Form Maker vs Jetpack Forms: An In-Depth Comparison

Posted by Josh Blackburn, in Contact Form Plugins

Form Maker and Jetpack Forms Overview

When it comes to enhancing our WordPress websites with form functionality, we consider various plugins that can fit our needs. Two notable plugins in this space are Form Maker and Jetpack Forms. Each of these plugins offers a unique set of features tailored to different types of users.

Form Maker is a versatile plugin that allows us to create a wide range of forms, from simple contact forms to complicated multi-page forms with conditional logic. It is user-friendly, with a drag-and-drop interface that makes form creation accessible to beginners and experienced users alike.

• Key Features of Form Maker:
  • Drag-and-drop form builder
  • Pre-made templates for quick setup
  • Customizable themes
  • Supports conditional logic
  • Responsive design for mobile compatibility

Jetpack Forms, on the other hand, is part of the larger Jetpack plugin suite, known for its security, performance, and site management features. Jetpack Forms is simple, providing us with the essential tools we need to create basic contact forms. It’s well-integrated within the Jetpack ecosystem, making it an excellent choice for users already relying on Jetpack’s other features.

• Key Features of Jetpack Forms:
  • Quick and easy form setup
  • Basic field options
  • Email notifications upon form submission
  • Spam filtering with Akismet
  • Seamless integration with Jetpack features

Our choice between Form Maker and Jetpack Forms depends heavily on our specific requirements. If our intention is to build complex forms and we need a great degree of customization, Form Maker might be our go-to solution. In contrast, for straightforward form needs and a preference for Jetpack’s comprehensive functionality, Jetpack Forms could be our ideal match.

Core Functionalities Compared

In this section, we’re focusing on the key functionalities of Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, showcasing how they stack up against each other in various aspects of form creation and management on WordPress sites.

Form Building Capabilities

Form Maker is a highly versatile form builder offering a drag-and-drop interface with various pre-built form templates, which is beneficial for both beginners and advanced users. Jetpack Forms, while streamlined, provides users with essential form building functions and a straightforward contact form solution.

Advanced Form Features

Form Maker supports advanced features like conditional logic, enabling dynamic forms that respond to user input. It easily integrates with payment gateways such as PayPal and Stripe for handling payments within forms. Jetpack Forms, in contrast, offers more basic functionalities with less focus on these advanced features.

Integration Options

With Form Maker, you have substantial integration options including MailChimp for email marketing, various CRMs, and popular eCommerce tools such as WooCommerce. Jetpack Forms offers simpler integration capabilities primarily limited to the tools within the Jetpack plugin suite and lacks direct CRM integration.

Ease of Use and Accessibility

Jetpack Forms is very user-friendly, making it an excellent option for those new to creating forms. Form Maker, while offering a user-friendly experience, requires a bit more time to master due to its extensive features and options for customization.

Customization and Flexibility

Form Maker allows for a high degree of customization with options to use custom CSS for personalizing forms. Jetpack Forms, while not as flexible as Form Maker, still affords a decent level of customization for basic contact forms.

Security Measures

Jetpack Forms incorporates WordPress.com’s suite of security measures, including spam filtering through Akismet and CAPTCHA integration to guard against unwanted form submissions. Form Maker also provides robust security options to ensure that form submissions are protected.

Form Performance and Loading Speed

Jetpack Forms is optimized for performance, contributing to faster loading times, which is integral for maintaining site speed, especially for users with multiple forms. Form Maker forms are also optimized for speed, ensuring minimal impact on site performance, but with advanced features, they might require fine-tuning to maintain optimal loading times.

Design and User Experience

When we consider the design and user experience of Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, we focus on ease of use, available customization options, and the overall aesthetic flexibility they provide for webmasters.

Themes and Style Customization

Form Maker:

• Themes: Offers a variety of pre-designed themes that can be applied to forms, ensuring they fit the overall look and feel of your website with minimal effort.
• Customization: Users have the flexibility to deeply customize the style through CSS, allowing for a unique look for each form, whether it’s for user registration, feedback, or any other purpose.
• Embedding: Incorporating forms into posts, pages, or sidebars is streamlined, ensuring a seamless integration with your existing content.

Jetpack Forms:

• Form Templates: Provides starter form templates which are easy to insert into pages and posts but with limited styles.
• Customization: While there are some customization options, they are less extensive than some other plugins. Users may need to rely on additional CSS for further customization.
• Themes: The form design is generally consistent with the Jetpack’s overall style, providing a cohesive look for users familiar with the Jetpack ecosystem.
• Embedding: Jetpack forms can be quickly added to any post or page directly from the WordPress block editor, making form integration simple and straightforward for all users.

