Fluent Forms vs Gravity Forms vs WPForms vs Contact Form 7: Which WordPress Form Builder Should You Use?

If you are weighing Fluent Forms vs Gravity Forms, look at WPForms and Contact Form 7 too. For most small business sites, the choice comes down to Fluent Forms or WPForms: both are drag-and-drop builders that cover saved entries, payments and multi-step forms. Gravity Forms suits complex forms that feed other systems, and Contact Form 7 suits a plain contact form at no cost. Out of the box, Fluent Forms has the most capable free version: it saves entries in WordPress and includes conditional logic and conversational forms.

Prices below are at the time of writing (October 2026), in US dollars, for one site unless noted.

How do Fluent Forms, Gravity Forms, WPForms and Contact Form 7 compare?

The biggest differences are what the free version saves, which plan each feature sits in, and how much you add yourself.

	Fluent Forms	Gravity Forms	WPForms	Contact Form 7
Free version	Yes	No (online demo only)	Yes (WPForms Lite)	Yes, and no paid version
Saves entries in WordPress	Free version	Every license	Basic plan and up (Lite emails them)	With the free Flamingo plugin
Cheapest paid plan	Pro, $79 a year	Basic, $59 a year	Basic, $49.50 first year, then $99	None
Conditional logic	Free version	Every license	Basic and up	Free add-on
Multi-step forms	Pro	Every license	Basic and up	Add-on
Conversational forms	Free version	Elite license	Pro and up	Not built in
Stripe payments	Free with a 1.9% fee; Pro removes it	Pro license and up	Lite with a 3% fee; Pro removes it	Built in, no added fee
Spam tools	Honeypot, Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Akismet, CleanTalk	Honeypot; Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, Akismet add-ons	Built-in checks, Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Akismet	Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, Akismet, disallowed list

Fluent Forms vs Gravity Forms: which is better?

Fluent Forms gives you more for free and costs less once you need payments or conversational forms; Gravity Forms puts its core features in every license and has a large official add-on library.

Beyond saved entries, conditional logic and conversational forms, Fluent Forms' free version takes Stripe payments with a 1.9% fee. Pro costs $79 a year for one site (the pricing page showed a first-year discount to $63), $159 for five sites and $299 for unlimited sites, or from $349 once for a lifetime license. Pro adds multi-step forms, file uploads, calculations, PayPal, Square and other gateways, and over 60 integrations, and removes the fee.

Gravity Forms has no free version or trial, only an online demo and a 30-day refund window. Basic is $59 a year for one site and includes conditional logic, multi-page forms, calculations, file uploads and email marketing add-ons. Stripe, PayPal Checkout and Square need the Pro license ($159 a year, three sites). Conversational forms, user registration, signatures and surveys need Elite ($259 a year, unlimited sites).

If a license lapses, Gravity Forms says your forms keep working, but updates (including security fixes) and support stop.

WPForms vs Gravity Forms: which should you choose?

WPForms is designed for beginners, with a large template library; Gravity Forms costs less to renew, especially once you need payments.

WPForms Lite is free and handles email notifications, spam protection and Stripe payments (with a 3% fee on each payment). It emails entries rather than saving them in WordPress; its Lite Connect feature keeps an encrypted copy on WPForms' servers for one year and restores it if you upgrade. Lite also leaves out conditional logic, multi-page forms and file uploads.

First-year prices are introductory; WPForms renews at full price:

• Basic: $49.50 the first year, then $99, one site. Adds saved entries, conditional logic, file uploads and multi-page forms.
• Plus: $99.50, then $199, three sites. Adds email marketing integrations.
• Pro: $199.50, then $399, five sites. Adds Stripe, Square and PayPal with no 3% fee, conversational forms, surveys, signatures and save-and-resume.
• Elite: $299.50, then $599, unlimited sites. Adds CRM integrations such as Salesforce and HubSpot, and webhooks.

WPForms also says the 3% fee returns if your license becomes inactive.

Contact Form 7 vs WPForms: is the free option enough?

Contact Form 7 is enough for a simple contact form if someone on your side is comfortable with a text-based editor and CSS; WPForms Lite is easier to use but does not save entries in WordPress.

Contact Form 7 is active on more than 10 million sites and has no paid version. You build forms by typing short tags into a text box rather than dragging fields, and its documentation says it provides no styling settings, so the look comes from CSS in your theme. By default it writes no personal data to your database and sets no cookies.

