WordPress Form Plugins Without Monthly Fees: What's Actually Available

The WordPress form plugin market has a pricing problem.

WPForms: $49-$299/year. Gravity Forms: $59-$259/year. Typeform: $25-$83/month. JotForm: $34-$99/month. Formstack: $50-$83/month.

For what? Collecting a name and email address?

I get it — building and maintaining a plugin costs money. Developers need to eat. But the gap between "what it costs to build" and "what they charge" is... wide. Especially when the core functionality (capture form data, save it, send an email) isn't particularly complex.

If you're looking for a WordPress form plugin that doesn't require a recurring payment just to function, here are your actual options.

Understanding the pricing models

Before the list, let's clarify the three models you'll see:

Completely free (no paid tier): Only Contact Form 7 fits here. No premium version. No upsells. Just a free plugin maintained by one developer. The trade-off is limited features and no support.

Freemium (free tier + paid upgrades): Most modern form plugins. You get a functional free version, but advanced features cost money. The question is how much is free and how much is locked.

Annual subscription: You pay every year. Stop paying, you keep the plugin but lose updates and support. This is how WPForms, Gravity Forms, and most premium plugins work.

SaaS / monthly billing: Typeform, JotForm, Formstack. Your data lives on their servers. You pay monthly. Stop paying, you lose access to everything.

For WordPress users who want to own their data and minimize recurring costs, you want either "completely free" or "freemium with a generous free tier."

The options, ranked by true cost

Contact Form 7 — $0 forever

The only major form plugin with zero paid tier. It's been free since 2007 and will probably stay that way.

You get: A contact form. Email delivery. Basic spam filtering with Akismet. That's it.

You don't get: Visual builder, entry storage, file uploads, conditional logic, templates, analytics, integrations, or anything beyond the absolute basics.

Real cost: $0, but you'll likely need additional plugins (Flamingo for entry storage, reCAPTCHA for spam) which complicates your stack.

Verdict: Only works if "basic contact form that sends emails" is literally all you need.

Forminator — $0 for a surprisingly full feature set

WPMU DEV's form plugin has the most generous free tier in the market. Conditional logic, file uploads, payments, polls, quizzes — things that cost $99+ with other plugins.

You get (free): Drag-and-drop builder, conditional logic, file uploads, Stripe/PayPal, polls, quizzes, entry management.

You don't get (free): Some integrations, priority support, the WPMU DEV dashboard.

Real cost: $0 for the plugin. $3-$20/mo if you want the full WPMU DEV suite (hosting, backups, SEO tools).

Verdict: Best feature-to-price ratio if you don't need CRM integration.

Fluent Forms — $0 base, $59-$239/yr for Pro

Generous free tier with conditional logic and file uploads. The visual builder is close to WPForms quality.

You get (free): 60+ templates, conditional logic, file uploads, entry management, multi-step forms.

You don't get (free): Payment integrations, advanced fields, post creation, some integrations.

Real cost: $0 if the free tier covers your needs. $59-$239/yr for Pro features.

Verdict: Solid middle ground. The free tier is genuinely usable for most sites.

SkunkForms — $0 base with free CRM integration

Freemium form plugin. The free tier includes the form builder, entry storage, email notifications, spam protection, analytics, and — uniquely — native CRM integration with SkunkCRM.

You get (free): Block-based form builder, 11 templates, entry storage, email notifications, spam protection, analytics, CRM integration (contacts, deals, pipeline, tags).

You don't get (free): Conditional logic, file uploads, advanced field types, priority support.

Real cost: $0 for forms + CRM. Pro plans available for advanced features.

The CRM angle: This is the differentiator. Install SkunkCRM (also free) alongside SkunkForms, and every form submission can automatically create a CRM contact and deal. No Zapier required. If you'd otherwise be paying for a form plugin + CRM + integration middleware, the savings are significant.

Verdict: Best value if you need lead tracking. The missing conditional logic and file uploads in the free tier are real gaps, but the CRM integration makes up for it if that's what you need.

Gravity Forms — $59-$259/yr (no free tier)

No free version. Annual subscription only. But it's the most powerful form plugin for developers and complex use cases.

You get ($59/yr): All form features for one site. No CRM. No advanced add-ons.

You get ($259/yr): All sites, all add-ons including surveys, polls, and third-party integrations.

Real cost: $59-$259/yr, every year, forever.

Verdict: Worth it for complex sites with advanced form needs. Expensive for a basic contact form.

WPForms — $49-$299/yr (Lite is free but barely functional)

WPForms Lite is technically free, but it's a demo. No entry storage, no conditional logic, no file uploads. The real product starts at $49/yr.

You get (Lite): A form builder that sends emails. That's essentially it.

You get ($49/yr): Entry storage, templates, basic features for 1 site.

You get ($299/yr): Everything including all integrations, all sites.

Real cost: $49-$299/yr. WPForms Lite isn't a real product, it's a trial.

Verdict: Great product at a premium price. The Lite version is misleading as a "free" option.

Cost over 3 years

Let's compare what you'll actually spend over 3 years:

The bottom three options in that table are free — but they're different kinds of free. CF7 is free-but-bare-bones. Forminator is free-but-no-CRM. SkunkForms is free-with-CRM-but-fewer-form-features.

Pick the trade-off that matches what you need.

The honest take

No form plugin is perfect at $0. There's always a trade-off:

• Contact Form 7 trades features for zero cost
• Forminator trades polish for generosity
• SkunkForms trades template quantity and some form features for CRM integration
• Fluent Forms Free trades some pro features for a great free experience

If recurring fees genuinely bother you, any of the first four options work without annual payments. If you specifically need form submissions to feed into a CRM pipeline without middleware costs, SkunkForms + SkunkCRM is the only free option that does it natively. Check our pricing page for the full breakdown.

Try SkunkForms free →