Forminator has grown into a potent plugin with more than 500,000 active installations, admired for its easy-to-use interface, comprehensive functionalities, and strong integrations.
Discover how to transform a plugin from nothing to something remarkable and stand out in a crowded market of plugins. Keep reading to learn more…
Forminator has continuously developed and improved since it was first created, adding new capabilities and partnerships that have greatly increased its usefulness and number of users.
This article explores why Forminator has become the preferred custom form solution for web developers looking to incorporate interactive contact forms, payment forms, polls, quizzes, and other features into WordPress websites.
We will discuss the following topics:
- Forminator’s Journey
- Users appreciate Forminator for its user-friendly interface and features.
- Forminator’s Challenges
- The Key to Forminator’s Triumph
- Forminator: Looking Ahead
Forminator’s Journey
Forminator embarked on its journey on May 17th, 2017, signifying the start of a project that would greatly influence the creation of forms within WordPress.
The first Forminator version was released on 20 February 2018 and launched to the world on September 12, 2018.
Let’s take a look at the plugin’s development and significant milestones:
Releases
- June 2018: Integration with Mailchimp and Zapier, followed by Trello, Google Sheets, and Active Campaign.
- July 2018: Integration with Aweber and Campaign Monitor.
- August 2018: Introduction of the Import/Export feature.
- September 2018: Slack Integration.
- In November 2018, E2PDF collaborated to integrate, marking the beginning of numerous other third-party integrations.
- December 2018: Launch of a new form wizard UI/UX.
2019 Enhancements
- May: Stripe Payment Gateway and Calculations feature.
- July: PayPal Payment Gateway and form templates.
- August: Added reCaptcha V3 and HubSpot integration.
Continued Growth in 2020
- March: New Registration & Login forms.
- July: Introduction of an Electronic Signature field.
Expanding the Ecosystem
- August 2021: Stripe Subscriptions add-on.
- Partial Submissions feature introduced in June 2022 allows users to save their progress and continue at a later time.
- September 2022: Forminator Dashboard Reports.
- October 2022: Field Grouping and repeater feature.
- November 2022: Scheduled report notifications.
Recent Developments
- August 2023: PDF Generator add-on.
- September 2023: Geolocation add-on.
- November 2023: MailJet Integration.
- January 2024: Introduction of the Range Slider Field.
Milestones
- In October 2018, the number of active installations exceeded 4,000.
- January 2019: Reached 10k active installations.
- June 2019: Achieved 20k active installations.
- In July 2020, the number of active installations surpassed 60,000.
- August 2021: Exceeded 200k active installations.
- As of February 2023, installations have exceeded 400,000.
- January 2024: Reached a landmark of 500k installations.
The timeline above not only emphasizes the ongoing advancements and upgrades to Forminator, but it also demonstrates the increasing confidence and dependence of the WordPress community on this multifaceted plugin.
What Users Like Most About Forminator
“Forminator Pro has transformed my life.”
Jamie J. WPMU DEV Member
What is it about Forminator that has gained it such widespread popularity?
Based on feedback from our users, here’s what many of them enjoy most about Forminator:
1. Comprehensive Free Features
Forminator offers a vast array of functionalities without the need for a Pro upgrade. Users can create custom forms, polls, quizzes, and payment forms at no cost that support integrations with PayPal and Stripe for financial transactions, making the plugin an all-encompassing solution for gathering information, engaging users, and facilitating payments.
2. User-Friendly Design
Forminator features an easy-to-use visual builder with drag-and-drop functionality, making form creation and customization a breeze. Its user-friendly design and accessibility options make it suitable for users of all levels, allowing for effortless addition of forms to a WordPress site.
3. Responsive Support Team
WordPress users rave about our award-winning customer support, which is highly responsive and helpful, and extends not only to all of our products and services, including Forminator, but also anything WordPress-related.
Additionally, being a Stripe Verified Partner allows Forminator access to extra resources and support. This collaboration emphasizes our plugin’s dedication to delivering dependable service and helping users fully utilize the capabilities of their Stripe integration.
4. Wide-Ranging Integration
Forminator provides smooth integration with a wide range of external services such as email marketing software, customer relationship management systems, and project management tools.
The ability to integrate with numerous services such as HubSpot, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, Slack, Trello, and recent additions like Mailjet (as well as over 1000 apps through Forminator’s Webhooks integration) allows for smooth workflows and increased efficiency.
Moreover, Forminator’s comprehensive API allows for integration with various services and automation tools, increasing its usefulness and adaptability.
5. Deep Customization
Beyond basic form creation, Forminator allows for deep customization through a variety of drag-and-drop blocks and field types. Users can tailor forms to their specific needs, whether for GDPR compliance, social media quizzes, or customer feedback.
6. Advanced Functionalities
Users who need more advanced functionalities can benefit from Forminator’s enhanced features, including the ability to collect electronic signatures, manage subscription and recurring payments through Stripe, create customized login/registration forms, design multi-step forms, enable file uploads, and connect with various apps and platforms.
These functionalities, available with Forminator Pro, extend the plugin’s utility to virtually any scenario.
Forminator’s Challenges
Forminator’s popularity continues to increase despite facing challenges and obstacles since its launch, including:
Standing Out in a Crowded Market
The ecosystem for WordPress plugins is fiercely competitive. With nearly 60,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org directory, and countless more premium and custom plugins that can enhance and expand the capabilities of WordPress websites, it’s challenging for any individual plugin to make a mark.