Support and Documentation

In our comparison of Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, we focus on the critical aspects of customer support services and documentation that these WordPress plugins offer. We understand that reliable support and comprehensive documentation are key for users to efficiently utilize any plugin.

Customer Support Services

Form Maker provides a tiered support system, which includes a help center, email support, and live chat services for premium users. We have found their response times to be generally prompt, and the support team is knowledgeable about both basic and advanced functionalities.

• Help Center: Available for all users, containing a wealth of FAQs and user guides.
• Email Support: Timely email responses, prioritized for premium license holders.
• Live Chat: Fast and direct support, reserved for users with a paid subscription.

Jetpack Forms, on the other hand, benefits from being part of the larger Jetpack plugin suite with a dedicated support team. Their services are robust and can be summarized as follows:

• Free Support: Accessible via WordPress.org forums for users of the free version.
• Full Support: Available only to paying customers, includes more immediate, personal assistance.

Community and Resources

When it comes to community and resources, Form Maker leverages the WordPress community through various forums and discussion boards, while Jetpack Forms taps into a larger user base owing to its association with the Jetpack ecosystem.

Form Maker:

• WordPress.org Forum: Active discussions where users exchange tips and solutions.
• Online Documentation: A comprehensive collection of articles and tutorials.

Jetpack Forms:

• Jetpack Community: A vast network of users that contributes to a rich repository of knowledge.
• Documentation: Detailed, regularly updated guides that cover usage and troubleshooting.

Comparative Analysis of Additional Features

When examining Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, we notice that both offer unique capabilities beyond basic form building. These additional features enhance the functionality of the forms and provide users with more sophisticated options for collecting information and integrating with other services.

Marketing and Analytics Tools

Form Maker provides robust analytics and marketing tools. Advanced features like email notifications and integrations with AWeber and Constant Contact streamline the marketing efforts directly from the form submissions. This integration allows us to capture leads and manage email lists effectively. Moreover, the analytics suite of Form Maker assists us with tracking form views and understanding how users interact with our forms.

In contrast, Jetpack Forms focuses more on simplicity and does not tout as extensive a suite of marketing and analytics tools. However, it does offer essential email notifications which ensure that we are alerted as soon as a form is submitted. This can be beneficial for timely responses but lacks deeper analytics and marketing integrations.

Advanced Form Types and Uses

With Form Maker, we can create complex forms including multi-page forms, survey, order forms, and payment forms. This capability is especially useful when we require detailed information from users. For instance, multi-page forms improve user experience by not overwhelming them with too many fields at once. Additionally, Form Maker supports file uploads, database storage, and registration forms, thus expanding its use-case scenarios.

Alternatively, Jetpack Forms offers less in terms of advanced form types. It accommodates the building of standard forms but does not specialize in complex or multi-page forms. Jetpack’s strength lies in its integration with the WordPress ecosystem, allowing for seamless inclusion of forms within posts and pages. However, for advanced uses such as payment or order forms, Jetpack may not be the ideal choice as it lacks the direct integration with payment gateways or complex form logic.

Our analysis shows that while both Form Maker and Jetpack Forms are capable form builders, Form Maker takes the lead in terms of advanced features and marketing capabilities, whereas Jetpack Forms offers a more streamlined, no-frills approach geared towards simplicity and basic form integration within WordPress.

Pricing and Subscription Models

In our analysis of Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, we observe how their pricing structures are designed to fit various needs, from simple personal blogs to more complex, business-driven websites.

Free vs Premium Offerings

Form Maker:
Our exploration reveals that Form Maker provides a free version, known as WPForms Lite, which caters to basic form creation needs. However, for advanced features and integrations, it offers premium plans. The pricing for these plans is tiered based on the feature set, which includes access to more complex form fields, conditional logic, and multi-page forms:

• Basic Plan
• Plus Plan
• Pro Plan
• Elite Plan

Jetpack Forms:
The Jetpack plugin, which includes Jetpack Forms, presents a unique case. It starts with a free tier allowing users to add basic contact forms to their WordPress sites. However, Jetpack’s utility expands beyond forms, offering security, performance, and site management features. For premium form-related functionality and additional Jetpack services, users can subscribe to one of the following:

• Personal Plan
• Premium Plan
• Professional Plan

Across these offerings, users weigh their decisions based on whether their needs align with the free functionalities or if their ambitions require the more sophisticated features found in the paid tiers. Notably, for users seeking specialised form solutions, other plugins such as Formidable Forms, Ninja Forms, Typeform, Contact Form 7, and Gravity Forms all provide varying levels of free and premium services, tailored to a wide array of use cases and budgets.

