How to Install WPForms on a WordPress Site – Activate License- Both Free and Premium plugin

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How to easily install WPForms on your WordPress site

After you start a blog or a website on WordPress, you will encounter a small bump in the road and that is creating forms.

Do you know WordPress is the most popular CMS and yet it does not come with the built-in form functionality.

It is important to know due to the unavailability of this feature, a lot of new users often find themselves looking for answers to questions like

• Does WordPress include a form builder
• How to create forms in WordPress
• Is it difficult to create forms in WordPress

You already know the answer to the first question and that is No and as far as the next 2 questions are concerned the answers are

• To create forms in WordPress you need to use a form builder plugin like WPForms.
• No, it is not difficult to create forms in WordPress even if you do not have technical knowledge.

If you are not familiar with WPForms plugin then let me tell you it is one of the best drag and drop form builder plugins in the WordPress ecosystem using which you can create and add any type of forms on your site.

Keeping this in mind, to build forms using WPForms the first step is to install this plugin on your site.

And in this tutorial we will be learning just that and more starting with

• Getting to know WPForms better
• Learning about its features and versions
• Installing it on your WordPress site
• Activating your WPForms license

Having said that, lets start the tutorial

What is WPForms

As mentioned before, WPForms is a very popular form builder plugin that allows you to create forms in WordPress using the drag and drop feature.

This means if you are looking to create a form then all you have to do is drag and drop the form fields that you want to include in the form builder and your form is ready to be published.

Before we move forward it is important to know often when we talk about form creation it automatically gets associated with building contact forms.

However, that is not the case here because WPForms allows you to create different types of forms in WordPress ranging from Contact forms to opt-in and surveys to order forms.

All in all, WPForms is a form builder plugin that not only allows to create contact forms but other types of forms as well.

Having said that,

WPForms being one of the best form builder plugins in the WordPress ecosystem has over 4 million active installations.

On top of that it has over 8000 five star reviews on WordPress.org

As far as the versions are concerned, WPForms has 2

• WPForms Lite
• WPForms Premium

As mentioned before, in this tutorial in this tutorial we will be discussing how can you install both of these versions on your WordPress site easily.

But before we dive into that lets discuss the features of both the WPForms versions first and learn more about what it has to offer.

Features of WPForms Lite

First things first, WPForms Lite is the free version of the WPForms plugin and it can be downloaded directly from the WordPress plugin repository.

WPForms Lite is also known as Contact forms by WPForms and as the name suggests this plugin was created to help users build and add contact forms on their WordPress sites easily without having the need to hire a developer or worry about the code.

And this plugin helps you with just that.

WPForms is a beginner friendly plugin that is packed with features and below we have discussed some of them.

Drag and Drop

If you have been using WordPress for a while then I’m sure you must have heard about the drag and drop functionality that some of the popular WordPress plugins such as Elementor offer.

This feature takes away all the hard work as you just have to drag and drop the elements on the canvas and the rest is taken care of by the plugin.

WPForms being a user friendly plugin comes with the drag and drop functionality using which you can add various fields and elements to your forms easily.

As you can see, the form comes to life as you start adding various elements and the best part is no code is required to do this.

Responsive

In the past few years, the hand held devices have gained popularity and because of this it has become very important for any site to work properly on any device or screen size.

This means the forms that you are adding on site have to be mobile friendly or there are chances that your site might look broken on these devices.

Taking this into consideration, the forms created using WPForms are 100% responsive which means these will look and work exactly the way you want on any screen size.

And the best part is you just have to create and add the forms on your site and WPForms will take care of the rest.

Spam Protection

One of the biggest problems in the online ecosystem is Spam and it follows you everywhere.

Think about a scenario where you have created a blog on WordPress and published a few articles.

Soon after hitting the publish button you will notice an influx of comments and emails that have nothing to do with your site.

And in case you are not using any anti-spam tool then this situation can get out of hand very quickly. In the worst case scenario, this can lead to you missing out on valuable messages and comments.

To take care of this WPForms comes with smart CAPTCHA and honey pot solutions to stop the spam submissions.

In case you are thinking, if this is easy to implement then the answer is YES. For this all you have to do is register with a SPAM Protection service and enable it on your forms.

See- How to enable hCaptcha in WPForms

Pre-built Templates

As we have discussed several times in this article that WPForms makes the form building process as easy as it gets.

And to add to this, it comes with Pre-built templates to speed up the building process as well.

Think about a scenario where you are looking to save time and do not want to create a form in WordPress from scratch.

