Overview
Contact Form 7 is a free, open-source form plugin maintained under the name Rock Lobster Inc. It was added to WordPress.org in August 2007 and reported 10+ million active installations in November 2026, the highest of any plugin in this list.[12] The project has no premium edition and asks users to contribute through testing, translation, code or donations.[12]
Forms are defined in a markup-style template with form tags rather than in a visual drag-and-drop canvas, and are inserted into pages with a shortcode or block. The plugin handles validation, mail templates and spam filtering through integrations, and it can be extended by a large number of third-party plugins for conditional fields, multi-step forms or database storage. Submissions are delivered by email; storing them in the database requires a companion plugin, Flamingo, from the same developer, which reported 800,000+ active installations.[13]
The current release, 6.2.5, requires PHP 8.3 according to the directory listing, a higher minimum than any other plugin in this list.[12] Contact Form 7 suits developers and owners who need straightforward forms without subscription costs, but non-technical users generally find visual builders easier, and features such as payments or calculations depend on third-party extensions.
Contact Form 7 features
- Form-tag markup editor
- Shortcode and block embedding
- Customisable mail templates
- Spam protection via integrations
- Flamingo companion plugin for stored messages
- Large third-party extension ecosystem
Contact Form 7 pricing
Free; no paid edition.
Contact Form 7 strengths and limitations
Strengths
- Entirely free, with no upsell tier
- Lightweight, with forms inserted by shortcode or block
- Completely free and open source
- Very widely used and documented
- Lightweight
- Extensive third-party add-ons
Limitations
- Forms are written in a tag syntax rather than built visually
- Submission storage is not built into the core plugin
- No visual drag-and-drop builder
- Submissions not stored without Flamingo
- High PHP version requirement in current release
- Advanced features depend on other developers' plugins
Appears in
Contact Form 7 alternatives and competitors
Alternatives to Contact Form 7: companies ranked in the same lists.
WPForms
Elementor- Gravity Forms
Kali Forms
Happyforms- MetForm
Everest Forms
WPMU DEV
Ninja Forms
Fluent Forms
Formidable Forms
UpdraftPlus
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