User Reviews and Market Reputation

When we examine user reviews, Form Maker and Jetpack Forms have distinct reputations in the market. Form Maker is praised for its flexibility and ability to accommodate a variety of forms, from simple contact forms to complex multi-page questionnaires with conditional logic. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface, which facilitates quick form creation on WordPress websites.

Jetpack Forms, on the other hand, is recognized for its seamless integration with the Jetpack plugin suite and ease of use within the WordPress block editor. Users highlight Jetpack’s set of features that support visitor engagement, such as basic contact forms and user registration capabilities. However, some users desire more advanced features that are commonly found in dedicated WordPress contact form plugins.

Here’s a summarized breakdown of their market reputation:

Both Form Maker and Jetpack Forms receive regular updates, which is a testament to the ongoing support and trust in these plugins. The WordPress community actively discusses both, contributing to their continuous improvement. By staying attuned to user feedback and industry trends, both plugins maintain relevance and adapt to the evolving needs of WordPress website administrators.

Form Maker and Jetpack Forms in the Ecosystem

We recognize the importance of choosing the right contact form plugin for a WordPress site. Our focus is to clarify how Form Maker and Jetpack Forms stand out in the crowded ecosystem of WordPress form plugins.

Comparison with Other WordPress Form Plugins

When weighing Form Maker against Jetpack Forms, it’s essential to consider their positioning among other popular plugins like Contact Form 7 and Gravity Forms. Both Form Maker and Jetpack Forms offer an intuitive interface for creating simple to complex forms. Jetpack Forms is integrated into the Jetpack plugin, facilitating the use of contact forms directly within the WordPress block editor, without the need for external plugins. Form Maker, on the other hand, serves as a standalone plugin dedicated to form building, offering a similar ease of use to Contact Form 7 but with additional features that compare to the advanced capabilities of Gravity Forms.

• Contact Form 7: Known for its simplicity and effectiveness for creating basic contact forms.
• Gravity Forms: Offers a wide range of features and complex functionality.
• Form Maker: Strikes a balance with a user-friendly interface and a rich selection of tools.
• Jetpack Forms: Emphasizes seamless integration within the Jetpack suite, providing a straightforward approach to form creation.

Extensibility and Add-Ons

Our integration possibilities open up with Form Maker and Jetpack Forms through their respective add-ons and extensibility. Form Maker offers a diverse range of add-ons, allowing for integration with services like MailChimp for email marketing and PayPal for payment processing, enhancing the functionalities of the contact forms well beyond basic inquiries.

• MailChimp Add-On: Connect your forms to an email list and automate marketing campaigns.
• PayPal Integration: Collect payments, donations, and online orders through your forms.

Jetpack Forms, while simpler, still allows for essential integrations and is boosted by the robust features of the Jetpack plugin, including spam protection with Akismet and a plethora of other site management features. This makes Jetpack Forms a convenient option for users seeking a no-fuss integration with their WordPress workflow, but with the assurance of high-quality features that the Jetpack ecosystem provides.

Conclusion and Recommendations

When evaluating Form Maker and Jetpack Forms for WordPress, we have carefully considered several factors to guide our recommendations. Here’s what we found:

• Comparison: Both plugins offer user-friendly interfaces with a range of functionalities. Form Maker emerges as the more flexible option, providing a broader array of field types and customizability.

• Flexibility: In our experience, Form Maker offers a higher degree of flexibility, catering to complex form creation needs. Jetpack Forms, while less flexible, still meets basic requirements efficiently.

• Powerful: For power users, Form Maker’s advanced features and customization options make it the go-to choice. It allows for intricate form structures and logic that can be tailored closely to specific user needs.

• Reliable: Reliability is key for any plugin, and both perform well in this regard. However, Jetpack Forms benefits from the integration with the WordPress.com infrastructure, potentially offering a marginal edge in reliability and support.

• User-Friendly: Jetpack Forms is generally more user-friendly for beginners due to its simpler interface and integration with other Jetpack features.

Here’s our brief recommendation based on these considerations:

In conclusion, we recommend Form Maker for users who need advanced form capabilities and customization. For those seeking simplicity and ease of use, Jetpack Forms is a reliable alternative with sufficient features for basic form needs.

