WPForms vs Gravity Forms: Features, Pricing & Use Cases (2026)

WPForms and Gravity Forms can both handle far more than a basic contact form, but they are built around different priorities. WPForms puts more emphasis on a guided no-code experience, templates, conversion tools, and a free-to-paid upgrade path. Gravity Forms starts as a paid product and leans harder into extensibility, developer tooling, add-ons, APIs, and complex data workflows.

I would not reduce this comparison to “easy versus advanced.” Both can build sophisticated forms. The more useful question is whether you want a polished all-in-one form workflow with a strong free edition, or a mature developer-oriented form platform that is designed to be extended deeply.

WPForms vs Gravity Forms at a glance

Compare	WPForms$49.50/year introductory Remove	Gravity Forms$59/year Remove
Pricing model	Freemium	Premium
Starting price	$49.50/year introductory	$59/year
Free version	Yes	No
Sites included	1 site (Basic)	1 site (Basic)
Lifetime option	No	No
Refund policy	14-day money-back guarantee	30-day refund window
Setup level	Beginner-friendly	Intermediate
WordPress.org rating	4.8/5 (14,378)	Not available
Active installs	5M+	Not available
Best for	Businesses and site owners that want an easy WordPress form builder with templates, AI-assisted setup, and a large addon ecosystem.	Businesses, agencies, developers, nonprofits, and operational teams that need advanced forms, reliable entry management, conditional workflows, payments, or integrations inside WordPress.
Not ideal for	Users who require free local entry storage or want advanced paid workflows without higher recurring license costs.	Sites that only need a simple free contact form or teams that prefer form hosting and data management outside WordPress.
Tested version	2.0.1.1	3.1.1
Last reviewed	2026-09-25	2026-09-25
Features
Drag-and-drop builder	Yes	Yes Drag-and-drop builder is included in the core plugin.
Conditional logic	Paid plan Smart Conditional Logic requires a paid plan.	Yes Conditional logic is included in the core plugin on every license.
Multi-step forms	Paid plan Multi-page forms are a paid feature.	Yes Multi-page forms are included in the core plugin on every license.
Calculations	Paid plan Calculations are available on paid plans.	Yes Calculations are available in the core plugin.
File uploads	Paid plan File Upload is included with paid advanced fields.	Yes File Upload is included in the core plugin.
Entry management	Paid plan Lite sends entries by email; complete WordPress entry management is paid.	Yes Entries are stored and managed inside WordPress in the core plugin.
Payments	Limited Lite supports Stripe, Square, and PayPal with an extra 3% fee; paid plans remove WPForms transaction fees and unlock more payment options.	Paid plan Stripe, Square, PayPal Checkout, Mollie and related payment add-ons are available on Pro or Elite depending on the integration.
Recurring payments	Paid plan Recurring payments are available on paid plans.	Paid plan Subscription and recurring-payment workflows are available through supported payment add-ons, generally on Pro or Elite.
User registration	Paid plan User Registration is a paid add-on feature.	Paid plan The User Registration Add-On is included with Elite.
Post submissions	Paid plan Post Submissions is a paid add-on feature.	Paid plan Advanced Post Creation is included with Elite.
Conversational forms	Paid plan Conversational Forms is a paid conversion feature.	Paid plan Conversational Forms is included with Elite.
Webhooks	Paid plan Webhooks is a paid add-on; availability depends on license tier.	Paid plan The Webhooks Add-On is included with Elite.
Signatures	Paid plan Digital Signatures is a paid feature.	Paid plan The Signature Add-On is included with Elite.
Surveys / quizzes	Paid plan Surveys, polls, and quiz tools require paid plans.	Paid plan Survey, Polls, and Quiz add-ons are included with Elite.
Spam protection	Yes Basic anti-spam, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Turnstile, and Akismet are available in Lite.	Yes Core spam protection is included, with integrations such as Akismet, reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare Turnstile available.

