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Visual Form Builder

By Matthew Muro

Forms & Data Collection / Contact Forms

Reviewed by Omar Dabbas

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Visual Form Builder Review - In-Depth Analysis

Build beautiful, fully functional contact forms in just minutes without coding. Manage forms easily with drag-and-drop features.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.86/10

User Rating

4.1/5 (based on 318+ reviews)

Active Installations

20,000+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

3.8 / 10 (Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

Visual Form Builder is a plugin that allows you to build and manage all kinds of forms for your website in a single place. Building a fully functional contact form takes only a few minutes and you don’t have to write one bit of PHP, CSS, or HTML!

If you are a fan of Visual Form Builder and want extra features and functionality, VFB Pro is available.

This plugin offers a variety of features including one-click field addition, drag-and-drop reordering, and a simple logic-based anti-SPAM system. You can automatically store form entries in your WordPress database and manage them through the WordPress dashboard. It also allows exporting entries to a CSV file and sending form submissions to multiple emails.

With Visual Form Builder, you can customize confirmation messages, redirect users to specific pages, and send confirmation emails. The plugin supports multiple field types, including text input, checkboxes, radio buttons, and file uploads. You can also manage submitted entries with advanced filtering and search options.

Comparing to Alternatives

Visual Form Builder is a popular form plugin with a solid free offering and a pro version, but it faces competition from many other WordPress form builders with varying features and support.

Top alternatives

Strengths

User-friendly drag-and-drop interface for building forms
Good free version with essential form building features
Supports various field types and customization options
Pro version adds advanced features like conditional logic and payment integration
Relatively high user rating overall

Weaknesses

Pro version uses a different data storage system causing entry migration issues
Reported lack of support and updates from developers
Some users experience bugs and crashes especially on latest WordPress versions
Security vulnerabilities have been found and fixed in past versions

User Sentiment Analysis

Based on the rating distribution and recent reviews, most users rate Visual Form Builder positively, but a significant minority report issues mainly related to support, plugin maintenance, and pro version problems.

Positive highlights

"The free version of this plugin is great" – mcbryant
"User-friendly and effective for basic form needs" – inferred from 4-5 star reviews
"Good drag-and-drop interface" – general positive feedback
"Pro version adds useful features when it works" – some users
"High overall rating with majority 5-star reviews"

Common complaints

No support or response from developers
Pro version causes loss of old entries due to different table system
Plugin appears abandoned with no recent updates
Crashes and bugs reported on latest WordPress versions
Pro version not recommended due to lack of maintenance

Weaknesses

Security vulnerabilities found in past versions, though fixed
Plugin stability issues reported by some users
Pro version migration challenges
Poor developer support and communication

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users looking for a free, easy-to-use form builder with basic features and who do not require active support or advanced pro features.

Not ideal for

Users needing reliable support, ongoing updates, or advanced pro features with seamless data migration; also not ideal for those concerned about plugin security history.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version offers essential form building tools suitable for simple contact forms and basic data collection.

Pro version

Adds advanced features such as conditional logic, payment integrations, and more customization options, but suffers from lack of support and data migration issues.

Final Verdict

Visual Form Builder offers a solid free plugin with an intuitive interface and good basic features, making it a viable choice for users with simple form needs. However, the pro version is problematic due to lack of support, data migration issues, and plugin abandonment concerns.

Given the security history and user complaints about support and stability, users seeking a reliable, actively maintained form builder with professional support should consider alternative plugins. The free version remains useful, but caution is advised before investing in the pro upgrade.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Visual Form Builder plugin.

Contact Form

Contact Forms

Form

Screenshots

FAQ

Click on the Visual Form Builder > Add New link and enter a few form details
Click the form fields from the box on the left to add it to your form.
Edit the information for each form field by clicking on the down arrow.
Drag and drop the elements to sort them.
Click Save Form to save your changes.

Note: Form submissions will always be saved in the database whether or not the email was sent.

Check SPAM folder

A quick look in the SPAM folder will tell you if the emails are being routed into the folder. If so, simply train your email client to not treat those emails as SPAM

Configure your site to use SMTP

Some people have reported that after the form is submitted, no email is received. If this is the case for you, it typically means that your server or web host has not properly configured their SMTP settings.

Try using a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP to correct the issue.

Set the Reply-To email to a same domain email

Setting up SMTP will get you part of the way there. For most, it solves the problem. For others, it requires additional configuration

If you find that emails are not being sent, you should first confirm that you have completed all of the details in the Form Settings > Email section. Next, be sure to set the Reply-To option to an email that exists on the same domain as your WordPress site.

Set the Sender email to an email that exists on the domain

In addition to the Reply-To header, some hosts require that the Sender header is also set to an email that exists on the domain. By default, the Sender email is automatically set to either your admin email if the domain matches. If it does not match, then a local email address is created ([email protected]).

To change this behavior to use an email that exists on the domain, you will need to set the Sender Mail Header option on the Visual Form Builder > Settings page.

Possible mod_security conflict

Some servers are overzealous in their restrictions on the $_POST object and will block anything with certain keywords. Check your server logs and look for any 403 Forbidden or 500 Internal Server errors. If you notice these errors when submitting a form, contact your host and find out if there are any restrictions.

Enable local mail for your domain

Be sure to enable local mail delivery for your domain. Disabling local mail delivery is common if you are using an external mail server, but can cause bounce-backs saying the email user does not exist.

Also, if possible, check your server’s email logs or have your host check them for you and see if it’s refusing to send an email. It’s possible your email server is attempting to send the emails but can’t for missing mail resources, security, SPAM filtering, or other technical problems.

The validation messages (ex: ‘This field is required’ or ‘Please enter a valid email address’) are generated by the jQuery Form Validation plugin.

By default, these messages are in English. To translate them, you can either use the free add-on Custom Validation Messages or follow the manual JavaScript method.

The recommended method to translate the messages is by installing the free Custom Validation Messages add-on. This will let you easily change the messages for all forms from within the WordPress admin.

If you would rather use the manual method, you will need to follow the instructions below.

Follow these instructions:

In your theme folder, create a JavaScript file. In this example, I’m using myjs.js. Add the following code to it and customize the language to what you need:

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {   $.extend($.validator.messages, {     required: "Eingabe nötig",     email: "Bitte eine gültige E-Mail-Adresse eingeben"   }); });

Now, in your functions.php file, add the following piece of code:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_scripts_method' ); function my_scripts_method() {    wp_register_script( 'my-vfb-validation',      get_template_directory_uri() . '/js/my-js.js',      array( 'jquery', 'jquery-form-validation' ),      '1.0',      false );     wp_enqueue_script( 'my-vfb-validation' ); }