Last Updated on July 24, 2018 by Neil Murray

We are pleased to announce that Contact Form 7 Skins is now available for download from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Contact Form 7 Skins is an extension for the Contact Form 7 plugin.

The Problem

As one of the most popular WordPress plugins, Contact Form 7 has helped millions of users all over the world to add forms on their WordPress site.

While simple Contact forms are easy to create – building complex forms, and getting them to look how you want, does take some effort.

Experienced WordPress users, skilled at using HTML and CSS, are able to style their Contact Form 7 forms to their particular requirements … but this requires a level of skill beyond many people.

I decided to help solve this problem with Contact Form 7 Skins.

“It’s not that easy to get Contact From 7 forms looking like you want – particularly if you are not skilled at using both HTML and CSS.”

Our Solution

Contact Form 7 Skins works right within the normal Contact Form 7 interface, making it easier for regular WordPress users to create professional looking Contact Form 7 forms, using a range of compatible Templates and Styles.

Simply select from a list of compatible Templates that cover many common forms and then choose a Style for your form from a range of professional and beautiful Styles.

Each Template acts as an easy to follow guide, which can be adapted to your particular requirements. Every Style covers the full range of Contact Form 7 form elements.

Contact Form 7 Skins is highly customizable and easy to learn, even for beginners.

“Contact Form 7 Skins makes styling of Contact Form 7 forms much easier – even if you don’t have HTML + CSS skills.”

Why I created Contact Form 7 Skins

I decided to start building Contact Form 7 Skins not long after I started answering questions in the Contact Form 7 Support Forum. I began doing this most days after hearing someone suggest that answering questions on a plugin you are familiar with was a simple & effective way to contribute back to WordPress.

I knew Contact Form 7 pretty well (or so I thought at the time). I also knew that the plugin author was Japanese – so I figured being a native English speaker (I’m Australian) might help.

I quickly discovered that styling of Contact Form 7 forms was a common issue in the forum. I found myself answering very similar questions day after day.

So I wrote an article on Styling Contact Form 7 Forms to provide a more comprehensive explanation of the topic than I could give in the support forum. This allowed me to answer these repeat questions much more quickly & easily and at the same time give people a more detailed answer.

Contact Form 7’s author, Takayuki Miyoshi, kindly linked to the post from the Contact Form 7 Documentation. When he did that I was immediately surprised by the number of hits. I knew that Contact Form 7 was very popular, but with the number of people reading the article each day, I finely grasped how widespread usage of Contact Form 7 really was.

While the article is used by lots of people, it’s directed at people who have suitable HTML & CSS skills.

I decided I wanted to solve the problem of styling Contact Form 7 forms in a simple, practical way for regular WordPress users – that don’t have HTML & CSS skills.

The number of people reading the article each day indicated to me that there should be opportunities for a Freemium plugin that did this well.

“Contact Form 7 Skins was written to help regular WordPress users who would like to have great looking Contact Form 7 forms, but don’t have suitable HTML & CSS skills.”

Response to the plugin has been very positive with significant numbers of people downloading the free version of the plugin right from day one. I’m also encouraged by the number of people making the choice to purchase the Pro version each week.

Why I choose to use a Freemium Plugin Model

I really wanted to ensure that development of CF7 Skins was sustainable in the long-term. The truth is a high percentage of the plugins released each year are not maintained over time.

It’s an open secret that every Plugin Developer needs to be getting some benefit from ongoing development of the plugin (one way or the other) for development to be sustainable over the longer term.

Most WordPress users also look for plugins that are well supported and regularly updated. So it’s in everyone’s interest I think to try to come up with a sustainable business model.

In my case I made the decision that ongoing development of CF7 Skins should be made possible by sales of renewable annual licenses of our Pro Version and Add-ons.

“Ongoing development of CF7 Skins is made possible by sales of renewable annual licenses of our Pro Version and Add-ons.”

Pro Version and Add-ons

CF7 Skins Pro provides a wider range of Templates & Styles for commonly used forms plus Premium Email Support. If you are building complex Contact Form 7 forms and use your WordPress website to help make money in your business, then purchasing our Pro version can make good sense.

Our range of Add-ons aims to bring the functionality available in other premium WordPress Form plugins directly within Contact Form 7. Using a CF7 Skins Add-on can offer a number of advantages including your existing familiarity with using Contact Form 7 – you don’t need to learn another WordPress Form plugin.

CF7 Skins Multi – our premium Add-on for multi-part Contact Form 7 forms – is now available for purchase.

CF7 Skins Multi allows you to easily break your Contact Form 7 forms into multiple steps. Forms can be divided where required, quickly & easily, right within the Contact Form 7 plugin interface.

“Now you can build multi-part forms quickly and easily, right within the Contact Form 7 interface.”

Who am I

I’m Neil Murray aka buzztone in the WordPress Forums. I’m a WordPress Developer based on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

NOTES:

The free version has identical functionality, just a smaller range of Templates & Styles. It’s a completely viable option for many Contact Form 7 users. Ideal for those who would just like an attractive Contact form. We welcome people using the free version. We understand that a widely popular free plugin is the first step to having a successful Freemium plugin.

But if you are building more complex Contact Form 7 forms and you use your WordPress website to help make more money in your business then our Pro version and CF7 Skins Add-on or two can make good sense.

> Premium Email Support

“Contact Form 7 Skins helps you create beautiful forms without writing any HTML or CSS code.”