The biggest difference is the product philosophy

WPForms is built to make common WordPress form jobs approachable without much technical setup. Its drag-and-drop builder, form templates, entry management, payment tools, marketing integrations, conversational forms, landing pages, surveys, user registration, post submissions, signatures, and analytics are packaged around a no-code workflow.

Gravity Forms also has a visual builder, templates, conditional logic, entry management, payments, user registration, surveys, conversational forms, and integrations. Where it separates itself is extensibility. Gravity Forms documents 500+ hooks, a REST API, a PHP API, an Add-On Framework, webhooks, and a large official and third-party add-on ecosystem.

If I were building a straightforward lead, payment, registration, or survey workflow for a client who wants to manage it later, I would pay close attention to WPForms’ guided experience. If the form is becoming part of a larger application workflow, Gravity Forms’ developer surface becomes much more important.

Free version: only WPForms has a permanent free tier

WPForms Lite is available free from WordPress.org. It can create basic forms and includes standard fields, spam protection, basic templates, and payment support through Stripe, Square, or PayPal, although WPForms applies an additional 3% platform fee to payment transactions on the free version or an inactive paid license.

Gravity Forms does not offer a permanent free plugin. It provides a demo environment where you can test the full product, but using Gravity Forms on a production site requires a paid license.

That makes WPForms easier to evaluate on a real WordPress site before paying. Gravity Forms takes the opposite approach: you test the product through its demo, then choose a license.

Form building and day-to-day editing

Both use drag-and-drop builders and support multi-column layouts, conditional logic, multi-page forms, file uploads, notifications, confirmations, and entry management.

WPForms puts more guidance around the building process. The current paid plans advertise more than 2,100 templates, and the builder includes AI-assisted form creation and editing. It also bundles features such as form layouts, entry previews, analytics, conversion tools, and no-code styling into the broader product experience.

Gravity Forms feels more like a form framework once requirements become unusual. It gives you over 30 field types, flexible conditional logic, email routing, import/export tools, entry management, and a deep extension layer. The visual builder is accessible, but the product becomes especially valuable when a developer needs to alter data, customize processing, or connect form submissions to custom systems.

Entries, notifications, and data handling

Paid WPForms plans store and manage submissions inside WordPress. Basic currently includes dashboard entry management plus CSV, Excel, and PDF export options. Higher tiers add more automation around entries, including integrations, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Dropbox, and scheduled entry automation.

Gravity Forms stores submitted entries in your WordPress database and provides filtering, management, notifications, exports, APIs, and conditional data routing. This self-hosted data model is central to Gravity Forms, and developers can work with entries through its APIs and hooks without depending on a separate hosted form service.

Payments and ecommerce workflows

WPForms supports Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mercado Pago, and Authorize.Net across its product range, with the exact gateway depending on the plan. Pro removes WPForms’ additional platform transaction fee for active license holders and adds recurring subscriptions, coupons, and calculations.

Gravity Forms handles payments through add-ons. Its Pro and Elite licenses include payment integrations such as Stripe, Square, PayPal Checkout, Mollie, and others depending on the current add-on lineup. Elite also includes Coupons. Gravity Forms is particularly attractive when payment data needs to feed a larger custom workflow because the payment add-ons sit inside the same hooks, APIs, feeds, and entry system as the rest of the platform.

Integrations: both are broad, but the models differ

WPForms promotes direct integrations with email marketing platforms, CRMs, productivity tools, storage services, payment gateways, and automation services. Its current feature set includes tools such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Slack, Make, n8n, and Zapier. WPForms also advertises access to thousands of additional apps through Zapier.

Gravity Forms organizes integrations as add-ons attached to license tiers. Basic includes several email and CRM integrations; Pro adds services such as Stripe, Square, PayPal Checkout, Dropbox, Slack, Trello, Zapier, Zoho CRM, and others; Elite opens the complete official add-on set, including features such as User Registration, Surveys, Signature, Conversational Forms, Partial Entries, Webhooks, Salesforce, and Advanced Post Creation.

