What is Umbraco Forms?

Most websites need a form somewhere, whether it's a simple contact form, a registration, or something a little more complicated. Let's take a look at what Umbraco Forms is and what it can do for your website.

So, what is Umbraco Forms?

At its simplest, Umbraco Forms is an official plugin for Umbraco CMS and Umbraco Cloud that lets you build and manage forms directly in the Umbraco backoffice.

Instead of developers having to build every form from scratch, Umbraco Forms gives content editors the tools to create and update them themselves.

You get loads of field types and validation options to play with, so you can build anything from a basic contact form to registrations, surveys, and much more.

Give editors more control

You shouldn't need to raise a development support ticket just to add another field to your contact form.

With Umbraco Forms, content editors create and update forms in the same backoffice they already use to manage their content. Fields can be added, removed, and reordered without touching any code.

Developers still control how those forms look and behave on the website, while editors get the flexibility without accidentally breaking that carefully crafted frontend.

Winner, winner!

Not just a contact form

Sometimes name, email address, and enquiry fields are all you need. And sometimes things get a little more complicated.

Umbraco Forms supports multi-page forms and conditional logic, which means you can build some surprisingly sophisticated forms without needing a bespoke solution.

You could show or hide questions based on previous answers, split lengthy questionnaires across multiple pages, or make sure visitors only see the fields that are relevant to them.

That makes Umbraco Forms useful for contact forms, registrations, applications, surveys, feedback forms, and loads more.

Turn submissions into action

Getting a user to fill in a form is only half the job. What happens next?

Umbraco Forms includes workflows that let you decide exactly that.

Using built-in or custom workflows, you might send the visitor a confirmation email, notify someone on Slack, update a record in HubSpot (or another CRM), or send their information somewhere else entirely. Or maybe you need all of the above!

But if the built-in options don't quite fit your needs, developers can create custom workflows and integrations to connect Umbraco Forms with other systems, CRMs, and third-party services.

Suddenly, that little contact form can become part of a much bigger business process.

Keep everything in Umbraco

There are many third-party tools you can use to add forms to your website. But that can also mean another platform and another login for your team to check.

Umbraco Forms keeps everything alongside the rest of your website content in the Umbraco backoffice.

Editors can manage forms, review submissions, and export data without jumping between different systems. And because the forms are part of your Umbraco website, they can look and feel like they actually belong there too.

Umbraco Forms also gives you control over the data you collect and how long you keep it. You can include consent fields and privacy information where needed, while configurable data retention can help you manage submissions in line with your company's privacy and GDPR requirements. Of course, there's more to GDPR than just ticking a box in Umbraco.

Flexible for developers too

Giving editors more control doesn't mean developers have to worry about broken user interfaces.

Umbraco Forms can be extended with custom field types, validation, workflows, and integrations. Developers retain control over the frontend, so forms follow the same design, branding, and accessibility standards as the rest of the website.

That means less time rebuilding the same functionality over and over again. And when something unusual comes along, there's still scope to make Umbraco Forms do what you need.

What about spam?

A form on the internet usually means somebody, or more likely some bot, will eventually try to fill it with rubbish. Yuk!

Umbraco Forms includes options to help protect forms from spam, including integrations with reCAPTCHA. Combined with sensible validation and configuration, you can reduce unwanted submissions without making genuine users jump through hoops just to send a message.

Nobody wants to spend Monday morning deleting 300 suspicious enquiries about Bitcoin.

So, could Umbraco Forms help you?

If you're already using Umbraco and need to collect information from your users, Umbraco Forms gives you a great starting point. You no longer need to reach out for development support to make a change or create a new form.

Editors get more control, developers spend less time building repetitive form functionality, and your company gets a consistent way to manage forms and submissions across your website.

Whether you need a simple contact form, a multi-step application, or something that needs to talk to another system, our Umbraco team can help you get the most from Umbraco Forms. Get in touch and let's chat about what you're looking to build.