That also means it does not save messages. Flamingo, a free plugin from the same developer, stores them in WordPress. Conditional logic comes from Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7, a free plugin by an independent developer whose paid Pro version adds multi-step forms. Stripe payments are built in, with no added fee. Each add-on is one more plugin to keep updated.

Which form builders offer conversational and multi-step forms?

Fluent Forms includes conversational forms in its free version, WPForms has them from the Pro plan, Gravity Forms in its Elite license, and Contact Form 7 does not have them built in.

A conversational form shows one question at a time, like a chat, which suits phones and longer questionnaires. Multi-step forms, which split a long form into pages, come with every Gravity Forms license, WPForms Basic and up, Fluent Forms Pro, and an add-on for Contact Form 7.

How do the form builders stop spam?

All four connect to Cloudflare Turnstile, Google reCAPTCHA and Akismet, and each has its own first line of defense.

• Fluent Forms: a honeypot (a hidden field only bots fill in), plus hCaptcha and CleanTalk.
• Gravity Forms: an Advanced Honeypot you switch on per form; the spam add-ons come with every license.
• WPForms: built-in anti-spam checks that run behind the scenes, on by default, plus hCaptcha.
• Contact Form 7: a disallowed list of words and IP addresses.

Turnstile is free and usually shows visitors no puzzle. Akismet's free plan does not cover business sites; our spam protection comparison covers the paid options.

Why are my WordPress form emails not arriving?

Usually the cause is how WordPress sends mail, not the form plugin. All four hand notifications to WordPress, which by default sends them with the server's PHP mail, and many hosts are not set up to add the authentication inbox providers check for. Messages then land in spam or disappear.

The fix is an SMTP plugin connected to a proper email service. Two free options work with any form plugin: WP Mail SMTP (from the WPForms team) and FluentSMTP (from the makers of Fluent Forms, free with no paid version).

The second safeguard is saving entries in WordPress, so a lost email is not a lost lead. Fluent Forms, Gravity Forms and paid WPForms do this; Contact Form 7 needs Flamingo, and WPForms Lite only has its Lite Connect backup.

Which form builder is best for accessibility and speed?

Gravity Forms is the most explicit about accessibility: version 3.0 (July 2026) turns its accessible settings on by default for every new form, aimed at WCAG 2.1 AA. Fluent Forms describes its forms as accessible, and Contact Form 7 marks required and invalid fields for screen readers.

No plugin makes a form compliant on its own. Gravity Forms says so directly, and WPForms' terms make site owners responsible for WCAG compliance. Clear visible labels, readable contrast and plain error messages matter as much as the plugin.

No vendor publishes like-for-like speed measurements. Fluent Forms says a standard form loads under 30KB of CSS and JavaScript. Contact Form 7's documentation says it loads its script and stylesheet on every page by default. A reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha check adds its own script, so test pages with forms.

What does each form builder cost over three years?

If prices stay as they are, three years for one business site costs:

• Saved entries and conditional logic: Contact Form 7 with Flamingo and Conditional Fields, $0. Fluent Forms free, $0. Gravity Forms Basic, $177. WPForms Basic, $247.50.
• Stripe payments with no added fee, plus multi-step forms: Fluent Forms Pro, $221 with the first-year discount ($237 without), or a $349 lifetime license. Gravity Forms Pro, $477 (covers three sites). WPForms Pro, $997.50 (covers five sites). Contact Form 7's Stripe module is free, but multi-step forms need an add-on such as the paid Conditional Fields Pro.

Stripe charges its own processing fees on top of every option.

Which WordPress form builder should you choose?

Choose by the forms you run and who will maintain them:

• Choose Fluent Forms if you want the most from a free version (saved entries, conditional logic, conversational forms) or paid features at a lower yearly price.
• Choose Gravity Forms if your forms feed other systems, such as user accounts, a CRM or posts created from submissions, or accessible defaults matter to you.
• Choose WPForms if you are new to WordPress and want a large template library and a builder designed for beginners, and the full-price renewals fit your budget.
• Choose Contact Form 7 if you need a plain contact form at no cost and someone can handle CSS and add-ons.

Whichever you choose, send yourself a test entry after every plugin or WordPress update and check that the email arrives. If you would rather hand that kind of upkeep to someone else, WP Resolve's care plans include weekly updates with visual checks, daily off-site backups, malware scanning and uptime monitoring, from $79 a month with no minimum term. Or start with a free site health check of your updates, backups, security and speed.

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