With WPForms, all you have to do is just navigate to settings inside your WPForms form builder and it lets you choose from the 150+ pre-made form templates available in the WPForms library.

These templates will contain all the necessary fields and it you add more or remove depending on your requirements.

It is important to know that in the free version you only get to choose from a limited types of templates and when you upgrade, you get access to more templates depending on your license level.

Personally speaking, we are using the Pro License and it gives us access to almost every feature and form type that can be created using WPForms.

Newsletters and Suggestion forms

As mentioned above, WPForms lite is also know as a free contact form plugin. However, it lets you do a lot more than that.

Using WPForms Lite, you can create newsletter sign up form and start collecting emails for your email marketing campaigns.

Alongside this, WPForms also lets you create suggestion forms using which you can take suggestion from the users about various aspects of your website and then improve on it.

It is important to keep in mind that WPForms only lets you connect with Constant Contact for free and for integrating with other marketing tools and CRM’s you will have to upgrade your account to Pro.

Now that you are familiar with What WPForms has to offer, its time we dive into the

Features of WPForms Premium

As the name suggests WPForms premium is the paid version of WPForms and this means to use this version you will have to pay.

WPForms premium is known as plain and simple “WPForms” unlike its free counterpart which is WPForms Lite.

This plugin is packed with features and lets you create any type of forms in WordPress and you can do a lot more with this plugin.

Before we dive into the features, it is important to know the premium version of WPForms include every feature from the free plugin.

And this means you get access to

• Drag and Drop builder
• Spam Protection
• Pre-built templates
• Responsive
• Newsletter and suggestion forms

And on top of that you get access to the features and functionalities that we are going to discuss below

File Uploads

File uploads is a feature that you need when you want the users on your site to attach documents with their messages.

This functionality comes in very handy if you are looking to hire and want your future employees to attach their resumes in the application form.

Or if you are running a contest and it requires participants to attach documents such as a photography or a digital art contest.

Also, a lot of consultants use this type of forms to receive requirements from their future clients as well.

All in all, file upload is a pretty useful feature if you want to accept user generated content along with the some files and WPForms lets you do this easily.

The best part about doing this with WPForms is that everything has already been done for you.

You just have to select the file upload template, check / change a few settings and that’s it you have successfully create a form that accepts files from the users.

It is this simple with no behind the scenes or technical knowledge required.

Conditional Logic

Smart Conditional Logic is a feature that WPForms is known for. In case you are not familiar with the term conditional logic then let me tell you briefly about it.

Think about a scenario where you want to user your contact form as a newsletter subscription form . By this I mean you want the users to send you message and at the same time give them an opportunity to subscribe.

You can do this easily by using Conditional Logic in WPForms where when a user sends you a message and selects the option to subscribe, the email address used is automatically sent and added to the email marketing tool or CRM.

Another common use of conditional logic is in the ecommerce industry where at times the site might show you a survey or a poll based on the product or the value of the product you are about to purchase.

This might seem a bit complicated to some of you. However, with WPForms this can be done easily.

Payment Forms

In the last decade or so ecommerce industry has grown leaps and bounds. Now, you can buy and sell any product or service by sitting in the comfort of your home.

And every thing is processed digitally including payments.

Keeping this is mind, WPForms lets you create payment form using which you can accept online payments, donations and orders easily.

You can do this by integrating WPForms with PayPal, Stripe or Authorize.net.

User registeration

I’m sure you are already familiar with the term User Registrations and most definitely have come across plenty of websites that ask you to register before or after taking an action.

In case you have a site that requires users to register then WPForms user registration feature is the one for you.

Using WPForms you can easily create a user registration form in WordPress which will allow users to select a username, password, fill out a bio and in the end assign them a default role.

Keeping in mind the user friendly aspect of the WPForms plugin, the forms created can be placed anywhere on the site using a shortcode.

And on top that to reduce the registration spam, WPForms comes with a feature that lets you manually approve each registeration.

Also, you can combine these forms with your email marketing tool such as Constant contact, ConvertKit, Aweber and more to add these users directly to your email list.

Surveys and Polls

Knowing your users well and improving on their feedback is the key to running a successful online business.

And you can get access to these insights using Surveys and Polls.

There are quite a lot of third party tools that let you run surveys. However, there are some major drawbacks of using these which are

• Data is stored on a third party server
• Limited customization options
• Expensive

Using WPForms you can create and run such campaigns with ease without having to depend on third party services.

