Gravity Forms Conversational vs Quill Forms

Gravity Forms Conversational Forms is a conversational experience built on Gravity Forms, historically available with the Elite license (around $259/year). Gravity Forms itself has no free plugin on WordPress.org. Quill Forms is a conversational-native WordPress plugin with a useful free tier (unlimited forms and responses, no required branding) and paid plans from $99/year. Both store entries on your WordPress site. They are not substitutes for every job: Gravity Forms is the developer-centric classic form platform with a long add-on list. Quill Forms is the Typeform-style builder. We make Quill Forms. If your site is already a Gravity Forms shop, Elite conversational is usually cheaper in time than a migration. If you do not own Gravity and you wanted a conversation, starting with Gravity Elite to get that UI is the long way around.

This comparison is for teams choosing a public conversational form on WordPress in 2026 — surveys, quizzes, intake, quotes — and trying not to buy the wrong ecosystem.

In this guide

1. Quick comparison
2. How we compared
3. Gravity Forms Conversational Forms
4. Quill Forms
5. Developers, add-ons, and lock-in
6. What it costs to get a conversational form
7. Best for / skip if
8. FAQ

Quick comparison

How we compared

We compared product architecture and public licensing as of 2026. Gravity Forms is a paid classic form platform; Conversational Forms has been an Elite-tier capability. Quill Forms is conversational-native with a free WordPress plugin and Pro add-on features at $99/$199/$399. Gravity’s exact dollar figure has sat near $259/year for Elite; treat that as historical list, not a coupon. We did not run a lab conversion test and we do not quote fake percentages. Gravity’s advantage is ecosystem. Quill Forms’ advantage is the default UI and the free unlimited-response plugin. Pick from those facts, not from a trophy.

Gravity Forms Conversational Forms

Gravity Forms is how a large share of serious WordPress sites have collected data for years: applications, payment forms, directory submissions, user registration, PDF workflows, webhooks, and custom field types. Developers like the hooks. Agencies like the predictability. Procurement likes that it is a known name with a known support channel. There is no free core plugin on WordPress.org, which filters out casual installs and also filters out “try conversational this afternoon with $0.”

What conversational means here

Conversational Forms is Gravity answering the Typeform brief while keeping the Gravity backend. Notifications, entries, feeds to CRMs, and custom developer code can stay. The front end becomes a one-question (or fewer-fields-per-screen) experience. That is valuable when the form is already a Gravity object with institutional knowledge attached.

It is still Gravity. If you never liked Gravity’s builder, a conversational skin will not make you like the builder. If your problem was “our public survey looks like wp-admin,” conversational helps. If your problem was “we do not want to pay Elite,” conversational does not help.

What Gravity conversational does well

Continuity with a mature platform. Complex forms that already use conditional logic, multi-page structure, and add-ons can often keep that logic while presenting a calmer front end. Your developer’s gravity_form embed, your existing Stripe or Authorize.Net add-on, your user registration feed — those are reasons Elite conversational exists.

For regulated or awkward workflows (applications that create posts, users, and CRM rows), Gravity’s age is a feature. Someone has already written the snippet.

Where Gravity conversational is a poor fit

Greenfield conversational marketing. You do not own Gravity. You wanted a quiz next week. Elite is a high ticket if the only feature you needed was “one question at a time.” Quill Forms free may ship the quiz. Quill Forms Basic at $99/year may add logic and payments without you becoming a Gravity shop.

You wanted a free trial on WordPress.org. Gravity does not play that game. You wanted a GitHub-browseable GPL conversational core. Different culture.

You wanted drop-off analytics and partial submissions as named conversational products. Gravity may cover parts of that through add-ons and settings; do not assume feature names match Typeform or Quill Forms Pro. Demo the Elite conversational experience if that reporting is why you are switching.

Quill Forms

Quill Forms is not a Gravity competitor in the “platform with 50 add-ons” sense. It is a conversational form builder. The free plugin (version about 5.7.x, PHP 7.1+, tested up to WordPress 7.0.1, roughly 3,000+ active installs, 4.8 stars) includes the renderer, themes, custom CSS, email notifications, dashboard entries, honeypot (5.7.1+), AI form generation (5.0.0+), and blocks: Welcome, Thank You, Short Text, Long Text, Email, Dropdown, Multiple Choice, Date, Website, Statement, Range Slider, Group, Number, Legal. Embed: Gutenberg, shortcode, iframe. GPL: GitHub, hundreds of stars. No required branding. Unlimited forms and responses on your hosting.

Pro adds the production layer many Gravity users take for granted: jump logic, calculator/scoring, file upload, phone, opinion scale, rating, calendar picker, signature, partial submissions, drop-off analytics, hidden fields, UTM, payments (Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Razorpay, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, BTCPay, coupons), HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, webhooks, reCAPTCHA, form locker, GTM/GA/Pixel, WP user registration, post creation.

That Pro list is real and still shorter than Gravity’s historical add-on directory. If you need a specific Gravity add-on that is not listed here, Quill Forms does not magically grow it.

Where Quill Forms is a poor fit

You are replacing a Gravity Forms application that already talks to three custom feeds, a PDF generator, and a membership plugin. Rewrite cost dominates. Stay on Gravity. Enable conversational on Elite if the public face is the complaint.

You need multi-column classic layouts as the default. Gravity (or Fluent Forms, or WPForms) is the better default. Use Quill Forms only for the pieces that should feel like Typeform.

