Enter

How to... / 4 min read

How to Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form in WordPress

a closeup of the corner of a computer screen displaying a Gmail inbox

So, you want to learn to get a notification every time someone submits a form to your WordPress site? Luckily, most WordPress form plugins enable email notifications by default and send them to the admin email address each time someone submits a form.

Still, it’s important to learn how to navigate your form plugin’s configurations since they allow you to add new addresses to the notification list, determine whether users receive email confirmations upon submissions, and more.

Let’s explore how to navigate the settings of 5 popular WordPress form plugins to confirm whether it is sending notifications to the admin email address.

Key Takeaways

  • By default, most WordPress form plugins send notifications to admins upon every form submission.
  • Enabling notifications is only a matter of navigating your plugin’s settings and pressing a button.
  • These settings often contain other important configurations like adding more addresses to the notification list, sending confirmation emails to users, and more.

Why Get a Notification When Someone Submits on Your WordPress Site?

The main reasons to set up notifications for every form submission on your sites are:

  • Increasing the chance of converting customers by replying quickly to submissions.
  • Showing your audience you’re attentive and reliable by replying quickly.
  • Making the relevant team members aware of submissions as quickly as possible.
  • Receiving customer feedback and queries in real time.

5 Methods to Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form to Your WordPress Site

Let’s explore how to ensure your admin email receives a notification whenever someone submits a form to your WordPress site using 5 of the most popular form plugins.

Method #1: Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form With WPForms

To get notifications using WPForms, you must activate them individually on each form. To activate notifications for a specific form, go to WPForms > All Forms and select the form you want to add notifications to.

The WPForms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is selecting a form to edit it

Once on the form builder, go to Settings on the left-hand sidebar.

The WPForms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is pressing the Settings button in the form builder

Click on Notifications.

The WPForms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is pressing the Notifications in the form builder's Settings screen

Ensure the Enable notifications button is activated and click Save on the top-right corner.

The WPForms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user ensured the "Enable notifications" button is on and clicked the "Save" on the page's top-right corner

You can also scroll down and modify the default notification to better reflect your brand, but this is optional.

The WPForms interface in the WordPress backend admin. There are various form fields the user can edit

Method #2: Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form With Contact Form 7

Email notifications are active by default on Contact Form 7, so you don’t really need to enable them. However, you may still want to modify the contents of the notification email or add new emails to the notification list.

Like in WPForms, each form has individual notification settings, so to ensure your form is sending notifications and potentially modify its contents, go to Contact > Contact Forms

Click on the form you want to enable notifications for.

The Contact Forms 7 interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is selecting a form to edit it

Once in the form editor, switch to the Email tab.

The Contact Forms 7 interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is clicking on the Mail tab of the form editor

This tab contains the information in the notification email you will receive when someone submits a form on your site. You can edit it or leave it as-is. You can also add more email addresses that will receive the notification.

The Contact Forms 7 interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is in the Mail tab of the form editor. It contains various fields that make up the contents of the notification emails admins receive when someone submits a form on their site

Once you’re done, scroll down and click on Save.

The Contact Forms 7 interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user scrolled to the bottom of the Mail tab and clicked the Save button.

Method #3: Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form With Ninja Forms

Email notifications are enabled by default on Ninja Forms. If you want to double-check that one of your forms is sending notification emails when submitted, go to Ninja Forms > Dashboard and click on the form you want to check on.

The Ninja Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user clicks on one of their forms to edit it

On the form editor, switch to the Emails & Actions tab.

The Ninja Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is in the form editor and clicks on the Emails & Actions tab

As you can see, email notifications to the admin and the visitor who submitted the form are enabled by default.

The Ninja Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user in the Emails & Actions tab. All email notifications are enabled

Method #4: Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form With Forminator Forms

Like other form plugins, Forminator Forms enables notifications by default. But you can still check if they’re active, just in case. To do that, go to Forminator > Dashboard from the backend admin and click on the form you want to check.

Click Email Notifications on the left-hand sidebar.

The Forminator Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is one the form editor and is clicking the "Email notifications" button on the left-hand sidebar

By default, your site admin’s email address will receive notifications, but you can add or remove addresses.

The Forminator Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The Email Notifications screen shows the email addresses that will receive a message upon every form submission

You can also click on any of the email addresses to edit the notification email.

The Forminator Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. A modal allows the user to edit various fields that make up the content of the notification email admins will receive upon every form submission

Method #5: Get a Notification When Someone Submits a Form With Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms has notifications enabled by default. To check whether any given form has notifications enabled, go to Formidable > Forms (Lite) and select an existing form.

The Formidable Forms interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is in the "Forms (Lite)" section and is click on a form to edit it

In the form editor, click on Settings at the top.

The Formidable Forms editor interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is clicking on the Settings button on the top navbar

Now click on Emails & Notifications on the left-hand sidebar.

The Formidable Forms editor interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is clicking on the "Actions & Notifications" button on the left-hand sidebar.

Email notifications are enabled by default. You can also edit whether visitors get a confirmation email after submitting a form.

The Formidable Forms editor interface in the WordPress backend admin. The user is in the "Actions & Notifications" screen to confirm this specific form sends email notifications to the admin once submitted by a user.

Setting Up a Notification When Someone Submits a Form in WordPress is Easy

As you can see, setting up notifications for WordPress form plugins is very easy. It’s only a matter of navigating menus and pressing buttons. Luckily, most form plugins enable email notifications by default, so you may not even need to go through the trouble of enabling them.

But learning to navigate your plugins is always useful, and these configuration menus also allow you to edit the notification message, add more addresses to the notification list, determine whether users get confirmation emails after submitting a form, and more.

If you found this post useful, read our blog and developer resources for more insights and guides!