Forminator has continually addressed this challenge by developing unique features and making these freely available where most would charge for them, consistently delivering exceptional, award-winning support to users, and always being willing to actively engage with its user community.
Please provide your feedback and suggestions for new features.
They say that you can’t please everybody, but we try our darndest to do this.
Managing the varied requirements of our users has necessitated the establishment of several feedback mechanisms to prioritize enhancements for our plugins.
We encourage user feedback and feature requests not only for Forminator, but for all areas of our platform, and we do this by actively engaging our user community through our support channels, member’s forums, holding Discussions of The Week (DOTW), running user surveys, and more.
User Interface Usability
Our development team has been conducting thorough and ongoing UX/UI testing and making improvements to Forminator’s interface and feature usability in an effort to offer advanced features while maintaining simplicity for users.
For example, to view just how much work has gone into improving the Free version of Forminator alone, check out the plugin’s extensive and fully documented development log on WordPress.org.
Our dedication to enhancing Forminator’s user experience and interface for WordPress users at every level is reflected in our comprehensive and up-to-date plugin documentation, useful tutorials and guides, and an AI-driven knowledgebase.
The Secret To Forminator’s Success
We are delighted with the progress Forminator has made so far, but reaching success in a crowded WordPress plugin market has been a significant accomplishment.
Developing Forminator from an idea into one of the “Top 5” form plugins for WordPress is an ongoing effort requiring not only the daily cooperation between all members of our team and feedback from our valued users, but also a comprehensive approach that involves:
- Conducting thorough research of the market to gain insight into the present state, pinpoint areas of need, identify emerging patterns, and discover potential prospects.
- Conducting in-depth research of our existing user base to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points,
- Developing a thorough and reliable system for monitoring user actions to gain insights into how they engage with the plugin and determine which functionalities are frequently used or ignored.
- Gathering insights from our analysis, support, and product development teams to prioritize and develop new features and innovative functionalities that will exceed our users’ expectations and deliver greater value than our competitors,
- Constantly improving and updating the plugin, utilizing user input and making choices based on data analysis.
And finally, and very importantly …
Combining all of the mentioned features into a single, powerful, expert-level plugin and offering it to the WordPress community at no cost!
Forminator: Looking Ahead to What’s Next
As Forminator’s popularity and usage increases, our plugin development team remains hard at work and committed to achieve the following aims:
Introducing new free features.
Innovation and user feedback drive the addition of new functionalities. To keep track of new developments and view Forminator’s upcoming features, visit our Roadmap.
Pursue Community-Driven Development
Our platform is designed to assist WordPress web developers and digital agencies in expanding their business. We highly value the feedback and experiences of our users, which greatly impact our development plans.
Enhance Integrations
As new technologies and applications emerge, we will continue to expand Forminator’s integrations with key services and platforms to offer more versatility to our users.
Concentrate on Efficiency and Dependability.
Our plugin development team regularly reviews and optimizes all aspects of Forminator to ensure that as new features and functionalities get added, the plugin will continue to remain fast, reliable, and efficient, whether users choose to download and use the free or Pro version.
Have you explored the capabilities of Forminator?
Forminator’s journey from its initial release to surpassing 500,000 active installs is a testament to WPMU DEV’s commitment to innovation, user satisfaction, and adaptability.
Forminator stands out as a top choice for WordPress users due to its user-friendly design, wide range of features, and strong integrations. It offers a versatile solution for increasing website interactivity, accepting payments, and more, all while keeping the interface easy to use and accessible.
Forminator’s outlook is optimistic, with upcoming additions to meet various demands, improved collaborations, and a commitment to efficiency and dependability.
If you are a current Forminator user, we thank you for helping us reach the milestone of 500k active installations. We truly value your feedback and input into helping us to continually improve the plugin’s features and ease of use.
We encourage you to try out Forminator and discover its ease of use and effectiveness. Add it to your web development or digital agency’s essential tools by downloading it for free or joining WPMU DEV and getting access to Forminator Pro with a 30-day no-risk trial.
We are excited to soon celebrate reaching 1 million active installations of Forminator with you.
Forminator, a well-known form-creation plugin for WordPress, has recently surpassed a notable benchmark of over 500,000 installations. This accomplishment cements Forminator’s status as one of the leading five free form plugins accessible to WordPress users.
Developed by WPMU DEV, a prominent provider of WordPress plugins and services, Forminator was crafted to simplify the process of creating custom forms, polls, quizzes, and surveys on WordPress websites. Its intuitive interface and robust features have quickly made it a go-to choice for WordPress users.
A standout feature of Forminator is its drag-and-drop form builder, which enables users to effortlessly design custom forms without any coding expertise. Users can easily arrange form fields and tailor them to their requirements.
Forminator’s integration with well-known third-party services such as Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and Slack has also played a role in its success. This feature allows for seamless collection and management of form submissions and workflow automation.
Additionally, Forminator provides an array of form templates for different purposes like contact forms, registration forms, and feedback forms. These templates can be easily modified to align with a website’s branding and design.
The plugin’s triumph is also due to the continuous updates and dedicated support from the WPMU DEV team. They regularly introduce new features and enhance existing ones, while the support team is prompt in addressing user inquiries and issues.
With its remarkable features and reliable support, it’s no surprise that Forminator is among the top five free form plugins for WordPress. Its milestone of over 500,000 installs reflects its popularity and effectiveness.
For those in search of a potent and easy-to-use form plugin for their WordPress site, Forminator is an excellent option. It offers a drag-and-drop form builder, third-party integrations, and customizable templates, providing everything necessary to create tailored forms that fulfill your requirements.
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