Skip to main content

10% off your first template order— use codeat checkout.

Fennec Forms vs Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is free, light and has run on WordPress sites for years. Both plugins are free, so this comes down to what you need: Contact Form 7 emails you each message, while Fennec Forms also stores entries on your site and adds a drag-and-drop builder, logic and multi-step forms.

Contact Form 7 facts checked on against Contact Form 7's own pages. Prices change; follow the sources for current figures.

Download Fennec Forms freeSee Fennec Forms

When Contact Form 7 is the better fit

  • Simple contact forms where an email per message is all you need (“Simple but flexible” is its own description).[1]
  • People comfortable editing a form as markup with form-tags.[7][1]
  • Anyone who wants a long-established, free plugin: WordPress.org shows 10+ million active installations.[2]

Fennec Forms and Contact Form 7, side by side

Numbers in brackets link to the Contact Form 7 page each fact came from. “Not listed” means we couldn't find it on Contact Form 7's own site, not that it can't be done.

Fennec Forms compared with Contact Form 7, checked October 6, 2026
Checked October 6, 2026Fennec FormsContact Form 7
PriceFree plugin. Forms Pro (optional) $59/yr for 1 site or $99/yr for 5 sitesFree (GPLv2 or later); no paid edition[3]
Entries saved in your WordPress databaseYes, built inNo. Contact Form 7 doesn’t store messages; it suggests the separate Flamingo plugin[4]
How you build formsDrag-and-drop builder with live previewForm-tags in a text editor[1][7]
Conditional logicFreeNot listed on contactform7.com[5]
Multi-step formsFreeNot listed on contactform7.com[5]
File uploadsStored privately, downloaded from the entryYes, sent to you as email attachments[6]
Stripe paymentsProduct and total fields, Stripe Checkout, no Fennec feeStripe module, no additional fee; amount set in the form-tag[7]
Spam protectionHoneypot, minimum fill time and rate limit on every form; optional Turnstile, hCaptcha or reCAPTCHA v3Akismet, reCAPTCHA v3 and Cloudflare Turnstile modules[8][9][10]
WebhooksFree, HMAC-signedNot listed on contactform7.com[5]

Fennec Forms facts come from the plugin's readme and code; Pro prices are on the pricing page.

Where Fennec Forms differs

  • Every entry is stored in your WordPress database with search, CSV export, notes and spam/trash views, without a second plugin.
  • Visual builder, conditional logic, multi-step forms and signed webhooks are included.
  • Uploaded files stay in a protected folder on your site instead of travelling by email.

What Fennec Forms doesn't do (yet)

  • Contact Form 7 is lighter and has a much longer track record; Fennec Forms had its first stable release in October 2026.
  • Fennec Forms needs WordPress 6.9+ and PHP 8.1+.
  • Fennec Forms isn’t on WordPress.org yet; you download it from fennecpress.com.

Moving from Contact Form 7

  1. Install and activate Fennec Forms on the same site. Leave your current form plugin active for now.
  2. Go to Fennec Forms → Tools. Forms found in the Contact Form 7 tables are listed automatically; you can also upload an export file.
  3. Tick the forms to bring over (and “Copy entries too” where the source keeps entries), then import.
  4. Read the import report: it lists every field mapped to the closest type, anything not imported, conditional logic and notifications.
  5. Imported forms arrive as drafts. Check each one, publish it, then swap the block or shortcode on your pages.

Limits to know about

  • Forms, fields, required settings and mail settings come across. Contact Form 7 doesn’t keep entries, so there are none to import; messages saved by Flamingo stay in Flamingo.
  • Anything without an equivalent is listed in the report as not imported.
  • Contact Form 7 is left untouched.

Requires WordPress 6.9+ and PHP 8.1+. Fennec Forms docs

Sources

Checked October 6, 2026; prices change. Contact Form 7 is a trademark of its owner, named here only to compare.

  1. contactform7.com (https://contactform7.com/)
  2. Contact Form 7 on WordPress.org (https://wordpress.org/plugins/contact-form-7/)
  3. Contact Form 7 readme (WordPress.org) (https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/contact-form-7/trunk/readme.txt)
  4. Contact Form 7: saving submitted messages (https://contactform7.com/save-submitted-messages/)
  5. Contact Form 7 docs (https://contactform7.com/docs/)
  6. Contact Form 7: file uploading (https://contactform7.com/file-uploading-and-attachment/)
  7. Contact Form 7: Stripe integration (https://contactform7.com/stripe-integration/)
  8. Contact Form 7: spam filtering (https://contactform7.com/spam-filtering/)
  9. Contact Form 7: reCAPTCHA (https://contactform7.com/recaptcha/)
  10. Contact Form 7: Turnstile (https://contactform7.com/turnstile-integration/)

More: all alternatives · feature comparisons · guides