How to Create Different Types of Forms in WordPress With Ninja Forms

Adding forms to your WordPress site enables you to interact with your site users and collect valuable data on customer behavior, generate leads, process orders, and much more. While well-built forms are critical for providing a good user experience (UX), it’s often difficult for time-strapped small businesses to develop their own.

That’s where Ninja Forms comes in. Our all-in-one plugin makes it easy to develop beautiful, functional forms without spending too much time coding.

This guide will walk you through setting up several types of forms using Ninja Forms add-ons. Let’s get started!

1. How to Create a Signup Form in WordPress

It’s quick and easy to create a signup form for email lists, gated content, giveaways, user feedback, and more. Ninja Forms offers multiple user-friendly options for building simple signup forms:

• AWeber
• Campaign Monitor
• CleverReach
• Constant Contact
• EmailOctopus
• Emma
• Mailchimp
• MailPoet

Each of these add-ons provides a streamlined setup process for your signup forms. Layout and Styles enables you to customize each signup form based on your branding and site appearance.

2. How to Create a Survey Form in WordPress

Surveys make it easy to keep a finger on the pulse of your user base. While there is no dedicated Ninja Forms add-on for questionnaires and survey forms, they’re easy to create:

1. Install Ninja Forms from the WordPress Plugin Directory or upload the plugin from your computer.
2. Click the “Activate” button after installation.
3. Navigate to the Ninja Forms plugin from your WordPress dashboard and select “Add New.”
4. From the list of form templates, select “Questionnaire.”
5. Build the form with the questions and fields you need.
6. Add the form to a post or WordPress page.

Once your form is live, you can begin accepting submissions.

3. How to Create a Booking Form in WordPress

Enable users to seamlessly schedule appointments with the Advanced Datepicker add-on from Ninja Forms. Here’s how to get started with this add-on:

• Create a basic form
• Add and configure a Date/Time field
• Set up email notifications and confirmation messages

Combining Advanced Datepicker with Conditional Logic enables your booking form to dynamically adapt to user input. For example, the form can display only the dates and times you are available for an appointment to prevent schedule conflicts.

Integration with a payment add-on, such as Stripe Checkout, PayPal Checkout, or Elavon enables users to pay upfront for services without leaving the booking form, securing entered data and streamlining UX.

4. How to Create a Registration Form in WordPress

While registration and signup forms are similar, registration forms are significantly more thorough than most signup forms. The User Management add-on by Ninja Forms is a lightweight yet fully customizable plugin designed for:

• WordPress user registration forms
• User login forms
• Self-service user profile updates

Your forms are still 100% customizable, with advanced features like password confirmation and automated page redirects after registration completion. Simply select the Register User form template, edit the fields as needed, and map out the settings to the appropriate drop-down selections.

The streamlined UX is also available on the user side. User Management gives users the power to edit their own profiles any time they need, ensuring you always have the most accurate customer data available. Plus, custom User Meta enables the plugin to automatically populate fields with data from user submissions for fast and convenient form completion.

5. How to Create a Popup Form in WordPress

Increase user engagement by creating eye-catching popup forms in the Popup Maker add-on from Ninja Forms. Here’s how to use it:

1. Install the Popup Maker plugin from your WordPress dashboard and activate it.
2. Click “Add Popup.”
3. Add your text into the rich text editor.
4. Configure settings like triggers, targeting, and cookies to set conditions for when the popup should appear.
5. Click “Publish” to go live.

From there, you can begin accepting submissions, notifying users, or any other action your popup is meant to perform.

Adding Functionality to WordPress Forms With Ninja Forms

With the right tools at your disposal, you can create a wide variety of forms to achieve all your business goals on the same WordPress site.

We understand that every website has different needs. All of the following add-ons are available as part of a membership or a la carte to help you achieve your specific goals.

Conditional Logic

Enable forms to dynamically adapt to user preferences with the Conditional Logic add-on. These forms use advanced processing capabilities to:

• Show and hide fields based on relevance to the user.
• Perform calculations and change field values.
• Automatically send responses to recipients who meet specific criteria.
• Trigger different success messages based on what the user selects.
• Add to different subscription lists as indicated.
• Modify lists based on user selections.

For example, you can configure a booking form to automatically hide unavailable time slots for the user’s chosen date. Or you could configure a multi-page registration form to notify you of submissions in real time. The possibilities are endless for unlimited functionality.

Layout and Styles

Adding the Layout and Styles add-on to your Ninja Forms plugin enables you to customize your form beyond basic empty fields and buttons. Make the user experience more visually engaging with gradient CTA buttons, multi-column pages, custom backgrounds, and much more — without ever having to edit CSS code.

Create consistency across your site with global form styling options or build unique forms on a case-by-case basis. The choice is up to you.

Multi-Step Forms

Sometimes, you need to collect more information than you reasonably can with a standard one-page form. Ninja Forms enables you to create aesthetically appealing multi-page forms with the Multi-Step Forms add-on.

Effortlessly customize multi-step forms with functional enhancements like:

• Breadcrumb navigation
• Progress bars
• Customizable Next and Previous buttons

Plus, the simplified drag-and-drop interface makes it easy for anyone to create entire pages effortlessly.

Save Progress

Setting up a longer form with multiple pages? The Save Progress add-on enables users to save their entries and come back at a later time without having to start from the beginning again.

Because Save Progress uses cookies to store user information, it can help increase conversion rates for both registered and non-registered users. Users can save their progress and edit the form at any time that works for them. They can also save multiple copies of each form if needed.

Make Building Forms in WordPress Easy With a Ninja Forms Membership

Need to build forms for your WordPress site? Ninja Forms has you covered. Our plugin streamlines the process of creating forms by eliminating the need to learn coding.

As a leader in the WordPress content management space, we developed our tools to make the form building experience fast and easy for non-technical users. Businesses small and large can use our plugin to create content that enhances their site in various ways.

See how easy it is to customize your site with Ninja Forms. Sign up for a paid or free membership to start building forms today.