There are lots of ways you can use WordPress forms within a website. Forms are effective for growing a list of email subscribers, asking for product feedback, registering and booking an event, and accepting donations. And this list isn’t exclusive. This article will compare two of the best and most popular contact form plugins: Ninja Forms vs. WPForms.
The most feature-rich WordPress form plugins sail with many other usage possibilities. Ninja Forms and WPForms are two of the most frequently used form plugins. Both do a great job, so we have made a head-to-head comparison to help you decide which one fits you best.
Ninja Forms
Let’s kick off this article about Ninja Forms vs. WPForms with a presentation of Ninja Forms. Ninja Forms is a freemium form plugin trusted by millions of users. It has conquered the hearts of users with its drag-and-drop form builder. Even non-coders can use this form builder for complex projects; there is no need to write code to build a form.
The free version gives users a glimpse of Ninja Forms’ potential. Even though it lacks many complex features, Ninja Forms Lite runs on one million websites and satisfies the vast majority of the users.
How to Use Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms Lite works the same as the premium version, so use it confidently if you want to test drive this plugin. Install it and activate it; go to your WordPress dashboard, and click on the Ninja Forms icon to access the menu. You have many form templates to start with (sadly, the free version offers three templates). Some noteworthy templates are
- Job Application
- PayPal Payment
- File Upload
- Create a Post
- Register a User
Choose your template and customize it or start from scratch. The latter gives you more freedom, and you can use the user-friendly and drag-and-drop editor. Name your form and embed it wherever you want.
WPForms
The team behind WPBeginner and OptinMonster released WPForms in 2016. Since then, it has delighted users. The plugin empowers people who lack coding skills to create functional and good-looking forms. The drag-and-drop builder does the heavy lifting for you, just like Ninja Forms.
WPForms has a free version, too. Three million installs and a rating of 4.9 out of five stars says a lot about this plugin.
How to Use WPForms
Using WPForms is intuitive. Install and activate the plugin and click on the WPForms icon in your WordPress dashboard. Just like Ninja Forms, you have a few templates at your disposal. Select a blank template to use WPForms’ drag-and-drop form builder. You have plenty of fields to choose from; it’s the perfect environment in which to create a beautiful form. Finally, save your form and embed it on your site.
Head-to-Head Comparison – Ninja Forms vs. WPForms
Both plugins are formidable, and their users praise them. There are a lot of similarities between these plugins. Certainly, you can’t go wrong by choosing either of them for your project.
It doesn’t make sense to say that one plugin is the winner, and one is the loser. Instead, we’ll compare the features and help you make the proper decision.
Ease of Use
A successful plugin must be easy to use. Luckily, both plugins impress in this area. Less-trained WordPress users can create a form in just a few minutes without prior training and, of course, without writing a single line of code!
Both WP Ninja and WPForms offer an intuitive drag-and-drop builder; the plugins are almost identical in this respect. But there are a few small differences. WP Ninja comes with more pre-built templates, which could be helpful for newbies. On the other hand, WPForms’ onboarding process is 100% unique. You get a set of hints while testing the plugin’s features in the WordPress dashboard. A bot gives useful suggestions to help you create a working form in less than five minutes!
Features
The available features are the most important aspect of a form plugin. A good interface that helps new users is totally useless if the plugin doesn’t have the needed features. Luckily, that is not the case with these plugins—they are jam-packed with plenty of options.
Ninja Forms and WPForms have many basic features in common. First is the method of creating forms: both use a drag-and-drop builder. Users can design forms without writing a line of code, and they can upload the forms wherever they want. Second, the forms are fully responsive and mobile-friendly, so they work no matter the visitor’s device. Third, the plugins prevent spam submissions.
Other useful features common between these two plugins are
- Advanced customization options. Both plugins contain many customization options that empower users to create forms that match their requirements.
- Multi-page forms. People hate long forms because they aren’t patient at all. But there are times when you may need a long-form. Instead of asking people to scroll to complete the form, a multi-page format might be more user-friendly.
- File uploads. You can create a form asking people to upload documents. It’s a great feature that could allow people to submit guest posts, for example.
- Conditional logic. Creating forms that change depending on the user’s input is mandatory.
