How to Connect WordPress Forms to Your CRM Without Zapier

Zapier is brilliant. It connects everything to everything. But using it to connect your WordPress form to your CRM feels like using a helicopter to cross the street.

You've got a form plugin on your WordPress site. You've got a CRM. You just want the data from A to go to B. And for that privilege, you're paying $20-$73/month — $240-$876 per year — for what amounts to "when this happens, do that."

There are better ways.

Why people use Zapier for forms

The typical setup:

1. WPForms/Gravity Forms captures a submission
2. Zapier detects the new entry via webhook
3. Zapier maps fields and creates a record in HubSpot/Salesforce/Pipedrive/etc.
4. Maybe Zapier also sends a Slack notification

Each step is a "Zap." Each Zap counts against your monthly task limit. The free tier gives you 100 tasks/month — that's 100 form submissions before you start paying.

And if Zapier goes down (which it does), your leads vanish into the void until someone notices.

The alternatives

Option 1: Native plugin integrations

Many form plugins have direct CRM integrations without Zapier:

• WPForms → HubSpot, Salesforce, Drip (paid add-ons, $199-$599/yr tier)
• Gravity Forms → Various CRM add-ons (paid, $59-$259/yr)
• Formidable Forms → CRM integrations (paid tiers)

The catch: these integrations are usually gated behind expensive tiers, and they still require a separate CRM plugin or SaaS subscription.

Option 2: WP Webhooks or AutomateWP

WordPress-native automation plugins that replace Zapier:

• WP Webhooks — Free tier available. Connects WordPress events to any API endpoint.
• AutomateWP — WordPress automation plugin. Trigger → Action, similar to Zapier but running on your server.
• FlowMattic — Zapier alternative built for WordPress.

These are cheaper than Zapier but still require configuration for each connection, and you still need both a form plugin and a CRM plugin.

Option 3: Use a form plugin with a built-in CRM

This is the approach we took with SkunkForms: don't connect forms to a CRM. Make them the same product.

When forms and CRM are the same plugin:

• Every form submission automatically creates a CRM contact
• Field mapping is built in (name → name, email → email)
• Tags are assigned based on which form was submitted
• Deals are created in your pipeline automatically
• No external service, no API calls, no task limits, no monthly fees

There's nothing to "connect" because there's nothing to connect.

The cost comparison

Even the cheapest Zapier-based setup costs 10-50x more than a plugin that doesn't need Zapier in the first place. (For a full breakdown of form plugin costs, see our no-monthly-fees comparison.)

When you DO need Zapier

To be fair, there are cases where Zapier (or something like it) makes sense:

• External SaaS CRM — If you're committed to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Pipedrive, you need middleware to connect WordPress
• Multi-system workflows — Form submission → CRM + Google Sheets + Slack notification + email sequence (lots of destinations)
• Non-WordPress systems — Connecting WordPress to tools that don't have WordPress plugins

If you're sending data to multiple external services, automation middleware is the right tool.

But if you just want form submissions to become CRM contacts on your WordPress site? You don't need middleware. You need a plugin that does both.

Setting it up

With SkunkForms (zero config)

1. Install SkunkForms (free)
2. Create a form
3. Done. Submissions automatically become CRM contacts.

No Zapier account. No API keys. No field mapping configuration. It works because forms and CRM are the same database, the same plugin, the same product.

The CRM includes:

• Contact records with full activity history
• Deal pipeline (customisable stages)
• Tags and segmentation
• Notes and activity logging
• Dashboard with analytics

For full setup details, see our CRM integration docs.

All free. All on your server.

Try it →

The bigger point

The WordPress ecosystem has a fragmentation problem. You need a form plugin, a CRM plugin, an integration plugin, an SMTP plugin, and an analytics plugin — all from different developers, all with separate update cycles, all potentially conflicting with each other.

Every integration point is a potential failure. Every additional plugin is overhead.

The solution isn't better integration middleware. It's fewer things to integrate. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see our guide on connecting WordPress forms directly to your CRM.