Why use Contact Form 7 Anyway?

If you’re already a Contact Form 7 user, then you can skip to the next section to find out more about the 7 best Contact Form 7 extensions. However, if you are yet to start using contact forms on your WordPress website, here is some information on why you might want to consider using Contact Form 7 as your plugin of choice.
One of the key selling points of Contact Form 7, besides its lack of a price tag, is its ease of use. Simply install the plugin and you can begin adding the default, prebuilt contact form to you posts and pages.
Adding the included form to your content is as easy as copying the relevant shortcode and pasting it into position. By default, any form entries will be sent directly to the email address associated with your WordPress user account.

Now, in just a few clicks, you’ll have a fully functioning contact form on your website. With Contact Form 7 you are free to create as many different forms as you need, and then insert them wherever they’re required on your website.

This free plugin includes a respectable amount of form fields, each of which can be added to your forms through the straightforward editor. Compared to the commercial alternatives, it’s true that Contact Form 7 is lacking in certain areas. This includes the absence of a drag and drop form builder and more advanced form field types, but for anyone seeking a basic forms solution that is very easy to use, you can’t go wrong with Contact Form 7.
As we’re about to see, thanks to the growing number of add-ons available for this plugin, you might be able to add any of the missing features that you need, in just a few clicks.

The 7 Best Contact Form 7 Extensions

So, now that we know why you should consider using the free Contact Form 7 plugin, let’s explore some of the ways it can be upgraded to offer more functionality and compete better with some of the commercial alternatives out there.

1. Contact Form 7 Select Box Editor Button

If you want to give your visitors the ability to select where their form entry is sent to, this is the extension for you.
When using the free Contact Form 7 Select Box Editor Button extension, you can add a drop down menu to your forms. This drop down menu allows the user to select a recipient from a predefined list. When setting up the form, each of your recipients will have their own email address, and the contents of the form are then sent to that address.

Each recipient on your list can be given a display name. This then prevents the recipient email addresses from being publically disclosed, while still making it easy for the user to select the right destination for their form submission.
Whether you want to list the recipient names or use this feature to ensure form submissions go to the right department of your business, this free Contact Form 7 Extension can help you achieve your goals.

2. Contact Form DB

One area where Contact Form 7 is lacking, at least, compared to some of its rivals, is the ability to store form entries in your WordPress database and then make them accessible from your admin dashboard area.
There are many benefits to being able to store form entries in this way. Some of these advantages include having a central location where all form submissions are recorded and can be accessed from, being able to quickly check for new and historic form submissions without having to search multiple inboxes, and creating a backup store of entries should email delivery stop working for some reason.
I periodically check the form submissions recorded in the database on my website to ensure I haven’t missed any new leads for my services. It’s surprising how often I’ve missed an email from a potential client or for some reason, it never turned up in my inbox. If you value the correspondence you receive from your visitors, then it’s highly recommended that you put in place some method for storing those form entries.
With this free add-on enabled on your site, you can store entries from your Contact Form 7 forms in your WordPress database and then access them through your WordPress admin area. If you are using multiple forms on your site, you can easily filter the stored entries by form. The process of deleting records is also very straightforward.
Contact Form DB gives you an easy way to export your entries in a range of formats. These options include Excel, Google Sheets, CSV, and HTML to name just a few. You can filter the entries as you export them, helping you to save time when it comes to analyzing your data.
For security purposes, you can set which user roles can access and edit the stored entries through the options screen of the plugin. Furthermore, you can use shortcodes to display form submissions on public pages on your website. There’s also a commercial upgrade available, which allows you to edit form entries on your site, through a visual interface.
The Contact Form DB add-on is feature packed and gets the job done. However, the user interface could be more attractive. While there are a few alternative extensions, this free add-on has over 300,000 active installs to its name and an impressive 4.9 stars out of 5 rating. This is a good sign that Contact Form DB is a solid tool that can be trusted with your precious form submissions and leads.

