Gravity Forms Dynamic Lookup
vs Populate Anything

Both add-ons pull live WordPress data into your form fields instead of hard-coded choices. Gravity Forms Dynamic Lookup is a free GravityKit add-on that populates a field’s choices from Gravity Forms entries, WordPress users, or posts. Populate Anything (Gravity Wiz) is a premium tool that populates both choices and values from a wider set of sources, including databases and taxonomy terms, with live cross-field filtering. For the common job of turning existing records into a field’s choices, Dynamic Lookup handles it for free; for advanced querying and auto-filling values, Populate Anything does more. You can see the free field on the Dynamic Lookup product page and the full feature set in the Populate Anything documentation.

Yes. Gravity Forms Dynamic Lookup is free and covers the most common reason people reach for Populate Anything: turning existing records into a field’s choices. It populates Drop Down, Radio, and Checkbox choices from Gravity Forms entries, WordPress users, or posts, and the choices update automatically as your data changes. It does not match Populate Anything’s full range, so if you need database queries, REST APIs, or value population, the paid tool is still the right call. For a broader look at your options, see GravityKit’s guide to populating Gravity Forms fields dynamically.

No. Dynamic Lookup reads from Gravity Forms entries, WordPress users, and posts, not arbitrary database tables or spreadsheets. If you need choices from a custom database table, Populate Anything (Gravity Wiz) is the better fit: it includes a native Database source that queries WordPress tables (MySQL or MariaDB, one table at a time, with MySQL views for joins). For an external spreadsheet, Populate Anything can also read Google Sheets through a separate Gravity Connect add-on. Gravity Wiz documents the database source in its guide to populating database data into Gravity Forms.

Yes, within limits. As of version 1.7.0, Dynamic Lookup’s Filter by Field setting narrows a Dropdown field’s choices to entries whose source field matches the value entered in another field on the same form. That handles many dependent-dropdown setups on the Gravity Forms entries source. For cascading across any source or field type, with live filter groups and real-time updates, Populate Anything is built for that job from the ground up. Note that Gravity Forms’ own Chained Selects add-on is a separate, CSV-driven option that people sometimes confuse with dynamic filtering.

Not with Dynamic Lookup. It populates a field’s choice list, so a user still picks from the options it generates. Populate Anything populates both choices and values, so it can auto-fill a text or hidden field with data tied to a selected record, such as filling in a customer’s email once their name is chosen. If auto-filling values is your goal rather than building a choice list, Populate Anything is the tool for it.

Populate Anything is sold only through Gravity Wiz’s Gravity Perks plans, which start at $59 per year for one perk on one site. The Advanced plan is $169 per year for three perks on three sites, and Pro is $349 per year for unlimited perks and sites. There is no free or trial version, and the plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee. Both Populate Anything and Dynamic Lookup also require a paid Gravity Forms license, and Dynamic Lookup itself is free.

Yes. Dynamic Lookup populates choices from Gravity Forms entries, WordPress users (filtered by role, with a choice of display value such as name or email), and WordPress posts, pages, or custom post types. It does not read taxonomy terms or external databases. Populate Anything covers those extra sources, including taxonomy terms and databases natively, plus Google Sheets, Notion, and REST APIs through separate Gravity Connect add-ons, if your project needs them.

Yes, with both tools. Dynamic Lookup runs a cached query and refreshes the choice list when the underlying entries, users, or posts change, so you never maintain choices by hand, and version 1.7.0 shortened its caching so newly added options appear without a long delay. It currently supports up to 2,500 values per field. Populate Anything also updates dynamically and defaults to showing up to 500 results per query, which developers can raise with a hook. For very large datasets or when performance is the priority, GravityKit itself recommends Populate Anything.

Yes. Fields populated by Populate Anything (Gravity Wiz) or by the free Dynamic Lookup add-on are standard Gravity Forms fields that store a normal value in each entry, so GravityKit tools read them like any other field. GravityView and GravityEdit have documented support for dynamically populated choice fields, including Populate Anything, so they display and inline-edit them directly.