Gravity Forms plugin review and common issues

Gravity Forms sends notifications through WordPress’s wp_mail(). If notifications are not arriving, the issue is almost certainly SMTP configuration. Install an SMTP plugin and connect it to a transactional email provider. To test without changing your live setup first, Gravity Forms has a built-in notification test in Forms → Entries → any entry → Resend Notifications. This lets you trigger a notification and check whether delivery works. Also confirm that the notification’s “Send To” address is correct and that conditional logic on the notification is not accidentally preventing it from firing.

Conditional logic issues in Gravity Forms most often come from JavaScript conflicts. Open the browser developer console when testing the form and look for JS errors. A common conflict pattern is an optimization plugin combining or deferring the Gravity Forms JS files, causing the conditional logic engine to not initialize. Add the Gravity Forms JavaScript files to your optimization plugin’s exclusion list. Also verify that the conditional logic rules use the exact field labels and option values as configured in the form editor.

Payment failures in Gravity Forms are tracked in the entry under the Payment Details meta box. Look for the specific error message — common issues include declined cards (check the gateway dashboard for the decline code), webhook delivery failures (Stripe requires a webhook endpoint to be registered at Forms → Settings → Stripe), or SSL issues preventing the payment JavaScript from loading. Gravity Forms payment add-ons rely on the gateway’s webhook system for payment confirmation; a misconfigured webhook endpoint is the most frequent cause of payment records not updating after a successful charge.

Gravity Forms has one of the most extensive hook and filter systems of any WordPress plugin. Custom code goes in a child theme’s functions.php or a dedicated functionality plugin — never in the Gravity Forms files themselves. Common hooks include gform_field_value_{parameter_name} for pre-populating fields, gform_after_submission for processing entries after submission, gform_pre_send_email for modifying notifications, and gform_validation for custom server-side validation logic. The Gravity Forms developer documentation at docs.gravityforms.com catalogs the full hook library.

Yes. Gravity Forms includes a GF_Field class that you can extend to create entirely custom field types with their own input, validation, admin settings, and entry display logic. This is a developer task requiring PHP coding, but it is well-documented and the approach is used by many third-party Gravity Forms add-on developers.

Yes. Every form submission is stored as an entry in the Gravity Forms database tables. Entries are accessible from Forms → Entries, can be searched, filtered, exported as CSV, and accessed via the REST API. This is standard behavior with no additional configuration needed.

Yes, with the Pro or Elite license. Official payment add-ons include Stripe (the recommended gateway), PayPal Standard and Pro, Authorize.net, and Square. Payment forms support one-time charges, subscriptions, and calculated totals based on field selections.

Yes. Multi-page forms are one of Gravity Forms’ strengths. You can split any form into pages with optional progress indicators, conditional page routing (skip pages based on earlier answers), and save-and-continue functionality so users can save progress and complete the form later.

Yes. Gravity Forms includes a REST API for managing forms and entries programmatically. The API supports reading and creating entries, listing forms, and deleting entries. This is used by developers for integrations that go beyond what the official add-ons cover.