

To style a form in contact form 7 you must use html and css; it also comes with a few code options to add to the form as well such as add a quiz, recaptcha, drop-down menu, etc.

How hard is it to do a complex form? 

To set up a complex form for contact form 7 you must either put custom code in html & css or download an additional plug in that will allow those features.  Conditional Codes, etc, aren’t supported out of the box.

Compatible with most themes and page builders?

Contact form 7 is compatible with most properly designed themes and page builders.

Conclusion

Contact form 7 is a great choice for BASIC forms.  It’s weakness is that in order to have any level of complexity to your forms, you have to rely on additional plugins.  That isn’t necessary the best thing for your site – generally the fewer plugins you can have the better.

Additionally if you aren’t a coder, and not interested in being one, you may not want to work with Contact Form 7’s html interface.

We give this plugin 4 stars for the following reasons:

Pros

  • Been around forever, great track record
  • Easy to create a basic form
  • Large ecosystem of supporting plugins

Cons

  • HTML needed to create more complex forms
  • Need to add additional plugins to extend functionality
  • Form entries not saved so you can’t go back and view submissions in case the email is lost or deleted.

You can see Contact Form 7 extensions here.


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