Why choose Gravity Forms?

Gravity Forms has earned its reputation as the leading WordPress form plugin for several reasons. It prioritizes accessibility with WCAG-compliant HTML5 markup, offers an intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and ships with over 30 field types. It also integrates with dozens of services including HubSpot, Mailchimp, Stripe, PayPal, and Zapier.

Built-in features like conditional logic, multi-page forms, spam prevention, and advanced notifications make it a complete solution for everything from simple contact forms to complex business workflows. If you are evaluating form plugins, these comparisons may help:

• Contact Form 7 vs. Gravity Forms
• Gravity Forms vs. Ninja Forms
• Gravity Forms vs. Elementor Forms
• 8 best contact form plugins for WordPress

Gravity Forms pricing and licenses

Gravity Forms offers three license tiers, each designed for different needs:

• Basic License ($59/year) – Includes 15 add-ons and covers the essentials for most small sites. Best for simple contact forms, surveys, and basic data collection.
• Pro License ($159/year) – Includes 33 add-ons, adding integrations like Mailchimp, HubSpot, and more advanced features. Best for businesses that need CRM or email marketing connections.
• Elite License ($259/year) – Includes all 46+ add-ons, priority support, and access to every official integration. Best for agencies, developers, and sites running complex workflows.

All licenses include one year of updates and support. If you need payment processing (Stripe, PayPal, Square), you will need at least the Pro license for most payment add-ons.

How to create your first form

Hover over Forms and click New Form to get started. You can choose from the built-in template library (pre-configured layouts for contact forms, surveys, registrations, and more) or start with a blank canvas. The visual form editor lets you drag fields from the right-hand panel, reorder them, and configure each field’s settings.

For a larger collection of ready-to-use starting points, check out our free Gravity Forms templates for download.

Form field types

Gravity Forms provides over 30 field types organized into four categories:

• Standard Fields – Text, paragraph, dropdown, checkboxes, radio buttons, number, and more. These cover the majority of common form inputs.
• Advanced Fields – Name, email, address, phone, date/time, file upload, and website URL. These include built-in validation and formatting.
• Post Fields – Title, body, excerpt, tags, category, and custom fields. These let form submissions create or update WordPress posts automatically.
• Pricing Fields – Product, quantity, option, shipping, and total fields. Use these to build order forms, donation forms, or any form that processes payments.

Each field type has its own set of configuration options. For example, the file upload field supports restricting file types and sizes. For a deep dive, see our comprehensive guide to Gravity Forms file uploads.

Customizing field settings

Every field has four settings tabs: General (label, description, required status), Appearance (placeholder, size, label placement), Advanced (default values, CSS classes, visibility, calculations), and Conditional Logic (show/hide based on other field values). These give you fine-grained control without writing code.

For a complete walkthrough of conditional logic across fields, notifications, and confirmations, see our Gravity Forms conditional logic guide.

Embedding forms on your website

Once you have built a form, you need to add it to a page or post. Gravity Forms supports several embedding methods:

• Block editor – Use the built-in Gravity Forms block. Just add a new block, search for “Gravity Forms,” select your form, and configure display options like title and description visibility.
• Shortcode – Use [gravityform id="1" title="true"] in any post, page, or widget area. This works with any WordPress theme or page builder. Dive deeper into Gravity Forms shortcodes.
• Page builders – Dedicated modules and widgets are available for Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder.

For step-by-step instructions on each method, read our complete guide on how to embed a Gravity Forms form on your WordPress site.

Building multi-page forms

For longer forms, like applications, surveys, or multi-step registrations, you can split a single form across multiple pages using the Page field. Simply drag a Page field into your form where you want a page break. Gravity Forms automatically adds navigation buttons (Next, Previous, Submit) and can display a progress bar or step indicator at the top.

Multi-page forms reduce user fatigue and can improve completion rates. Combine them with conditional logic to skip pages that are not relevant based on earlier answers.

Conditional logic

Conditional logic is one of the most powerful features in Gravity Forms. It lets you create dynamic, responsive forms that adapt based on user input. You can apply conditional logic to:

• Fields – Show or hide fields based on other field values.
• Form sections and pages – Skip entire pages when they are not relevant.
• Notifications – Send different emails depending on what the user submitted.
• Confirmations – Display different messages or redirect to different pages based on form data.
• Feeds – Only trigger integrations when specific conditions are met.

This means a single form can serve multiple purposes. For example, a support request form could route technical issues to your engineering team and billing questions to your finance team—all automatically.

Read our complete guide to Gravity Forms conditional logic to learn how to set up rules for every scenario.