The important distinction is not the raw integration count. WPForms is designed to make many business connections easy to configure without code. Gravity Forms gives developers more ways to build an integration that does not already exist through webhooks, APIs, hooks, and its Add-On Framework.

Developer flexibility is where Gravity Forms stands out

This is the area I would examine most closely for custom WordPress projects. Gravity Forms documents more than 500 actions and filters, a REST API, a PHP API, and an Add-On Framework for extending the plugin. It is built to be modified.

WPForms also supports webhooks, integrations, custom code, and developer customization, but its main product direction is different. The interface tries to keep complex form work accessible through settings and add-ons rather than making the developer layer the center of the product.

For a marketing team, that difference may barely matter. For a custom membership site, internal application, directory, onboarding system, or workflow that depends on bespoke PHP logic, it can become the deciding factor.

Pricing checked September 25, 2026

WPForms currently shows promotional first-year pricing of $49.50/year for Basic, $99.50/year for Plus, $199.50/year for Pro, and $299.50/year for Elite. The pricing page also states that these are introductory prices and renewals are charged at the full listed prices: $99, $199, $399, and $599 respectively.

WPForms Basic covers one site, Plus covers three, Pro covers five, and Elite covers unlimited sites. The features also change substantially by tier. For example, payments and many advanced features sit in Pro, while integrations such as Salesforce, Authorize.Net, HubSpot, and Webhooks are listed under Elite.

Gravity Forms currently lists $59/year for Basic on one site, $159/year for Pro on three sites, and $259/year for Elite on unlimited sites. Basic includes core form functionality and a group of marketing integrations. Pro expands the add-on set with payments and productivity integrations. Elite includes all official add-ons, multisite support, and priority support.

At first glance, WPForms Basic looks cheaper because of its promotional $49.50 price. At renewal, its regular $99 Basic price is higher than Gravity Forms Basic at the currently listed $59/year. The plans are not feature-equivalent, so compare the tier that contains the specific add-ons you need rather than comparing only the lowest number on each pricing page.

Where WPForms is more practical

• You want to start with a real free version on your own site.
• You want a large template library and a strongly guided no-code workflow.
• Conversion tools such as landing pages, lead forms, form abandonment, conversational forms, analytics, and user-journey reporting matter.
• Your team prefers integrations that can be configured without custom development.
• AI-assisted form creation and editing is useful to your workflow.

Where Gravity Forms has an advantage

• Your forms are part of a larger custom WordPress application or workflow.
• You expect developers to use hooks, APIs, webhooks, or custom add-ons.
• You want a mature official and third-party extension ecosystem.
• You need to manipulate entry data or form behavior beyond what a settings screen exposes.
• Unlimited-site licensing with the complete official add-on set fits an agency workflow.

Trade-offs I would check before committing

WPForms becomes significantly more expensive after the introductory period, and several advanced integrations are limited to higher plans. I would check the renewal price and exact tier before choosing it based on the discounted headline price.

Gravity Forms has no permanent free edition, and several high-value capabilities are delivered through Pro or Elite add-ons rather than the lowest license. Its developer-friendly architecture is a strength, but it can also mean more configuration and technical involvement when a project becomes highly customized.

How I would decide between them

For a typical business site where the team wants to build forms, payments, surveys, registrations, and marketing workflows without much custom development, WPForms gives you a very polished path from free to advanced features.

For a site where forms are infrastructure rather than just page elements, Gravity Forms deserves close attention. Its APIs, hooks, add-on framework, and entry-processing model give developers more room to turn form submissions into custom application logic.

I would make the final decision from the actual workflow: list the fields, integrations, payment gateway, user actions, notifications, data destinations, and custom logic the form needs. Then compare the license tier required to implement that exact workflow. That is much more reliable than choosing from a generic feature count.

Frequently asked questions