Contact Form X

Welcome to the official homepage for my free WordPress plugin, Contact Form X (CFX). This is a more personal look at the plugin, aimed at readers who are familiar with my work. Here you’ll find some screenshots, cool features, and of course some rambling backstory (because there is one).

If you are looking for official plugin documentation, visit Contact Form X at WordPress.org. There you will find docs, download, installation steps, support forum, translation tools, and more.

Usage

To use Contact Form X: install, activate, and display the ajax-powered contact form anywhere on your site. Display on any post or page using the shortcode. Display in sidebars using the widget. And display via your WP theme using the template tag.

Overview + Features

Here is an overview of the plugin’s best features:

• Easy to use
• Simple and secure
• Lightweight and super fast
• Provides multiple form styles
• Customize just about everything
• Display the contact form anywhere
• Send email to multiple recipients
• Complete documentation via Help tab
• Excellent free plugin support

You can easily choose which fields to display in the form. Each field may be set as required, optional, or disabled. Choose from the following fields:

• Name
• Website
• Email
• Subject
• Custom Field
• Challenge Question
• Message
• Google reCaptcha (v2 or v3 invisible)
• Carbon Copy
• Agree to Terms

And you can customize the labels for each of these fields, so the fields are all super flexible. For a complete list of features and more infos, visit Contact Form X at WordPress.org.

Screenshots

To give you a better idea, here are some screenshots of Contact Form X.

To check out more screenshots, visit Contact Form X at WordPress.org.

Rambling Backstory

I released my first contact-form plugin 10 years ago: Contact Coldform. It was very popular for a few years, as it was one of the first decent contact-form plugins for WordPress. Contact Coldform is loaded with options and still works great, but the codebase is aging and frankly needs a complete overhaul.

A few years later, in 2011, I wanted a lighter, simpler version of Contact Coldform. So I wrote Simple Basic Contact Form (SBCF). Up until today, I used SBCF for my own Contact Page here at Perishable Press.

And that brings us to now. About a month ago, a trusted buyer made an offer to purchase ownership of Simple Basic Contact Form. The offer was good, so I agreed. I felt that the transfer would breathe new life into the plugin, and already that has proved correct. The plugin has since received several great new updates and features.

So now with SBCF sold, and Contact Coldform ready to retire, I needed a new contact form for my WordPress-powered sites. Rather than spend a lifetime digging through the endless contact form plugins that already are available, I decided to just roll my own. Three weeks later, Contact Form X was born.

By Any Other Name

Originally, I wanted to name my new plugin “Contact Form 77”. When I submitted it for inclusion in the WP Plugin Directory, I was told that the name is not allowed because it would infringe on “Contact Form 7”. Which of course is correct, so I needed to pick a different name for my shiny new plugin.

The main thing I wanted was a short name. That is why I liked “Contact Form 77” because it was only two extra characters (or three if you count the space). Fortunately, I had an epiphany while brushing my teeth. I am currently finishing up a new WordPress theme for Perishable Press. The new theme is named after the 24th letter of the alphabet: “X”. Why? Because about 15 years ago, I started doing an alphabet-named themes thing. So in a few more years, the next theme name will begin with the letter “Y”, like maybe “Yoda” or something, then “Zod”, or whatever. You get the idea.

So back to brushing my teeth, I’m sitting there thinking about a good name for my new contact-form plugin. Brush, brush, brush.. Then BAM it hit me: I’ll be using the plugin at Perishable Press, so for at least the next several years, “Contact Form X” is just perfect. It sort of ties everything together with what I’m doing: new X theme for Perishable Press plus new Contact Form X equals something that I want to spend time working on.

To The Future

I am looking forward to developing Contact Form X for many years to come. Thank you to all the users and everyone who helped with Coldform and SBCF over the years. It was a great journey that now continues with Contact Form X.

Download

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Creative thinker. Passionate about free and open Web.