3. Custom Skins Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 does a great job of ensuring its forms fit in well with the overall styling and appearance of your theme. When you consider how many different themes there are for WordPress, this is impressive.
However, if you are looking for an easy way to give your forms a custom look and ensure they either blend in better with the rest of your website or stand out on the page, the free Custom Skins Contact Form 7 add-on is a great choice.
There are a few other color skin related add-ons available for Contact Form 7. However, this one gets my vote thanks to its easy to use interface and live preview tool. All the form customization work takes place through the familiar WordPress Live Customizer, giving you a live front-end preview while you work. Being able to instantly see the effect of your customizations is always appreciated.
Of course, following these tips for manually customizing the style of Contact Form 7 will give you more control over the appearance of your forms. However, if you want a quicker option or simply don’t have the necessary CSS skills, this free add-on is a great alternative to styling your forms by hand.
This add-on does require the free Titan Framework plugin to also be active on your site; so bear that in mind when deciding whether to use this option.

4. Contact Form 7 MailChimp Extension

The free Contact Form 7 MailChimp Extension gives your visitors the option of joining your email list or newsletter at the same time as submitting a form entry.
If you are using MailChimp and Contact Form 7, this is a simple way to let your visitors keep in touch and join your newsletter after they’ve submitted a form entry. The developer of this add-on has also created similar solutions for AWeber and Campaign Monitor.
There are more options available for integrating Contact Form 7 with other email marketing services too, so be sure to check in order to find out if your preferred platform is supported.
Each form on your site can add users to a different list if necessary. You also have the option of enabling single or double optins. There’s not much more to say about this plugin. It does what it says on the tin, has over 10,000 users, and a positive 4.1 out of 5-star rating.

5. JQuery Validation For Contact Form 7

How does the idea of ensuring your visitors submit validated information through your forms sound? The free jQuery Validation For Contact Form 7 does just that, giving you the ability to easily validate certain types of data.
This Contact Form 7 add-on will check that URLs, dates, credit card numbers, and US phone numbers are entered in the correct format, through your forms. If the user makes a mistake, the offending form field is instantly highlighted, allowing them to quickly identify and then rectify the issue.
If you require more form field validation features, there is a commercial version available. With the Pro upgrade, you can set minimum and maximum field lengths, define acceptable ranges, and a few more options.
While Contact Form 7 does make marking fields as required easy, if you want to reduce the amount of incorrect data you receive, then the free jQuery Validation For Contact Form 7 add-on can help you out.

6. Contact Form 7 – Success Page Redirects

This is another simple but effective upgrade for Contact Form 7. As the name suggests, this add-on will send the visitor to a page on your site of your choice once they’ve successfully submitted a form entry.
Typically, after a form submission has been made, a success message will be displayed. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it does seem like a wasted opportunity. A visitor has just expressed an interest in your brand, so why not try to leverage this and encourage them to complete another action.
Examples of use for this Contact Form 7 module could include redirecting the user to a list of your most recent or popular posts, forwarding them to a sales page, or at the very least, sending them to your homepage or blog archive page where they can find more of your great content.

Using this add-on couldn’t be easier. Simply switch to the new tab on the form editor screen and choose one of your pages from the drop down menu.

7. Contact Form 7 Honeypot

Are you being sent unwanted spam messages via your contact form? Don’t want to upgrade to a more advanced form plugin or start displaying user-unfriendly captcha form fields? Then this free extension for Contact Form 7 could be just what you need.
The honeypot approach attempts to trick the spam bots into filling in hidden fields, forcing them to reveal that they are in fact non-human visitors to your site. These form submissions are then flagged as spam and not sent. This then reduces large amounts of the contact form spam you will receive, without annoying and frustrating your visitors with an ugly captcha field.
In practice, with this extension, adding anti-spam protection to a Contact Form 7 form is as easy as clicking on the new button this module adds to the form editor and then saving your form. The form will still look and function in the same way for human visitors while spam bots will be tricked into triggering a warning which causes the form submission to be refused.
100,000 active users and a 4.6 out of 5-star rating gives a good indication that this is an anti-spam tool you can trust.

Final Thoughts

With these seven free extensions for the equally free Contact Form 7 plugin, you can upgrade the functionality of this tried and tested WordPress form tool. Doing so extends the life of this plugin, helping reduce the need to upgrade to a more feature-rich free contact form plugin or one of the commercial options.
In some scenarios, you will need to upgrade to a more powerful tool, and in most cases, there is nothing wrong with that. Most of us will outgrow free products and services at some point. However, even if the new product is free, upgrading can be a time consuming and frustrating task. This can be especially true if you’re using multiple forms on your website and have customized them significantly.
I hope that one or more of these add-ons will extend the life of Contact Form 7 on your site, allowing you to upgrade your forms without the need to migrate to a new plugin.