Configuring WPForms Lite for WordPress

How do I find the WPForms plugin?

WPForms is one of the most popular drag & drop form builders available. It’s free and can be found in the WordPress Plugins Directory. Before you configure this plugin please make sure you’ve read the important accompanying information on this page. Here’s what to look for:

What does the WPForms plugin do?

In the world of websites it’s generally a very bad idea to publish your e-mail address anywhere. It will get flooded with spam, you’ll face no end of phishing attacks and it’s generally considered a security risk. So how to people get in touch with you? Simple – via a contact form. A contact form allows visitors to send you a message while keeping your e-mail address hidden.

You can generate as many different forms as you like and you simply drop them in to Pages or Posts using a Shortcode.

How do I configure WPForms?

The default configuration of WPForms should work just fine BUT there’s one important consideration and that’s to set up a reCAPTCHA.

What’s a reCAPTCHA?

Unfortunately forms aren’t completely immune to spam. Spammers use robots (automated bits of code) to target contact forms and send you junk e-mail via the form. Annoying eh? To get around that we generally use a thing known as a reCAPTCHA. You know that little ‘I’m not a robot’ checkbox? That:

reCAPTCHA v2 or reCAPTCHA v3?

To use reCAPTCHA you need to get a Site Key and Secret Key from Google. This is very simple to set up. Just visit the Google reCAPTCHA page and log in to the Admin Console with a Google Account.

My personal preference is to use the v2 reCAPTCHA with the checkbox. The other ones have potential implications for GDPR.

Add the reCAPTCHA details in WPForms

Simply copy and pasty your Site Key and Secret Key from the Google reCAPTCHA Admin Console to the WPForms reCAPTCHA page:

Once again, this plug in is a bit notification heavy. You can disable this in the Misc tab:

Once that’s done you can create your first contact form. Just clock ‘Add New’ and you should see the form builder. Simply drag and drop the fields from the left panel to the right panel. You should end up with something like this:

Once you’ve saved your new form you should see it listed in the Forms Overview. Each form your create will have a different shortcode. Copy that shortcode (including the square brackets) and paste it in to any Post or Page. Hey presto you should have a contact form!

If you spot any errors in this article please get in touch. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube and please join my mailing list.

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Last Updated on 24 November 2020 by Andy Mac