Businesses having an online presence use forms to gather leads, be it by using contact forms or by taking registration or collecting interest. According to statistics, 74% of the companies use web forms for lead generation, with 49.7% stating web forms are their highest converting lead generation tools.
Forms are an essential tool for your website, and plugins are the best way to easily create and embed forms in your website. WordPress offers hundreds of form builder plugins, and it becomes difficult to narrow down your choices and select a single form builder plugin to create all your forms.
But do not worry, because we are here to help you. We have compiled a list of all the features to keep in mind while choosing the form builder plugin to help you create your forms.
But before we get into the list, let’s look at what form builder plugins are.
What Is A Form Builder Plugin?
A form builder plugin is a tool that is used to create forms. These plugins can be used to design custom forms directly from the WordPress dashboard for all kinds of purposes.
Suppose you want to embed a contact form with advanced spam protection in your website or create a survey for research with advanced options or any other kind of interactive and engaging forms. That’s where we need a form builder plugin.
Why Does A Website Need Forms
So, why do we need forms on our websites? Embedding a form, especially a contact form, to your website comes with numerous benefits such as,
- Email marketing list growth
- Reduces spam emails
- Secure your website by filtering spams
- Adds a professional touch
- Forms help you generate leads via email communication
- You can send automated email responses to the viewers submitting a form on your website.
Below we have listed some essential features to consider while selecting a form builder plugin for your website. They will help you create engaging forms in a matter of minutes.
Let’s dive into the list of features to look for in a form builder plugin.
11 Features To Look For In A Form Builder Plugin
- Drag And Drop Builder And Pre-Made Templates
- Scheduling Forms
- RTL Support
- GDPR Compliance Field
- Spam Protection
- AJAX Submission
- Block Users
- Conditional Logic
- Multi-Column Layout
- Data Entry Management
- Smart Tags
1. Drag And Drop Builder And Pre-Made Templates
Building forms can be made infinitely easier if the plugin has a drag and drop feature that makes it an easy and fun task. You can create engaging forms by dragging and dropping the options you want to display to the user. You can create different types of form, such as quizzes, surveys, polls, and more.
Pre-made templates help you create forms in no time. So if you don’t have the time to build a form from scratch, you can use one of the templates to embed on your website to create an easy-to-use form.
2. Scheduling Forms
Select a form builder plugin that allows us to schedule our forms and limit form submissions. It is beneficial for creating forms that come in with deadlines. It is a valuable tool and comes in handy in multiple situations, such as when a website is offering special deals that only the first hundred customers to fill the form can avail. Most form builders plugins do not have this feature, deeming it unnecessary, which is not valid.
3. RTL Support
RTL support is an important feature to look for when searching for a form builder. Integration of the RTL ( Right to Left ) support feature is vital if you want your form to be engaging in different languages globally. The feature makes it easy to reverse the forms and compatible with multiple languages.
It is important as it helps make your forms easy to understand in any language. Your forms can easily be embedded on any of your websites globally, no matter the language, if your form builder plugin comes in with an RTL Support feature.
4. GDPR Compliance Field
GDPR is an EU law that applies to all European citizens, including those living on foreign soil. It protects the personal data of all citizens through strict rules and regulations. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines and a damaged reputation.
Find yourself a form builder plugin that is GDPR compliant. Failure to do so may result in you accidentally breaking the GDPR law. Select a form builder plugin that comes in with a GDPR compliance feature where the field asks for user permission to use their data before form submission, making your form GDPR compliant. Choosing a GDPR compliant plugin is crucial if you don’t want to lose your existing and potential European customers.
5. Spam Protection
Spam protection is an absolute necessity because failure to do so will affect your company’s productivity. Spam emails and form entries can also affect the business services making your company vulnerable. Therefore, building engaging forms is useless if these forms aren’t protected from spam and bots.
Select a form builder plugin that comes in with a fool-proof way to secure your forms from bots. You can integrate tools like Google ReCaptcha, hCaptcha, or Honeypot to protect your forms better.
6. AJAX Submission
Speed is integral on the internet because your viewers won’t hesitate to leave your website if it’s taking too long to load or submit your form. According to research conducted by Google, 53% of mobile users abandon websites that take over three seconds to load. Select a form builder plugin that is optimized to be loaded fast to maximize your website’s efficiency.
It is good to choose a plugin with built-in options such as the AJAX submission feature that helps make form submissions fast without page reload. This feature allows them to gain more leads and leaves a good impression on the website visitors.
7. Block Users
This feature is vital if you don’t want to go through your emails, deleting spam, bots, and unwanted or offensive emails. Often, spams and bots crowd the emails resulting in less productivity, and the admin cannot view the submitted forms of potential clients and customers because of it. Selecting a form builder with the block users’ functionality makes the admin’s life infinitely easier as all the unwanted mail is filtered out.
8. Conditional Logic
Long forms are tedious and can be lead killers. Creating smart forms asking only the relevant questions to the user is essential. Form builder with the built-in conditional logic feature allows you to show or hide specific fields on the form based on the users’ input.
Using this feature, you can collect more relevant user datasets and build more specific and user-friendly forms. A form builder plugin with this feature is vital to create intricate and engaging forms
9. Multi-Column Layout
The feature allows you to display form fields in a multi-column layout to optimize your form space. The multi-column layout feature makes your forms look professional, easy to use, and appealing to the eye. This feature also helps to break your forms into small parts and add multiple pages to provide a better user experience.
10. Data Entry Management
Forms need a feature that helps them manage form entries easily. Find yourself a form builder plugin that allows you to view individual users’ details and add and manage notes for each user.
The data entry management feature is vital for any form builder plugin as it allows the admin to view various details about the user’s form entries. The admin can view the detailed users’ data, mark the user read/unread or favorite, use filters to consider users of a specific form, and many other features. This feature is essential for keeping your user data and form entries organized and manageable.
11. Smart Tags
Smart tags are crucial for any form builder plugin. Smart tags are a small code to insert relevant information into your form notification settings or field default values.
They help you transfer your static emails by replacing them with dynamic user data. Selecting a form builder plugin with built-in smart tags feature is a good decision as they are essential for building engaging forms.
Which Is The Right Plugin For You?
Now that you know about all the essential features of a good form builder plugin, the question arises, which form builder plugin is right for you? What form builder plugin has all the features mentioned above and more that can help you create the most engaging forms?
Well, the answer to all of these questions is Pie Forms! Pie Forms is a form builder plugin that can help you create engaging and creative forms with just a few clicks. The plugin is filled with numerous features and is easy to navigate. It comes in features to protect your forms from spam, provides RTL support, has the multi-column layout option, use conditional logic, and more. You can also check out the list of all the features of Pie Forms for details.
Pie Forms is feature-rich and is the most easily navigable form builder plugins out there. You can download Pie Forms now for free or buy the PRO version for more advanced features.
Conclusion
Building a form can be a seamless process with the right plugin. Now that you understand the essential features of a great form builder, you’re ready to start building your first form. Aren’t you?
To make the process easier, start your research with your goals & requirements in mind to find the most suitable tool for creating friendly & efficient web forms to take your business to the next level.
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any queries, feel free to contact us! Our team will connect with you soon.