Cognito Forms

74 Quality Score

Active Installs

15/30

With only 2,000 active installs against competitors that have hundreds of thousands or millions, this is a niche plugin by WordPress standards, but the popularity score is boosted by healthy growth relative to its size.

Update Freshness

25/25

The plugin was last updated in June 2026 and is tested with WordPress 7.0, signalling that the developer is actively maintaining it despite the small install base.

User Rating

12/15

An 80 out of 100 rating from 19 users is solid, though the small sample size means the score is more directional than statistically reliable.

Support Health

8/15

There are zero support threads in the WordPress.org repository, which means users either get help through Cognito Forms' own channels or have not needed to file issues, and either way it is a weak signal for community support health.

WP Compatibility

15/15

Requiring WordPress 3.5 or higher and being tested with WordPress 7.0 gives it an extremely wide compatibility range, and the no-PHP-version-requirement stance keeps it flexible across hosting environments.

Scores higher than 35% of indexed plugins

About

Create responsive contact forms, order forms, registration forms and more. With PCI, CCPA, and HIPAA compliance.

Active Installs 2k+

Rating ★★★★ 4/5

Last Updated 2026-08-19 6:21pm GMT

Requires WordPress 3.5+

Tested Up To 7.1

Security History

1 known vulnerability, all patched

1 Medium

Most recent: December 11, 2024

View details ▸

What It Does

Cognito Forms is an embed-based form builder that connects WordPress sites to the Cognito Forms SaaS platform, letting users build responsive contact, registration, order, and intake forms without writing code. Form logic, payment collection, and compliance features (PCI, CCPA, HIPAA) are handled on the Cognito Forms side rather than within WordPress itself. Submissions are stored on Cognito's servers, so this is essentially a connector plugin rather than a self-hosted form solution.

Who It's For

This plugin is a fit for small businesses, healthcare practices, and nonprofits that already use (or plan to use) Cognito Forms as their SaaS form builder and specifically need HIPAA-friendly patient intake, donation collection, or PCI-compliant order forms that would be awkward to handle with typical WordPress plugins. It is also reasonable for users who want minimal server-side form processing and are comfortable storing form data on a third-party platform.

Who Should Skip It

Skip this plugin if you want a fully self-hosted form solution where submissions live in your WordPress database, or if you are not already invested in the Cognito Forms ecosystem, since alternatives like WPForms and Forminator are dramatically more popular and better supported. It is also a poor choice for sites that need deep WordPress integration with plugins like WooCommerce, MemberPress, or advanced CRM tools, as the embed-and-sync model has clear limits.

The Bottom Line

Cognito Forms is a perfectly maintained but narrowly adopted connector plugin that only makes sense if you specifically want Cognito Forms' hosted compliance features in your WordPress site. With an overall quality score of 74.28 and install counts three orders of magnitude behind WPForms or Forminator, it is a niche tool rather than a default recommendation. Choose it for HIPAA or PCI workflows on Cognito; choose something else for everyday contact forms.

Pick WPForms Lite when you want the safest mainstream choice, with 5 million installs, polished UI, and extensive third-party integrations.

Forminator Forms 94/100

Pick Forminator if you need built-in payment, quiz, and poll features without paying for a SaaS subscription.

MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress 89/100

Pick Mailchimp for WordPress when your primary need is reliable newsletter signup form syncing rather than general form building.

Fluent Forms 88/100

Pick Fluent Forms for a generous free tier with conversational forms, conditional logic, and strong performance on budget hosting.

SureForms 88/100

Pick SureForms if you want a modern drag-and-drop builder with a clean block-editor experience and solid payment form support.