Notifications

Notifications are the emails Gravity Forms sends when a form is submitted. Every form includes a default admin notification, and you can create user-facing notifications for order confirmations, application receipts, and more. Each notification supports merge tags for dynamic content and conditional logic for routing different emails based on submission data.

For advanced workflows, you can attach PDF exports to notification emails or send notifications when entries are approved or rejected.

Confirmations

A confirmation is what the user sees after submitting a form. Gravity Forms supports three confirmation types:

• Text – Display a custom message on the same page (the default)
• Page – Redirect the user to a specific WordPress page
• Redirect – Send the user to any URL

Like notifications, confirmations support merge tags and conditional logic. You can personalize the confirmation message with the user’s name and submitted data, or redirect different users to different pages based on their answers.

Go deeper: how to create custom confirmation messages in Gravity Forms.

Merge tags

Merge tags are placeholder tokens (like {Field Name:1}) that Gravity Forms replaces with actual data at runtime. Use them to personalize notification emails, display submitted values in confirmations, pre-populate fields, and pass values through redirect URLs.

For a full reference, see our guide on everything you need to know about Gravity Forms merge tags.

Form feeds and integrations

Feeds are the mechanism Gravity Forms uses to send submission data to external services. When a user submits a form, feeds can automatically trigger actions like processing a payment, adding a subscriber to your email list, registering a user on your site, or creating a record in your CRM. Each feed can include conditional logic, so you can control exactly when it fires.

Gravity Forms has official add-ons for dozens of services, including:

• Payments – Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, Mollie. For a full overview of payment options, see our guide to Gravity Forms payment gateways.
• Email marketing – Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, AWeber, ConvertKit
• CRM – HubSpot, Zoho, Salesforce (via third-party add-ons)
• Automation – Zapier, Webhooks, Slack
• Plenty more

How to style your forms

Gravity Forms provides several ways to control the look and feel of your forms without writing custom CSS:

• Orbital Theme – The modern default theme framework that provides clean, contemporary styling out of the box. It includes built-in support for rounded corners, input sizing, and color customization.
• Block editor styling – When you embed a form using the Gravity Forms block, the right-hand sidebar includes options for adjusting colors, spacing, and field sizes.
• CSS Ready Classes – Pre-built CSS classes like gf_left_half, gf_right_third, and gf_list_inline that let you create multi-column layouts by simply adding a class name to a field.

Go deeper: See our step-by-step guide to styling Gravity Forms and our overview of Gravity Forms themes.

Spam prevention

Spam submissions are a common problem with web forms, but Gravity Forms gives you several tools to fight back:

• Honeypot field – An invisible field that only bots fill in. If it contains a value, the submission is blocked. This is enabled by default.
• Gravity Forms Zero Spam – A free add-on from GravityKit that blocks spam using a JavaScript-based technique. No CAPTCHAs required, so it does not affect the user experience.
• reCAPTCHA and hCaptcha – Google’s reCAPTCHA (v2 or v3) and hCaptcha can be added as form fields for an additional layer of protection.
• Akismet – Gravity Forms integrates with the Akismet anti-spam service to filter submissions.

For a comprehensive look at all your options, read our guide on 8 proven tactics to stop Gravity Forms spam.

Viewing and managing entries

Every form submission is saved as an “entry” in the WordPress Database and shown in the admin. Go to Forms > Entries to view, search, filter, star, print, and manage submissions. You can add notes, mark entries as spam, and trash submissions you no longer need.

For bulk operations, GravityEdit lets you edit multiple entries in a spreadsheet-like interface, and GravityActions adds bulk action capabilities. Learn more in our guide on how to bulk update entries in Gravity Forms.

Displaying entries on the front end

By default, Gravity Forms entries are only accessible in the WordPress admin. But with GravityView, you can display entries on the front end of your website as directories, tables, lists, maps, or data dashboards—all without code.

GravityView is useful for building:

• Business or member directories
• Staff or team pages
• Event listings and calendars (with GravityCalendar)
• Knowledge bases and FAQ pages
• Job boards and career pages

You can also enable front-end editing so users can update their own submissions and set up entry approval workflows to moderate submissions.

For a complete walkthrough, read our guide on displaying Gravity Forms entries using GravityView.

Importing and exporting data

Gravity Forms includes built-in export functionality, but certified add-ons extend it significantly:

Exporting entries:

• Export to CSV directly from the WordPress admin
• Export to Excel workbook for further analysis
• Export to PDF for reports and receipts
• Export to Google Sheets for collaborative analysis

Importing entries:

• Import from CSV or Excel files using GravityImport
• Migrate forms and entries between sites with our migration guide

For a full overview, see our guides on exporting data from Gravity Forms and importing entries to Gravity Forms.