And the best part is you can use conditional logic to personalize these forms based on the input provided by the user.

Also, WPForms lets you export these survey reports in various formats.

Multipage Forms

Filling out long forms can be boring and to improve the user experience you need to nreak such forms into multiple pages.

For example, when you buy hosting from SiteGround, after selecting the plan the first part of the registeration process involves adding / buying a domain name.

And once form is successfully filled, it takes you to the second phased or another form where you are required to provide additional details.

Now, this is just one example and use of a multipage form and this feature can be used for creating other types of forms such as

• Registration forms
• Job application forms
• Order forms

And more.

In case you are looking to create long forms but want to break them into small pages then you can do that easily with WPForms.

With WPForms’s easy to use drag and drop interface, you can re-arrange pages, move fields and break them into pages with just a few clicks.

User Journey

If you want to improve the conversion rate of your site then you need to know about the user’s journey before filling out the form.

This will let you know

• Which pages are the best converting
• What is the source of traffic
• Which pages or posts user visited before filling the form.
• What user search for
• Which UTM parameters from the marketing campaigns they responded to

And more.

These are some valuable insights using which you can improve and optimize your site. And all of this information is at your disposal when you create forms with WPForms.

On top of all this, every bit of this information will be available in your WordPress dashboard and you don’t have to use any third party tool for this.

Geolocation

While we are on the topic of getting to know the user through the insights provided by WPForms, it is important to know this plugin lets you know about one more thing.

And that is the user’s Geolocation.

WPForms Geolocation addon is a plug-and-play. Once this addon is installed, it collects Geolocation data such as country, state and city.

And this information is stored with the users form submission.

Using this information you can further optimize your campaigns and improve the conversion rate.

Having said that,

The feature list of the premium version of WPForms is extensive and you can see all of them by visit this link.

In case you are looking to buy this plugin then using our SPECIAL LINK you can get 50% off.

How to install WPForms Lite

As you know WPForms has 2 versions

• Free
• Paid

And in this tutorial we are going to discuss How to install both these versions in your WordPress site starting with free.

Installing WPForms Lite in WordPress is pretty simple and is just like installing any other plugin.

And for this, the first step is to login to your WordPress admin and then navigate to Plugins and click Add New.

On doing this, it will take you to the built-in WordPress plugin repository where you will have to search for WPForms.

This will show you the related results in which the first 2 will be

• Contact form by WPForms
• WP Mail SMTP by WPForms

Out of these 2, you need to install the first one and that is Contact form by WPForms.

And for that you need to click the Install Now button on the listing and once the installation is complete click Activate.

Now, when you activate the plugin, it will take you to the Welcome page of WPForms inside your dashboard.

Once there you will see a tutorial about creating your first form in WordPress and to get started all you have to do is click Create your first form.

Doing this will take you to the WPForms form builder where you can start creating forms.

And that’s it you have successfully installed WPForms Lite on your WordPress site.

Now that you have installed the free version of WPForms the next topic we are going to discuss is

How to buy WPForms plugin

Before we dive into installing the premium version of WPForms, it is important that you purchase a subscription and that is what we are going to discuss in this section.

To buy a WPForms subscription, the first step is to head over to WPForms.com and if you visit using our SPECIAL LINK you will get a 50% discount.

Doing this will take you to the home page of the website.

Once there you can click either the Pricing tab in the navigation or Get WPForms button and it will show you the WPForms pricing and plans

WPForms Pricing

WPForms being a premium WordPress plugin offers 4 plans and if you use our SPECIAL LINK then you will get a 50% off on your purchase (No code required). Below is the discounted pricing

• Basic- $39.50/ year
• Plus- $99.50/ year
• Pro- $199/ year
• Elite- $299/ year

As you can see every WPForms plans offers something extra or more depending on the pricing. And below we have listed what you get in each plan

Personally speaking, we use the WPForms Pro plan. It is the most popular plan and offers almost every feature that this plugin has.

Before we move forward, it is important to know WPForms also offers Unconditional 14 Days Money Back Guarantee with every plan.

WPForms is a must have plugin and shouldn’t miss out on it.

Now that you are familiar with what WPForms has to offer, the next step is to select a plan depending on your requirement by clicking the Get Started button.

On doing so, it will take you to the checkout page where the first section you will see is related to your purchase.

Here you will see the plan you are about to purchase, the discount applied and the total amount you will have to pay.

In case you do not see the 50% discount applied then I will recommend clicking the coupon code SAVE50 and it will automatically apply it during checkout.

