Working with contact forms
Learn how contact forms work on WordPress, how to find form submissions, and how to manage common issues.
A contact form lets visitors send you a message directly from your website — without exposing your email address publicly. Most WordPress sites have at least one contact form. This guide explains how they work and how to manage them day-to-day.
Quick summary
Contact forms on WordPress are powered by a plugin (like WPForms, Gravity Forms, or Contact Form 7). When someone submits a form, you usually get an email notification. Submissions are also often saved inside WordPress under the form plugin's menu. If forms stop working, check your email settings and spam folder first.
How contact forms work
Here's the journey of a form submission:
- A visitor fills out your contact form and clicks Submit.
- The form plugin validates the information (e.g., checks the email address looks right).
- The plugin saves the submission to your WordPress database.
- The plugin sends a notification email to you (and sometimes a confirmation email to the visitor).
The email notification is what tells you someone has been in touch. That's why getting your notification email address right matters.
Which form plugin does your site use?
Common WordPress form plugins include:
| Plugin | Notes |
|---|---|
| WPForms | User-friendly, popular for business sites |
| Gravity Forms | Feature-rich, often used for complex forms |
| Contact Form 7 | Free, widely used, more manual setup |
| Elementor Forms | Built into Elementor Pro — no separate plugin needed |
| Fluent Forms | Modern, user-friendly |
If you're not sure which one your site uses, look in your WordPress sidebar for any of these names, or check Plugins → Installed Plugins.
Finding and reading form submissions
Most modern form plugins save submissions inside WordPress — not just as emails. This means you have a backup copy even if notification emails get missed.
Look in your WordPress sidebar for your form plugin's menu. In WPForms, it's listed as "WPForms." In Gravity Forms, it's "Forms." Elementor Forms uses "Elementor" → "Submissions."
Click on Entries (or Submissions — the label varies by plugin). You'll see a list of all submitted forms.
Click a submission to see the full details: the person's name, email, their message, and the date/time it was submitted.
Contact Form 7 doesn't save entries by default
If your site uses Contact Form 7, submissions are sent by email only — they're not saved in WordPress unless you've added a separate plugin like Flamingo. If notification emails are going to spam, you could miss submissions entirely. Talk to us if you'd like saved entries enabled.
Setting up or changing the notification email
If you're not receiving notification emails, check where they're being sent.
Go to WPForms → All Forms, hover over the form, and click Edit. Click Settings → Notifications in the form editor. The "Send To Email Address" field controls where notifications go. Make sure it's set to an email you check regularly.
Go to Forms, click your form, then click Settings → Notifications. Each notification has a "Send To Email" field. Update it as needed and click Save.
Go to Contact → Contact Forms, click your form, then click the Mail tab. The "To" field is where notifications go. Update it and click Save.
Why notification emails sometimes don't arrive
Form notification emails fail to deliver for a few common reasons:
- The email ends up in spam. Check your spam or junk folder. If it's there, mark it as "not spam."
- Your site isn't configured to send email properly. WordPress's built-in email function is unreliable. Most well-configured sites use an SMTP plugin (like WP Mail SMTP) to send email through a proper mail service. See Email sent from your website explained.
- The notification email address is wrong. Check the form's notification settings (above).
- Your email provider is blocking it. Some email services are strict about blocking automated messages. An SMTP setup usually fixes this.
Missing form submissions can mean lost leads
If your contact form is silently failing — the visitor thinks their message was sent, but you never receive it — you're losing enquiries. If you suspect this is happening, check your form plugin's saved entries and contact us. We can diagnose and fix the issue.
Handling spam form submissions
Contact forms attract bots too. Common anti-spam tools:
- CAPTCHA — Requires visitors to complete a small challenge before submitting
- reCAPTCHA (Google) — Invisible or checkbox version; widely supported by form plugins
- Honeypot fields — Hidden fields that bots fill in but humans don't; catches most simple bots
If you're getting a lot of spam submissions, ask us and we can add protection to your forms.
Editing a form
If you need to add a field, change the layout, or update the confirmation message, you'll do that inside your form plugin — not by editing the page directly. The page just contains a shortcode or block that displays the form. Changes to the form itself are made in the plugin.
Ask us if you'd like help making changes to your forms — getting form logic right is worth doing carefully.
Common questions
Related guides
- Email sent from your website explained
- What is SMTP?
- WordPress security basics
- Spam comments
- My forms aren't working
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