- Import and export forms. People running multiple sites love this feature. It saves a lot of time. You create a stunning form and can export it to use on other sites.
Difference in Features
Still, the plugins have distinct features. The most important difference is that the team behind Ninja Forms offers paid add-ons to extend the plugin’s functionality. It’s an interesting approach that helps those with the cheapest subscription benefit from superior plans’ features.
Ninja Forms differentiates with the following features:
- User analytics. This feature provides data about the users who fill out the form. There’s no need to mention how important this data is for marketers.
- Save progress. You don’t have to worry about any expected or unexpected problems, such as a low battery. Just save your form and come back to it whenever you want.
- Multiple payment options. Don’t limit your clients’ payment options. Ninja Forms is compatible with PayPal, Stripe, PayPal Express, and Recurly.
WP Forms packages a few distinct features:
- Custom captchas. You can live without captchas, but it’s nice to have unique captchas on your forms.
- Form abandonment. You can find out at which step users abandoned your form. It’s a great way to collect feedback.
- Geolocation. Having a clear idea of your users’ geographical distribution is golden for most businesses, especially local ones.
Integrations
You can achieve many things with forms alone. You can still do way more by integrating the forms with third-party applications, such as customer relationship management software (CRM), payment processing tools, and email marketing services. These integrations automate repetitive tasks, save time, and, most importantly, scale up your startup. For instance, integrating forms with your email marketing service of choice helps nurture the site visitors’ relationship.
Ninja Forms Integrations
Ninja Forms impresses with a huge number of integrations. Every major email marketing service, including Mailchimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, Campaign Monitor, Clever Reach, Mailpoet, ConvertKit, Emma, and EmailOctopus, work with Ninja Forms.
This plugin is also compatible with many important CRMs, such as Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Capsule, PipelineDeals, OnePageCRM, Highrise, and Insightly. On top of that, Ninja Forms integrates with Zapier, a connector of hundreds of apps.
Briefly, Ninja Forms integrates with almost every piece of software available on the market. You get access to all these integrations by purchasing the superior licenses or purchasing add-ons.
WP Forms Integrations
WP Forms integrates Zapier and email marketing services such as Constant Contact, Mailchimp, AWeber, Get Response, Campaign Monitor, and ActiveCampaign. Use Zapier if you want to connect the forms’ submissions to your favorite CRM.
Support
The way a company provides support says a lot about it. Some companies consider users to support a calculated loss, and it should do everything possible to cut it. Other companies consider users to support a great way to nurture their relationship with their clients.
Luckily, both Ninja Forms and WPForms are user-centered, and their support is good to excellent. The documentation covers all potential issues and provides actionable and concise solutions.
Rest assured that the support agents for both plugins will guide you through fixing any issue. Premium users have priority with Ninja Forms—they’ll get a reply in less than eight operating hours—while the rest will get help in less than 24 hours. WP Forms’ Elite and Pro (the highest two plans) users also get priority support.
Pricing
Even though the plugins package useful features and help you grow your business, the price tag matters greatly. The lowest-priced plans are affordable for most budgets, but you get limited features. You have to purchase the most expensive subscription to benefit from the entire set of features.
From time to time, both Ninja Forms and WPForms also offer discounts. Check out our site to find out when you can get discounts.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms offers three pricing plans:
- Personal ($99 a year): Single Website License
- Professional ($199 a year): Twenty Website Licenses
- Agency ($499 a year): Unlimited Website Licenses
Additionally, users can purchase add-ons to get features specific to superior plans. For instance, only Agency subscribers benefit from User Analytics by default, but Personal subscribers can purchase the User Analytics add-on.
WPForms
WPForms offers four pricing plans:
- Basic ($39.50 a year): Single Website License
- Plus ($99.50 a year): Three Website Licenses
- Pro ($199.50 a year): Ten Website Licenses
- Elite ($299.50 a year): Unlimited Licenses
Conclusions – Ninja Forms vs. WPForms
Ninja Forms and WPForms are two excellent form plugins. Both include an unparalleled set of features—enough to allow even less-techie people to design fabulous forms. It’s impossible to declare a winner because these plugins have many similarities; it’s the details that make the difference.
Do you have a favorite? Leave a comment with your opinion. We are curious to find out what our readers think about these plugins!
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