Contact Form 7 vs Gravity Forms (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Contact Form 7 grades higher than Gravity Forms: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Contact Form 7 grades higher on the free plan. Gravity Forms grades higher on value for money, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Gravity Forms
WordPress form builder plugin sold as a yearly license
Which one is for you
Pick Contact Form 7 if
- Fits if you run WordPress and want a plain contact form without paying
- Works for sites that need many simple forms with nothing to subscribe to
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if your site isn't on WordPress, as the plugin only runs there
- Not for you if you want paid support, because the listing points to documentation and a forum
- Watch out: reviews on the WordPress.org page mention incompatibility with some PHP versions
- Too light for forms with payments, polls or visual builders, none of which are listed
- Tight if you want listed integrations, as none are named
Pick Gravity Forms if
- Fits if you run WordPress and want form entries kept on your own site
- Works for agencies building forms across many client sites on the $259 Elite license
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you don't have a self-hosted WordPress site or a WordPress.com Business plan, since it's only a plugin
- Skip it if you want to try before paying, as there's no free version or trial, only an online demo
- Pricey if you need Stripe, PayPal or Zapier ($159 Pro) or surveys, quizzes, signatures and webhooks ($259 Elite)
- Tight if you have more than one site, as Basic covers 1 site and Pro 3
- Watch out: asking for a refund within the 30 days switches the license off at once
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAContact Form 7Fair | 2.0GPAGravity FormsFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CFree and open source, but it needs a WordPress site you host yourself, so it isn't a program anyone can just download and run. | BGraded against its alternatives. Basic is $59 a year for one site with unlimited forms and entries, a fraction of what hosted builders like Jotform or Typeform charge. Stripe and PayPal need Pro at $159 a year, and you need a WordPress site and hosting to run it on. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright with no paid edition or caps on the listing. Install it from the plugin directory. | FNothing free and no trial, just an online demo. There are refunds within 30 days, but asking for one switches the license off at once, and a refund isn't a trial anyway. |
| Features | CForms in the WordPress admin, an editor block, validation and translations. It's a basic form tool, and the listing shows no paid add-ons for more. | C30+ field types, conditional logic, multi-page forms, calculations, payments and, on Elite, surveys, quizzes, polls and signatures. The gap is the listing's own: it only runs as a WordPress plugin, so without a WordPress site it does nothing. |
| Ease of use | DYou need your own WordPress site that you host and update, and each form is built by hand in the admin. No rating on record. | CNo rating on record. Fields are dragged into place inside WordPress, but first you need a self-hosted WordPress site or a WordPress.com Business plan, then the plugin and its add-ons installed, then each form built. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, inside WordPress, with no integrations listed on the plugin page. | BIt runs in the browser inside WordPress and connects to Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mailchimp, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier and Slack, with a REST API and 500+ hooks for developers. No desktop or phone app of its own. |
| Best for | free contact forms on a WordPress site | forms on your own WordPress site |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms. How we grade
Price against what you get
Contact Form 7 has no paid plan and scores 1.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Gravity Forms starts at $4.92 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.3.
Gravity Forms scores higher, and starts $4.92 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other form and survey tools on the chart, none scores higher than Contact Form 7 for less, and 1 scores higher than Gravity Forms for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Contact Form 7 is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Gravity Forms also covers templates and surveys.
At a glance
| Contact Form 7 | Gravity Forms | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Starts at | Free | $59 per year |
| Free plan | Free and open source; install it from the WordPress plugin directory. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Rock Lobster Inc. | Rocketgenius Inc. |
| Price read from | wordpress.org | gravityforms.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 18, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Contact Form 7
- It runs only inside WordPress.
- The plugin's listing links to documentation and a support forum, not a paid support plan.
- Reviews on the WordPress.org page include complaints about incompatibility with some PHP versions.
Gravity Forms
- It runs only as a WordPress plugin, so you need a self-hosted WordPress site, or a WordPress.com Business plan with a custom domain.
- There is no free version and no trial; the vendor offers an online demo instead.
- Stripe, PayPal and Zapier need Pro, and surveys, quizzes, signatures, user registration and webhooks need the $259 Elite license.
- Refunds are given within 30 days of a payment, and requesting one deactivates the license immediately.
Key features
Contact Form 7
- Forms in the WordPress admin
- Forms are created under a Contact menu in the WordPress admin screen.
- Block for the editor
- The plugin provides one block for inserting a form into a page.
- Schema-Woven Validation
- The plugin's description names this validation technology and a modular architecture.
- Translations
- The plugin is translated into 69 locales.
Gravity Forms
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Build forms inside WordPress from 30+ field types, a template library and layouts of up to four columns per row, then embed them on any page.
- Conditional logic and multi-page forms
- Show or hide fields, sections and pages based on answers, split long forms into pages, and route notification emails by what was submitted.
- Calculations and payments
- Fields can be calculated from a formula. The Stripe, PayPal Checkout and Square add-ons, which handle subscriptions, need Pro; discount codes need Elite.
- Surveys, quizzes and polls
- Elite adds add-ons for surveys, graded quizzes, polls, signatures, partial entries from abandoned forms and conversational one-question-at-a-time forms.
- Entries stored on your own site
- Entries and uploaded files are saved to your WordPress database and server, with unlimited forms and entries, CSV export and tools for handling personal data and consent.
- REST API and hooks
- A REST API, 500+ actions and filters and an add-on framework let developers build their own integrations; the Webhooks add-on needs Elite.
Plans
Contact Form 7
Plugin$0
Free open-source plugin, hosted on your own WordPress site.
Gravity Forms
Basic$59
per year
1 site, standard support, and the Basic add-ons for email marketing tools such as Mailchimp, HubSpot and ActiveCampaign, plus reCAPTCHA and Akismet.
Pro$159
per year
3 sites and standard support. Adds the Pro add-ons, including Stripe, PayPal Checkout, Square, Zapier, Slack, Dropbox and Trello.
Elite$259
per year
Unlimited sites, WordPress Multisite, priority support and every add-on, including surveys, quizzes, polls, signatures, user registration and webhooks.
Ways to pay less
Contact Form 7
No public discounts listed.
Gravity Forms
- Nonprofit
Nonprofit License at $129 a year
Registered nonprofits can apply for a $129-a-year license covering 3 sites with add-ons such as Stripe, PayPal, Survey and User Registration. It renews at the same price.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Contact Form 7 or Gravity Forms?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Contact Form 7 is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $4.92 a month when paid by the year for Gravity Forms. Contact Form 7 is free, and Gravity Forms starts at $59 per year.
Which has a free plan, Contact Form 7 or Gravity Forms?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Contact Form 7 has a free plan. Gravity Forms does not.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.