Until fairly recently, I’ve been a really cheap WordPress guy when it comes to plugins.
I’ve been sold on the idea of using premium WordPress themes and frameworks, as having a poorly coded theme can kill your SEO. That’s simply not worth the savings to me. That’s what makes frameworks so appealing, not to mention it’s a huge time saver.
However, when it comes to plugins, I am usually too cheap to drop down any cash; so I am sure you can imagine that signing up for Gravity Forms was a huge stretch for me!
And I am grateful I did!
Gravity Forms
As you may or may not know, Gravity Forms isn’t cheap and their pricing model is a little less than desirable. Because of that, I tried several other plugins and toyed around with a lower priced plugin that had a key feature that I needed.
Time was of the essence and the last thing I needed to do was trip my way to a less than desirable solution.
So, after searching, researching and testing advanced WordPress forms, I purchased Gravity Forms. Let me just say, that after using it for about 15-minutes I was relieved I hadn’t wasted my money; and after about an hour of building forms, I knew I would be renewing next year.
Pricing
I feel like there’s an elephant in the room, so let me just get this whole pricing thing out of the way.
Like I said, Gravity Forms isn’t cheap, but you get what you pay for!
To renew for updates and support, you can get Gravity Forms at a reduced rate. The Developer license, for instance, can be renewed for $99. I absolutely hate this pricing model, but even still, I am really impressed.
Features
Here’s what you get without any of the awesome add-ons:
- Form Builder
- Form Fields
- Conditional Logic
- Order Forms
- Entry Management
- Notifications
- Customization
- Styles & Layout
As you can see, Gravity Forms is no Jetpack. There’s a lot of cool stuff, here, and the online documentation and support has been great. My favorite feature, here, is the Conditional Logic.
Users can make a selection, and based on that selection, it will guide them through the form differently.
Examples:
- Would you like to sign-up for our newsletter? (You’ll need a Business or Developer license to have it automatically add to your newsletter app.)
- How many will be attending the event from your church? (If more than four, how many will be attending?)
You get the idea.
😉
Now, what about the add-ons? Is it worth the upgrade?
It depends.
Add-Ons
The Personal license doesn’t include the add-ons. I could see a lot of bloggers sticking this level, unless they want to amp things up a bit. Let me just list the add-ons, I think you can draw your own conclusions:
Basic Form Add-Ons (Business & Developer)
- AWeber
- Campaign Monitor
- MailChimp
- Picatcha
As you can see, this is really newsletter centric with the exception of Pictcha which is a image based captcha that’s really cool.
Now here’s where it gets real:
Advanced Form Add-Ons
- Authorize.Net
- Coupons
- Freshbooks
- PayPal Payments Standard
- PayPal Payments Pro
- PayPal Pro
- Polls
- Quiz
- Signature
- Survey
- Twillio
- User Registration
- Zapier
Check these features out!
Let your mind run wild on these add-ons. 😀
One thing I really like about how Gravity Forms handles these add-ons, is they behave like mini-plugins. So, if you don’t need one of these, you don’t have to worry about it weighing down WordPress with extras you’re not using.
Screenshots
Example
This is a FULLY OPERATIONAL Gravity Form:
Conclusion
If you couldn’t tell, I’ve been sold on Gravity Forms.
My first time using it, I built a contact form with selectable options that asked the user if they wanted to sign-up for the MailChimp based newsletter and if they wanted to donate to the cause. If the donation exceeded a specified amount, then the user is asked for more personal information. So, in one form:
- A message could be sent
- Free materials selected
- MailChimp subscription submitted
- And a donation received via PayPal.
Pretty cool, right?
Yeah, it is.
Like I said, Gravity Forms is that awesome.
Learn more and purchase from the Gravity Forms website.
Dave Shrein says
That’s a pretty robust plugin! For those who may not need as much power but still want nice perks as styling and logic, we’ve been using http://appnitro.com. No monthly fees and features nearly identical to woo forms.
But this plugin you found is definitely ideal to keep it all in the WordPress world.
Eric Dye says
Cool link, Dave, thanks!
Drew Palko says
I’ve always used JotForm… has easy integration with MailChimp, WordPress and others, you can customize the CSS, I think it’s pretty intuitive, I’ve never needed a feature it didn’t have, they are continually updating it… and it’s free… yeah…
Eric Dye says
Yeah. Looks good. I particularly love the form logic that Gravity has provided (not to mention how easy it is to use). 🙂