Having said that,

After the checkout section, the next section that your will encounter is the the Account Information.

How to create an account on WPForms

In the Account Information section, you need to provide some basic information about yourself such as

• Email
• First Name
• Last Name
• Password

And more.

It is important to know that the email address and the password that you will select here will be used to log in to WPForms.

Once you are done adding account information, the last section lets you Select a Payment Method and WPForms lets you pay via 2 methods

• Credit Card
• PayPal

Here you are required to select a preferred payment method, enter the required details and complete the payment process by clicking Complete Checkout.

On clicking, it will process the payment which might take a few seconds and then you will receive a payment receipt from WPForms in your inbox.

And that’s it your have successfully purchased WPForms.

Once you have received the email from WPForms, the next step is

How to set up WPForms account

To set up your WPForms license, the first step is to login to your WPForms account and for that you need to visit WPForms.

And then click Log In on the main naviagtion.

On clicking Log In, it will take you to the WPForms login in page and there you need to enter the credentials that you have selected during the checkout phase.

Once you have successfully logged in, the WPForms onboarding process will begin. Here you are required to answer some basic questions to set up your WPForms account.

The first question that you will encounter in the sequence is “What describes you best?” and you will get 5 options to choose from.

• Publisher/ Blogger
• Business Owner
• Store Owner
• Freelance Developer
• Agency

As we run and manage different blogs, here we have selected Publisher/ Blogger. You can select any of the options depending on your situation and then click Save and Continue.

Doing this will take you to the next question which is “What is the name of your company”.

Here you are required to enter the name of your company in the space provided and then again click Save and Complete.

After this, the next question that you will come across is “What is your role in the company” and here you will get 5 options to choose from.

• Founder/CEO
• Manager/ Exec
• Marketing/ Sales
• Agency/Consultant
• Single Owner

Select any of the options based on the position you hold in the company and click Save and Complete.

Once you are done till here, the next question you need to answer is What type of forms are you looking to create.

And here you will get 10 options to choose from

Select the options based on your requirement and click Save and Complete.

After you are done answering these questions, it will take you to the WPForms dashboard where under the Overview section you will see all your account details.

Now that you are done buying and your WPForms account is all set up, its time we dive into

How to install WPForms Premium plugin

To install the premium version of WPForms, the first step is to download the plugin and for that you need to click the Downloads tab in your WPForms account.

Once there you will see the WPForms license key, the date of expiration, site activations and an option to download WPForms.

Note- In case you have already installed the WPForms Lite plugin then all you have to do is activate the license and you can jump to that section by using Table of Content in the sidebar.

To download the WPForms plugin you need to click Download WPForms button and the download will start instantly.

Once the plugin has finished downloading, the next step us to log in to your WordPress dashboard and then navigate to plugins and click Add New.

Doing this will take you to the free plugin repository inside your WordPress dashboard and here you need to click Upload Plugin button on top.

When you click Upload Plugin, it will show you an option to choose the plugin files from your system.

And in the next step you need to click the Install Now button.

On doing so, it will start installing the plugin and once done it will show you the Activate Plugin button.

Click the Activate Plugin button to finish installing WPForms.

After the installation of WPForms is complete, it will take you to the WPForms Welcome page in your WordPress dashboard.

Now, the next step in the process is

How to activate WPForms license

To verify your WPForms license, the first step is to locate the WPForms tab in your WordPress dashboard and then click settings.

Clicking Settings will take you to WPForms General Settings and here the first option allows you to verify your WPForms license key.

Now, you need to head over to your WPForms account and copy the license key from the Downloads tab.

Once done, you need to enter this key in the space provided just like the screenshot below.

And click the Verify Key button.

Doing this will activate the WPForms license key and a popup will appear stating “This site is now receiving automatic updates.”

Here you need to click the OK button on the popup and you will notice just below the license key box, it will show you the level of the license.

As you can see in the screenshot above, in our case the level of the license key is Pro as we are using the Pro plan.

And that’s it you have successfully installed and activated WPForms on your WordPress site.

Before we move forward, it important to know that after you have successfully verified your WPForms license, you can go back to your WPForms account and you will notice that the Site Activation count has changed.

And you can click View sites to see on which sites the license in active. In case you want to deactivate, clicking view site will give you the option to do so.

I hope you will find this tutorial helpful and are able to install WPForms plugin on your WordPress site and activate the premium license.

In case you have any queries regarding this then feel free to reach out via the comment section. Also, don’t forget to share this tutorial with on social media

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