Selling products with Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms can function as a lightweight eCommerce solution using its Pricing fields and payment add-ons. Product, Quantity, Option, Shipping, and Total fields let you build order forms, donation forms, and registration forms that collect payments.

To process payments, you will need a payment gateway add-on. Gravity Forms offers official integrations for Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, and Mollie. Each gateway add-on creates a feed that processes the payment when the form is submitted.

For an overview of all available options, see our guide to Gravity Forms payment gateways.

For stores that need a full shopping cart, Gravity Forms also integrates with WooCommerce to add custom product configuration fields.

User registration

The User Registration add-on (available with the Elite license) creates WordPress user accounts automatically when a form is submitted. It is useful for membership sites, community platforms, and client portals. You configure it through a feed that maps form fields to user profile fields, set the default user role, and optionally combine registration with payment processing so accounts are only created after a successful transaction.

Calculations and dynamic pricing

Gravity Forms includes a built-in calculation engine that lets you perform math operations using field values. Any Number field can be turned into a calculation field, and Pricing fields support calculations for dynamic pricing.

Common use cases include:

• Quote calculators for service businesses
• Mortgage calculators for financial sites
• ROI calculators for SaaS and marketing
• Insurance quote calculators for agencies
• Dynamic order totals that update as users select options

Need advanced calculations that reference data across multiple forms or entries? Read our complete guide to Gravity Forms calculations.

Automations and workflows

Gravity Forms becomes even more powerful when connected to automation platforms. You can trigger actions in hundreds of external apps whenever a form is submitted, or an entry is updated.

Popular automation options include:

• Zapier – Connect Gravity Forms to 8,000+ apps with no code
• Make (formerly Integromat) – Build complex multi-step workflows visually
• Uncanny Automator – Automate actions between Gravity Forms and other WordPress plugins
• WP Webhooks – Send form data to any webhook endpoint

For approval-based workflows where entries need to be reviewed before processing, Gravity Flow adds multi-step approval, user input, and notification steps.

Dynamic field population

Dynamic field population lets you pre-fill form fields with data from URL parameters, user meta, or other sources. This is useful for personalizing forms for logged-in users, tracking marketing campaigns, and reducing data entry for returning visitors.

Gravity Forms supports dynamic population natively. For advanced lookups, like populating a field from another entry or a custom database table, the Dynamic Lookup add-on extends this functionality.

Go deeper: Populating fields dynamically in Gravity Forms (the ultimate guide).

Best add-ons and extensions for Gravity Forms

Beyond the official add-ons included with your license, third-party Certified Developers have built hundreds of extensions. For example, GravityKit offers solutions for exporting, importing, editing and displaying Gravity Forms data:

• GravityView – Display entries as directories, tables, lists, and maps
• GravityImport – Import entries from CSV and Excel files
• GravityExport – Export entries automatically on a schedule
• GravityEdit – Bulk edit entries in a spreadsheet-like interface
• GravityCalendar – Display date-based entries on a calendar
• GravityCharts – Create charts and visual reports from entry data
• GravityMath – Perform calculations across entries and forms

Browse all available add-ons (including free ones!) on the GravityKit products page.

Real-world use cases

Gravity Forms and GravityKit are used to build far more than simple contact forms. Here are some of the most popular real-world applications:

• Directories and listings –Business directories, member directories, and staff pages powered by GravityView
• Event management – Dynamic event registration systems with calendars and attendee management
• HR and internal tools – Vacation request systems, careers pages, and student report cards
• Content management – Testimonial walls, content publishing pipelines, and user-submitted content
• User profiles – Front-end profile editing for members and clients
• Project management – Kanban boards with GravityBoard for visual task tracking

Organizations like Princeton University, the Jacksonville Port Authority, and LifterLMS rely on Gravity Forms and GravityKit for mission-critical workflows. See our guide on building web apps with WordPress for more ideas.

Migrating from another form plugin

Switching to Gravity Forms from another plugin is straightforward with the right tools. GravityKit provides migration guides and tools for the most popular form plugins:

• Migrate from WPForms to Gravity Forms
• Migrate from Ninja Forms to Gravity Forms
• Import Contact Form 7 entries to Gravity Forms
• Migrate from Formidable Forms to Gravity Forms
• Migrate from Caldera Forms to Gravity Forms

Related guides

This guide is part of a series covering the most important Gravity Forms topics in depth. Explore the other guides in this set:

• Editing entries in Gravity Forms: A complete guide
• Importing entries to Gravity Forms: A complete guide
• Exporting data from Gravity Forms: A complete guide
• Displaying Gravity Forms entries: A complete guide
• Gravity Forms conditional logic: A complete guide
• Gravity Forms calculations: A complete guide

Frequently asked questions