Contact Form 7: WordPress Plugin Tutorial

FreeLesson 1 of 4 · Installing CF7 & Understanding the Markup Approach · 3:40Continue with lesson 2 →

Contact Form 7 is the original, free WordPress contact-form plugin, powering millions of sites with a simple text-based approach to building forms. This course gets you oriented with the plugin's markup style, then covers building a form, wiring up its email, and protecting it from spam. By the end you'll have a working contact form you fully understand. Every lesson was recorded on a clean WordPress 7.1 install with Contact Form 7 6.1, so the screens match what you'll see today.

What you'll learn

A reliable contact form is one of the first things almost every website needs, and Contact Form 7 remains a lightweight, flexible standard you'll meet on countless sites. Learning how to use Contact Form 7 means you can build and maintain forms with its tag-based markup instead of leaning on a heavier drag-and-drop builder. You'll be able to create the fields you need and place them exactly where you want them, customise the email your site sends, embed the form with the block or the shortcode, send a test message and see it stored by the free Flamingo add-on, and add spam protection. If you look after sites other people built, this is very often the form plugin you'll find waiting.

Inside the course

• Installing CF7 & Understanding the Markup Approach
• The Form Tab: Building with Tags
• Mail, Messages & Embedding
• Spam Protection, Integrations & Maintenance

Who this course is for

This suits beginners and site maintainers who prefer a small, dependable form tool and don't mind a little markup. No real coding is required — the tags are straightforward once you've seen them. If you'd rather drag and drop fields visually, a builder-style plugin may suit you better.

Frequently asked questions