Last updated on October 21st, 2022 at 10:07 am

If you want your visitors to be able to contact you via your website, you need to build a WordPress form. Although you can create a basic contact form in WordPress using the Gutenberg editor, I wouldn’t recommend it. You have very few options when you use this method, and your form won’t be visually appealing.

Instead, I recommend using Ninja Forms to create contact forms (and other kinds of forms, such as request forms, subscription forms, and much more). I’ve tried dozens of different form builder plugins for WordPress, and Ninja Forms comes out on top every time. I love that it’s totally free to add to your WordPress website, and you can expand its free features with add-ons that you can buy individually or as part of a bundle.

Ninja Forms is incredibly beginner-friendly, and in this tutorial, I’m going to show you how you can add a WordPress form using Ninja Forms in three easy steps with no coding or technical knowledge needed.

How To Create A WordPress Form In 3 Steps

You can create a simple contact form in just three steps:

Step 1: Install and Activate Ninja Forms

Install the Ninja Forms plugin by navigating to your WordPress Admin Menu and clicking Plugins > Add New.  

In the Search Plugins field, type “Ninja Forms,” then click the Install Now button and Activate.

Otherwise, you can upload the plugin by navigating to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin  > Choose File.  

Step 2: Create Your WordPress Form With the Template Generator

From your WordPress Dashboard, navigate to Ninja Forms > Add New to access the form templates.  Choose the Contact Us template.

You can either use the basic contact form as it is (the template has the essential fields you need) or, for a more personalized form, you can add more fields to your form by clicking the blue + button at the bottom right of the page.

Step 3: Add the FORM to your WordPress website

After finishing building your form, the final step is to add the WordPress form to your website.  There are three ways that you can add your Ninja Form to your web pages or blog posts.

Shortcode Method (Using the Gutenberg Editor)

To add the form via shortcode, you need to navigate to the Ninja Forms dashboard.   The dashboard is where you will find a list of all your forms.  Locate the form you want to add to your post or page and copy the shortcode (to copy, select the shortcode and press CMD + C or CTRL + C).

To add the shortcode, open up the page or post you wish to add the form to and paste the shortcode into the text editor (CMD + V or CTRL + V).  The great thing about using the Ninja Forms shortcodes is that you don’t need to choose the Gutenberg Shortcode Block first – the shortcode can just be pasted into a paragraph block.

The form won’t be visible using the shortcode, so you need to update your page/post and preview it to view how the WordPress form looks on your live website. This is the same with all form builder plugins when you’re using the Gutenberg editor, as shortcodes will only display the forms on the live front-end of the website.

Block Method (Using the Gutenberg Editor) – Recommended Method

The easiest way to add your Ninja Form to your page or post is using the Ninja Forms block for Gutenberg. You don’t have to copy the shortcode using this method, so it’s a faster way of adding your form without leaving the page/post editor.

Within your page or post, simply click on the Block Inserter icon and type in Ninja Forms.  Select the Ninja Form icon and then choose your form from the Select Form dropdown. Once you update the page or post, your form will be ready for your visitors to fill in.

Append a Ninja Form Method (Gutenberg Editor)

If you want to include your WordPress form at the bottom of your page or post, you can do that with our Append a Ninja Form meta-box.  Select the form from the Append a Ninja Form dropdown and update your page or post.  Since the form is being appended to the bottom of the page/post, a preview will not be visible until you view the page/post on the front end.

Building a WordPress Form with Ninja Forms (Without a Template)

Adding Fields

To add your own fields, choose the “Blank Form” template and use the blue “Add Field” button in the bottom right to open the fields panel.

To add the fields, you can either single-click or drag the fields from the panel into the form builder.

Then, when you have finished adding fields, click “Done”.

Editing Field Settings

You can change the field label, label placement, force a field to be required, and more by simply clicking on the field to open its settings panel.  You may also click the blue gear icon to open the field settings panel. 

This drawer is different for each field type.  

Duplicating or Deleting Fields

Hover over the blue gear icon in each field to expand the duplicate and delete icons.

More Advanced Ninja Forms: Using Conditional Logic

Now that you know how easy it is to create a form using Ninja Forms, let’s look at a few ways to use more advanced functions to make your forms smarter and more interactive. One of the most popular add-ons for Ninja Forms is the Conditional Logic add-on.

This is a premium feature that you can purchase on its own for $49 on a single website or save by subscribing to a bundle and getting the Conditional Logic, Layout & Styles, File Uploads, and Multi-Step Forms add-ons for as little as $49/year, saving $149 compared to buying each add-on separately!

Conditional Logic allows you to customize the experience for your website visitors depending on how they fill in different fields.

1. Show or hide form fields based on your customer answers

Use the Conditional Logic add-on to create a lasting impression for your users by creating a customized form that tailors responses to your users based on their field choices.

Once conditional logic is installed, head over to the Conditional Logic builder to show or hide form fields.  Discover how to add dynamic fields step-by-step to reveal or hide fields conditionally.

2.  Send personalized email notifications with conditional email routing

One of the things that stands out about Ninja forms is that, unlike many of its competitors, it includes free email notification and submission management with the core version of Ninja Forms.  However, you can make your form experience exceptional with personalized notifications by using the Conditional Logic add-on to enable conditional routing for your email actions.

To use conditional routing for notifications, navigate to Email & Actions, find and open the Email action, and look for the Conditional Logic dropdown.  Inside the dropdown is where you will create your conditions based on the existing form field options.

3.  Redirect leads to customized URLs with conditional routing

The Redirect action is a free feature included with the core Ninja Forms plugin.  Add it to your form to create a custom page, post, or website redirect that triggers upon form submission.  If you use this in conjunction with the Conditional Logic add-on, you can enable conditional routing to send your users to customized URLs depending on what they fill in on your form.

Once installed, head over to Email & Actions, add the Redirect action by clicking the Add New action button, and look for the Conditional Logic dropdown.  Inside the dropdown is where you will create your condition based on the existing form field options.

4.  Create unique submission messages based on selected form choice

You can also combine the Ninja Forms Success Message action with the Conditional Logic add-on.  This means you can create as many custom success messages as you want, all based on how your user responds to your WordPress form fields.

To start, install and activate the Conditional Logic add-on, head over to Email & Actions, open up your Success Message action, and look for the Conditional Logic dropdown.  Inside the dropdowns, you will create your condition based on the existing form field options.

Building A WordPress form with Ninja Forms is incredibly easy

While some form builder plugins for WordPress are complicated to use, Ninja Forms is one of the most beginner-friendly WordPress form builders I’ve tested (and I’ve tested a lot!) You can get started for free and only pay for the additional features that you need later on. It’s free to get started and you can easily build a WordPress form with Ninja Forms.

Not only is Ninja Forms easy to use, but it seamlessly integrates with popular email marketing tools like ActiveCampaign and ConstantContact, too. You can get started in minutes as you can install the core plugin directly from your WordPress dashboard (no complicated zip file uploads necessary!)

It also works really well with popular page builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor, allowing you to add a WordPress form with Ninja Forms no matter which page builder you’re using.

Frequently Asked Questions About Ninja Forms