Contact Form 7 vs Ninja Forms: Best Form Builder Plugin
Contact Form 7 and Ninja Forms are some widely-used WordPress form builder plugins by bloggers, professionals, and businesses. But which one should you go with? If you are confused, we have got you covered.
This article will share a detailed Contact Form vs Ninja Forms comparison that will compare and contrast the various features of these plugins.
Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 is one of the most beloved WordPress plugins available in the WordPress plugins repository. Millions of WordPress blogs are utilizing this plugin for creating their contact forms. On top of that, the form-building wizard is good, but still, it has room for improvement.
Most beginners will choose contact form as their first WordPress form builder plugin. For creating basic contact forms, Contact Form 7 is good enough. When it comes to more advanced forms… let’s find out.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is a freemium WordPress form builder that comes with a lot of unique features. The lite version is available on the WordPress plugins repository. If you check the screenshot below, you can see more than 1 million existing WordPress sites are using the plugin to create forms.
With the free version plugin, you can create simple contact forms without using any codes.
Some of the most popular features of Ninja Forms premium are:
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- File Uploads
- Multi-Step Forms
- Form Exporting
- Conditional Logic
- Payment Gateway Integrations
- CRM Integration
- Email Marketing Integration
- WordPress Post Creation Forms
- User Registration Forms
- Form Progress Saving
And so on.
We have shared a complete Ninja Forms review with the features, integrations, and everything you need to know before purchasing the plugin. If you need to learn more about the plugin, check out this post.
Contact Form 7 vs Ninja Forms: Which Is the Best?
Let’s see which plugin offers more features and a beginner-friendly configuration.
Ease of Use
Most of us prefer an easy-to-use form builder for creating contact, payment, and similar forms. And we don’t like to edit the theme template for adding forms or embedding the fields. So let’s see which plugin offers more simple form management options.
Contact Form 7
If you check the Contact Form 7 plugin on your WordPress site or a local install, it will look like this:
As you can see, you will have fields on top of the screen. So, when someone needs to add more fields to the form, all they need to do is, click on the required field and configure it.
In most cases, beginners will find it more difficult.
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Ninja Forms
Now, let’s take a look at the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin. Ninja Forms have an easy-to-use form builder wizard.
It is a drag-and-drop form builder. On the right side, you will see all the fields available. The left side will show you a preview of the created form. You can drag fields from the right side and drop them inside the preview section. This way, you can add new fields to a form.
Once you have added a field, you can start customizing it.
As you can see, it is pretty simple.
Winner: Ninja Forms
Form Fields
Let’s take a look at the form fields offered on both plugins.
Contact Form 7
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If you check the Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, you will see fields like:
- Text
- URL
- Telephone
- Number
- Date
- Text area
- Dropdown menu
- Checkboxes
- Radio button
- Acceptance
- Quiz
- File
- Submit
For creating basic contact forms, these fields are good enough.
Ninja Forms
On the other hand, the Ninja Forms WordPress plugin comes with many field options. Some of the popular fields are:
- Single Checkbox
- Date/Time
- Checkbox List
- Select Image
- Multi-Select
- Radio List
- Select
- Submit
- Paragraph Text
- Single-Line Text
They have categorized the fields into three sections.
- Common fields
- User information fields
- Layout fields
Select the element you want to use, and drop it inside the preview section. This way, you can add new elements to your form. Make sure that you have saved the form so you will not lose any of the updates.
Winner: Ninja Forms
Embedding
In most cases, contact forms got a form embedding system using shortcodes. So let’s see what Contact Form 7 and Ninja Forms will offer.
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Contact Form 7
When you create contact forms using the Contact Form 7 WordPress plugin, they will give you custom shortcodes. For example, take a look at the screenshot.
So when you need to display the form inside a post or page, you need to copy this shortcode and paste it on the post or page. Then, after updating it, check the post from the front end. You will see the form there.
Contact Form 7 has no add form button inside the WordPress post editor. And they have got a Gutenberg block for embedding forms. If you are using the Gutenberg editor, embedding will be pretty straightforward.
Ninja Forms
On the other hand, you can add Ninja Forms using the shortcode, and it will also give us an add form button inside the WordPress editor. You will see the custom shortcode if you check the created forms.
When you open the classic editor, you will see a button for adding forms inside the post.
You can use the Ninja Forms block inside the content using the Gutenberg editor. Probably, it will display all the available forms inside the content.
