The best free WordPress plugins for contact forms

Whether you have a simple blog or a complex professional website, contact pages are a vital element to get right. But WordPress does not offer a built-in solution to create contact pages, so you have to use plugins to create them.

In this article I list three easy-to-use contact form plugins which I'd recommend to readers of my site, JustLearnWP.com. The first, Pirate Forms, is the simplest and the best option for beginners, the other two are more advanced and feature-rich.

Once you've chosen which plugin to install, I'd recommend you create a sample contact page, send a test message to yourself and check your email inbox/spam folder. You should receive an email notification for each contact form response.

01. Pirate Forms

Pirate Forms is a great option for beginners

Pirate Forms is a great option for beginners

Pirate Forms is one of the simplest and easiest to use WordPress contact form plugins. It's developed by Themisle, which offers both premium and free WordPress plugins and themes. (This one is free).

Pirate Forms doesn't require any technical knowledge to use. Simply install and activate this plugin, go to options, copy the short code and paste it anywhere (post, page, widget) you like. Pirate Forms also offers a widget, so you can quickly add your contact form to a sidebar. Just drag and drop the widget in thesidebar and you're done.

For more features, just click on the Options tab and configure all options you need. You can also customize Fields, labels and Messages and integrate reCaptcha. Pirate Forms also supports SMTP. Just click on the SMTP tab, configure all options and you are done.

Professional developers created this plugin and if there is any issue they tend to fix the issue quickly. When the first time, I installed this plugin I noticed that Gmail users were not receiving email notifications. I contacted the developers and they fixed the issue within in two days and released an update.

02. Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 enables you to manage multiple contact forms

Contact Form 7 enables you to manage multiple contact forms

One of the most popular WordPress plugins with over a million active installs, Contact Form 7 is developed by Takayuki Miyoshi, who has developed a number of free plugins.

Current version 4.3 of Contact Form 7 requires WordPress version 4.2 or higher. Much more advanced than Pirate Forms, this plugin enables you to manage multiple contact forms, plus you can customize the form and the mail contents flexibly with simple markup. The form supports Ajax-powered submitting, CAPTCHA and Akismet spam filtering.

Although Contact Form 7 displays contact forms in U.S. English as its default setting, it bundles 60+ language translations and by using them, you can easily create a contact form in any language.

To learn about all Contact Form 7's features and how to use them visit Contact Form 7 Documentation page.

03. Jetpack's Contact Form module

Jetpack's Contact Form feature enables you to add a contact form with just a few clicks

Jetpack's Contact Form feature enables you to add a contact form with just a few clicks

Developed by Automatic – the company behind WordPress itself – Jetpack is one of the most popular and powerful WordPress plugins, with a very active community behind it. So if you have any issues, a support team is always around to help you.

Jetpack's Contact Form feature enables you to add a contact form to any post or page with just a few clicks. But remember, you can only have one contact form per page.

The form builder is very self-explanatory

The form builder is very self-explanatory

When you will click the icon, a pop-up will appear; you can then add, edit, and reorder all the fields. If you need any additional fields, click 'Add a new filed link', then add label and choose a field type from the drop down menu. Checkbox, checkbox with multiple items, dropdown, radio, text, email text filed types are all available.

All feedback is automatically scanned for spam, and the legitimate feedback will be emailed to you. You will receive an email notification for each contact form response. All responses will be listed in the Feedback section of your WordPress Admin. You can also customize the email address to which the notifications will be sent.

To learn more about Jetpack's contact form visit the support page.

Final words

In this article, I have listed three free, easy to use plugins for creating WordPress contact forms. If you have experience of other contact forms that you'd like to share with Creative Bloq readers, please add your comments below.

Words: Tahir Taous

Tahir Taous is founder of JustLearnWP.com, a WordPress beginner and advance training site. He writes about WordPress, Theme Development, Responsive Design, Blogging and Marketing. Download his free eBook Cheat sheet to increase blog traffic, subscribers and earning.

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