Contact Form 7 vs WPForms
Contact Form 7 is a long-running, minimal contact form plugin where forms and emails are set up through simple markup in the admin screen. WPForms is a drag-and-drop form builder with many ready-made templates. Both offer a free version, payments, file uploads and spam protection. The main difference is where submissions end up: WPForms keeps entries in the WordPress admin, while Contact Form 7 does not. WPForms also lists conditional logic, multi-step forms and calculations, and its free Lite edition handles basic contact forms, with paid tiers adding more.
| Feature | Contact Form 7 v6.2.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free · ★ 4.0/5 Visit Details | WPForms v2.0.3 · checked 23 Oct 2026 Free + paid · ★ 4.8/5 Visit Details |
|---|---|---|
| At a glance | ||
| Active installs | 10M+ | 5M+ |
| Last updated | October 21, 2026 | October 22, 2026 |
| Editions | Contact Form 7 | WPForms Lite · WPForms Pro ($) |
| Pros | Completely free, with no upsells in the code; Several spam options: Akismet, reCAPTCHA, Turnstile, quiz, disallowed list; Stripe payment field and Brevo contact sync built in | Free drag-and-drop builder with ready-made templates; Stripe and PayPal payment forms in the free version; Entries stored and viewable in the admin |
| Cons | No visual drag-and-drop builder; forms are markup; No conditional logic or multi-step forms without add-ons; Does not store submissions without Flamingo | Conditional logic, multi-page forms and file uploads need Pro; Calculations need the paid Calculations add-on; Some fields and export options show upgrade prompts |
| Mentioned in our posts | 1 | 2 |
| Features (Form plugins checklist) | ||
| Drag-and-drop builder | No | Yes |
| Conditional logic | No | Paid |
| Multi-step forms | No | Paid |
| Payments | Yes | Yes |
| File upload | Yes | Paid |
| Calculations | No | Paid |
| Entries in admin | No | Yes |
| Spam protection | Yes | Yes |
| Free version | Yes | Yes |
| More features | ||
| Other features | Form-tag markup editor for fields and mail templates, Block editor contact form selector, REST API for forms and submission feedback, Quiz and Really Simple CAPTCHA tags, Spam check against the WordPress disallowed comment keys, Saves submissions to Flamingo when that plugin is active | Ready-made form templates, Stripe payment forms, PayPal payment forms, hCaptcha, reCAPTCHA and Turnstile spam challenges, Gutenberg block to insert a form, Entries page in the admin, AI form creation from a conversation |
| Integrations | ||
| Payment | Stripe | Stripe, PayPal Commerce |
| Brevo (Sendinblue) | — | |
| Plugins | Akismet, Flamingo | — |
| Other | Google reCAPTCHA, Cloudflare Turnstile | Google reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Cloudflare Turnstile |
| Requires WordPress | 7.1 | 5.5 |
| Requires PHP | 8.3 | 7.2 |
| Tested up to | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Phones home | No | Only if you agree |
| External services | api.stripe.com, www.google.com, www.recaptcha.net, challenges.cloudflare.com, api.sendinblue.com | wpformsapi.com, downloads.wordpress.org, wpformsliteconnect.com, staging.wpformsliteconnect.com, wpformsusage.com, api.wordpress.org, api.cc.email, connect.squareup.com, nominatim.openstreetmap.org, api.stripe.com, www.google.com, hcaptcha.com, challenges.cloudflare.com |
| Blocks | 1 | 1 |
| Shortcodes | 2 | 1 |
Verdict
Contact Form 7 suits developers and users comfortable with light markup who want a small, free base to extend. WPForms suits small business owners and bloggers who prefer building forms visually and reviewing entries in the admin.