FAQs: Addressing Common Concerns

When choosing between Form Maker and Jetpack Forms, we often encounter several common questions. We’ve compiled these FAQs to address your concerns confidently and clearly.

Can we customize forms to match our website’s look and feel?

• Form Maker: Yes, we can customize forms extensively with themes and CSS.
• Jetpack Forms: Customization is possible, but options are more limited compared to Form Maker.

What types of form fields are supported?

• Form Maker: Offers a wide range of fields including text, email, phone, and date picker.
• Jetpack Forms: Provides essential fields, but may lack some advanced field types.

How do we manage form responses?

• Form Maker: Form responses are stored in the WordPress database and can be exported.
• Jetpack Forms: Responses are emailed to us and can also be found in the feedback section of WordPress.

Is it necessary to have coding knowledge to use these plugins?

• Not for basic usage. Both plugins offer a user-friendly interface suitable for beginners, but Form Maker allows for more complex form building that might benefit from HTML/CSS knowledge.

Do these plugins support spam protection?

• Yes, both offer spam protection features; Jetpack Forms has built-in Akismet support, while Form Maker integrates with options like reCAPTCHA.

What about the impact on site performance?

• Form Maker: Typically has minimal impact, but this can vary with complex forms.
• Jetpack Forms: Known to be resource-intensive, which might affect site speed.

We hope these answers help you make an informed decision when choosing the right form plugin for your needs.

Best Practices and Optimization Tips

To optimize form performance and boost conversions, we must focus on refining the user experience, tightening security measures, and ensuring the accessibility of our forms.

Improving Form Conversion

In our quest for higher conversion rates, the first step is a strategic form design that simplifies the user journey on our WordPress website. Here’s how we can optimize our forms:

• Simplify Fields: Keep the number of fields to a minimum. Each additional field can reduce conversion rates, so we include only the essentials.
• Call to Action: We ensure that the call-to-action button is prominent and its message is clear and compelling.
• Mobile Responsiveness: With the increasing use of mobile devices, our forms must function flawlessly across all screen sizes.
• Loading Speed: We optimize our forms for swift loading by minimizing their file size, which contributes to the overall performance of the WordPress website.
• Akismet Integration: To maintain form quality and deter spam, we integrate Akismet for efficient spam filtering without affecting the user experience.

Maintaining Form Data Security

Form security is critical to protect both our WordPress website and our users’ data. Here’s our approach:

• Data Encryption: We use SSL encryption for data transmission to ensure all information is secure.
• Regular Updates: We keep all form plugins and the WordPress core updated to defend against known vulnerabilities.
• CAPTCHA Implementation: To prevent bots from submitting forms, we apply CAPTCHA or other verification methods.

Enhancing Form Accessibility

Accessibility is integral to reaching a wider audience and providing an inclusive experience. To achieve this, we consider the following:

• Keyboard Navigation: Our forms are fully navigable using a keyboard, catering to users with diverse abilities.
• Screen Reader Compatibility: We use proper semantic HTML and ARIA labels to support screen readers.
• Contrast Ratios: Text and backgrounds have sufficient contrast ratios to be legible for those with visual impairments.
• Descriptive Labels: Each form element has a clear and descriptive label, aiding comprehension for all users.

Within these practices, we ensure to consider the nuances of popular WordPress page builders like Divi, which often includes specific modules or optimizations tailored to their frameworks. By implementing these best practices, we can increase form effectiveness, provide secure user interactions, and maintain an inclusive environment for all potential users.

Future of Form Plugins in WordPress

As we look toward the future of form plugins in WordPress, we can anticipate several trends influenced by advances in technology and user demands. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to play a significant role in shaping this future. We can expect AI to streamline form creation, offering predictive input and analytics that enhance user experience and data collection efficiency.

For advanced users, form plugins will likely provide more customizable features that require minimal coding. This satisfies the need for tailor-made solutions without the complexity traditionally associated with custom development.

In terms of plugin development, the focus will be on seamless integration with other WordPress tools and plugins. Enhanced connectivity will be key, ensuring that form plugins work hand-in-hand with e-commerce, customer relationship management systems, and marketing automation tools.

The table below highlights some expected advancements:

WordPress development as a whole will also emphasize security and privacy, especially given the global attention to data protection. Form plugins must accordingly offer robust security features to safeguard user information.

In essence, the trajectory for form plugins is one where complex functionality becomes more accessible, interactions become smarter, and plugin ecosystems become more interconnected, all while ensuring a balance between user-friendliness and powerful capabilities.