WordPress plugin comparison
Contact Form 7 vs Essential Form
At a glance
- Contact Form 7 has more active installs: 10M+, against 600+ for Essential Form.
- On a typical day, Contact Form 7 is downloaded about 77,302 times, Essential Form about 12.
- Essential Form is rated higher: 5.0 out of 5 from 20 reviews, against 4.0 from 2,188 reviews.
- Contact Form 7 was updated more recently: Nov 10, 2026, against Nov 6, 2026 for Essential Form.
- Contact Form 7 resolves more of its support threads: 31% in the last two months, against 0% for Essential Form.
- Both are tested up to WordPress 7.1.4.
- Contact Form 7 has been around longer: since 2007, against 2023 for Essential Form.
Line by line
Contact Form 7 leads on 6 of 7 comparable lines.
| Metric |  Contact Form 7 |  Essential Form |
|---|---|---|
| Popular rank | #3 | #8,510 |
| Active installs | 10M+ | 600+ |
| Downloads, last 30 days | 5M | 723 |
| Rating | 4.0(2.2K) | 5.0(20) |
| Support threads resolved | 31% | 0% |
| Tested up to | 7.1.4 | 7.1.4 |
| Search multiplier | ×6.19 | ×0.58 |
| Last release | today | 3 days ago |
| Requires PHP | 8.3 | 7.2 |
From WordPress.org's public data, refreshed every night. Downloads are WordPress.org's official daily figures for the last 30 days.
Tags they share
More comparisons
Is one of these yours?
Track your plugin against its rivals every day: rank, installs, downloads, ratings and their releases, with alerts when anything moves.
Start free