You do not want to host WordPress. Gravity will not save you. Use Typeform or Quill Forms Studio.

Developers, add-ons, and lock-in

Gravity Forms lock-in is usually accidental and deserved. Once a form ID is in a theme, a snippet, a CRM mapping, and a client SOP, the switching cost is the project. Conversational-on-Gravity respects that. Conversational-on-Quill Forms asks you to recreate the form object. For a 12-question survey, that is an afternoon. For a 60-field application with conditional pages, that is a rebuild with risk.

Quill Forms lock-in is smaller because the plugin does less, and because the free core is GPL. Your questions and copy still need a home if you leave. Entries in the WordPress database are yours to export either way. Integrations (Zapier, Make, webhooks) reduce some lock-in for both.

If you are a developer choosing a platform for the next five years of every form, Gravity Forms is the conservative pick. If you are a developer choosing a renderer for public conversations and you will keep Gravity for the weird application, installing both is normal. Do not make it a religion.

Hooks and custom field types: Gravity wins. Themeable full-screen conversation: Quill Forms is built for that argument. Meet in the middle only when a stakeholder forces a single plugin.

What it costs to get a conversational form

Gravity path: buy or upgrade to Elite (historically ~$259/year), build or convert a form, enable conversational. You also get the rest of Elite, which may be unused budget or the reason Elite was justified anyway (nested forms, surveys add-on, the particular feed you needed).

Quill Forms path: $0 to publish a linear conversational form with core blocks. $99/year per site (Basic) when you need logic, payments, or CRM. Plus and Enterprise are for more sites, not for extra response packs. Hosting is yours.

Typeform path, for context: as of 2026, free ~10 responses/month; paid ~$25 / $50 / $83 monthly-equivalent annual for 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 responses; the form typically closes at the cap. Data in Typeform’s cloud. Gravity and Quill Forms both beat Typeform on “unlimited WordPress entries” once you are paying a plugin invoice. They compete with each other on UI and ecosystem, not on a response SKU.

Staff time: Gravity conversational is cheaper if the form exists in Gravity. Quill Forms is cheaper if the form does not exist yet and the designer thinks in welcome screens and statements.

Spam, embed, and WordPress housekeeping

Both run on your PHP, your backups, and your spam load. Quill Forms free honeypot (5.7.1+) is a start; Pro reCAPTCHA for harsher traffic. Gravity has long-standing anti-spam patterns and add-ons. Neither is “set and forget” on a popular site.

Embed: Gravity’s shortcode and block are familiar to anyone who has shipped Gravity. Quill Forms uses a Gutenberg block, shortcode, and iframe for page builders. Elementor and Divi are fine with iframes/shortcodes for both, with the usual CSS fights.

PHP 7.1+ is Quill Forms’ stated requirement. Gravity’s requirements follow Gravity’s current docs; Elite sites are often already on modern PHP. Do not install either on an abandoned WordPress 4.x museum.

Best for / skip if

Gravity Forms Conversational Forms — best for: current Gravity customers, especially those who can justify Elite for other reasons; developer-owned complex forms that need a calmer public UI; agencies standardized on Gravity playbooks. Skip if: you do not have Gravity and only needed a conversational survey; you wanted a free WordPress.org plugin; Elite’s price is the entire budget for forms this year.

Quill Forms — best for: conversational-native surveys, quizzes, and intake on WordPress; unlimited responses without Elite; teams who want Pro logic/payments without becoming a Gravity shop. Skip if: the form is already a Gravity machine; you need Gravity-only add-ons; you wanted one enterprise form platform for every internal workflow.

We will not call Quill Forms the best Gravity alternative for PDFs, complicated feeds, or developer APIs. Gravity earned that reputation. We will call Quill Forms the better starting point when the brief is Typeform-on-WordPress and Gravity is not already paid for. See Typeform alternative if that is literally the brief.

FAQ

Which Gravity license includes Conversational Forms?

Historically Elite (about $259/year). Lower tiers have not been the conversational SKU. Verify on Gravity’s current pricing page before you purchase; license maps can change.

Is there a free Gravity Forms?

Not on WordPress.org as an official free core plugin. Demo sites and third-party rumors are not a license. Quill Forms does have an official free conversational plugin.

Can I migrate Gravity Forms to Quill Forms?

Not as a lossless one-click conversion we can advertise. Export your questions, rebuild, reconnect notifications and webhooks, then run both in parallel until the numbers match. Keep Gravity if the rebuild looks scarier than Elite.

Does Quill Forms have conditional logic like Gravity?

Jump logic is a Pro feature. Gravity’s conditional logic is part of the core paid product you already bought. They are not cloned feature-for-feature. Test your actual branches.

Who handles payments better?

“Better” depends on the add-on you already configured. Gravity’s payment add-ons are battle-tested on many sites. Quill Forms Pro lists Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Razorpay, Authorize.net, 2Checkout, and BTCPay, with coupons. If Authorize.net is already live in Gravity, do not migrate a revenue form for aesthetics.

Can both plugins run together?

Yes. Gravity for the membership application, Quill Forms for the marketing quiz, is a sane architecture. Two entry screens. Two support vendors. Clearer products.

What to do next

If Gravity Elite is already on the invoice, turn on Conversational Forms for one non-critical form and walk it on a phone. If you do not own Gravity, install Quill Forms free and publish a linear survey before you shop Elite for the UI alone. If you need jump logic and HubSpot, compare Gravity Elite’s total usefulness against Quill Forms Pro at $99/year for one site.

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