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Winner: Ninja Forms
Payment Gateway Integrations
When running a nonprofit organization and getting a website, you are probably planning to accept donations. Unfortunately, creating donation forms using HTML and integrating them with payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe are not beginner-friendly. In that case, you must rely on a form builder with PayPal and stripe integration.
Let’s see which form builder offers payment gateway integration.
Contact Form 7
By default, the plugin doesn’t come with PayPal or Stripe integration. But, some third-party developers created plugins like Pay With Contact Form 7 for integrating PayPal and Contact Form 7 & Stripe Add-on to accept both payments. But if you face any compatibility issues, the Contact Form 7 developers can’t help you.
You need to reach the specific plugin developer to fix the conflict.
Ninja Forms
In this case, the Ninja Forms team developed custom add-ons for integrating PayPal or Stripe. You can simply integrate your PayPal or Stripe account and collect payments using them. On top of that, these are highly secured. The development team will release updates according to the best security standards.
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You can easily drag payment fields from the form builder and drop them inside the form. You do not need to write codes to connect your PayPal/ Stripe account. Just your payment email or API keys will do the job.
Winner: Ninja Forms
Email Marketing Integrations
If you are into lead generation and email marketing, you can use your forms for it. For example, let’s say that you have ranked your contact page higher on search results and are getting many form submissions. Add those names to your email list if you need to make the best ROI (Return on Investment).
By default, no form plugins support that. But by configuring these options from the settings, you can automatically add the email addresses to your email list without doing anything manually. Probably, this can save a lot of time if you are in a hurry.
If you are interested in something similar, let’s see which plugin is best for integrating email marketing services.
Contact Form 7
This plugin doesn’t offer direct integration with all email marketing services. Contact Form 7 comes with Brevo and Constant Contact integration. You can complete the process and establish a connection by pasting an API key associated with your email marketing account.
You must use additional plugins to connect with other email marketing service integrations. For example, if you need to integrate MailChimp with your forms, use a Contact Form 7 MailChimp extension.
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Ninja Forms
On the other hand, Ninja Forms offers integration with multiple email marketing services. As of today, you can integrate email marketing services like
- MailChimp
- Campaign Monitor
- Constant Contact
- Mailpoet
- AWeber
- Emma
- ConvertKit
- ActiveCampaign
- EmailOctopus
- CleverReach
You can use any of these add-ons for integrating email marketing services into your forms. On top of that, you do not need to use custom HTML and CSS for creating newsletter sign-up forms.
You can create a blank form, add the required fields, and integrate your email marketing service. Easier than you think.
Winner: Ninja Forms
Support
You need to see their support policy first when it comes to blogging tools or products like web hosting, WordPress themes, or WordPress plugins. Once you have paid for a premium resource and not getting enough support as expected, it is time to move on.
This section will show you which plugin will offer more support.
Contact Form 7
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Contact Form 7 offers only limited support for the plugin. However, since it is a free WordPress plugin, they offer support through the WordPress support forum.
When you need help with the form customization or need help with any plugin conflict, you can create a ticket. One of their support staff will help you resolve the issue.
Ninja Forms
Now, let’s see how Ninja Forms will support its clients. You can get limited support from the Ninja Forms support forum using the free version plugin.
On the other hand, if you are a premium customer, you will have priority support. Once you have logged in to your Ninja Forms account, go to the support tab. From there, you can create new support tickets.
One of their support staff will get back to you with a solution. You can also send them pre-sale questions through the general contact form.
Winner: Ninja Forms
Documentation
If you need help setting up the plugin and configuring the add-ons, you probably need to check out the documentation or knowledgebase section. A list of documentation articles every user can follow is an excellent idea for achieving custom tasks.
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In this section, we will talk about the documentation section of Contact Form 7 and Ninja Forms.
Contact Form 7
Contact Form 7 got a docs section.
They have a good number of articles. Plus, they are easy to understand and follow.
Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms also got a dedicated documentation section. Moreover, they have arranged the documentation articles according to their category and provided us with an easy navigation system.
Whenever you need help with plugin customization, you can follow these guides.
Winner: Tie
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Contact Form 7 vs Ninja Forms Features Comparison
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Contact Forms 7 vs Ninja Forms Overall Comparison
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Get Started with Ninja Forms
You can get the premium version of Ninja Forms below.
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