Want an easy way to save and manage form entries on your WordPress website?
When someone submits a form on your website, you’ll usually get a notification email sent to your admin account. But while these emails contain all the details about the form, that’s not enough.
You will want to store these entries in an organized manner.
We’ll show you the easiest way to store form data in WordPress and then view it in an easy-to-use dashboard. You can access this data directly from your WordPress admin, so you don’t need to log in to your hosting account or cPanel.
Before we get started, let’s first understand what happens behind the scenes between your forms and the database.
How are WordPress form entries stored?
When you install WordPress, a database is automatically created for you. This database stores all sorts of information about your website.
You can access the database by logging into your hosting account. Then go to cPanel » phpMyAdmin under the Databases section.
If you are using Bluehost, you will find it under Useful Links » Advanced » phpMyAdmin .
You should now see a menu on the left with the name of your database.
Not sure what your database name is? Don’t worry, you can find your database details in the wp-config.php file. In cPanel, open the File Manager ” Public_html folder .
If your site is stored in a different folder, make sure to select that folder and you will find the wp-config.php file there.
Just right click and edit that file and you will find the database name inside it.
Now back in phpMyAdmin, you can choose the correct database and expand it to see a list of tables stored in it.
You will find the form data here.
So, for example, if you are using the WPForms plugin, your form entries will be stored in these tables:
- wp_wpforms_entries: The information is the fields (values) of your entries and is stored in this database table.
- wp_wpforms_entryhis table contains meta information about your entries, such as IDs and associated dates.
- wp_wpforms_entry_fields: This table contains encoded entry information from your forms.
- wp_wpforms_tasks_meta: This table stores information about tasks that are processed in the background.
If you are using any other form builder, such as Formidable Forms , you should find it similar.
The form data in these tables can be useful for developers, but for regular WordPress users, there is a much easier way to view and manage your form entries.
Next, we’ll show you how to do this.
How to Manage Form Entries in WordPress
Every time a user submits a form, you could be collecting crucial information like the user’s contact information and their pre-sales inquiries.
You’ll want an easy way to view this directly from your WordPress admin dashboard, rather than logging into a different account each time.
The best way to do this is to use WPForms .
WPForms is the best form builder for WordPress. You can create all types of forms, including contact forms, registration forms, appointment forms, and even surveys and polls.
The reason we love WPForms is because it’s so feature-rich. So, for example, when someone submits a form, you can set up an automatic email confirmation for the user and notify your team at the same time.
It also comes with built-in spam protection and you can add captcha so that your form entries are sanitized. You won’t have to worry about sorting through and deleting tons of spam submissions from bots.
You can also sync your WordPress forms with your email account. This way, all new leads can be automatically added to your email lists.
Now, every time a form is submitted, all that data is stored in the WPForms entry management page. You’ll be able to view, edit, and delete entries with ease.
And there’s more! You can even see statistics about how your forms are performing.
We should mention that WPForms is free to use, so anyone can create a form for their website. However, the entry management feature is available in the Pro version, which starts at $49.50 per year – which works out to just $4 per month, which is a bargain for the features you get:
- Unlimited forms, submissions and users
- Form templates and layouts
- Smart conditional logic
- Advanced form fields with field validation
- File upload
- Form notifications
- Spam protection
- Privacy Compliance
- Email Summaries
- Multi-page forms
- Import/Export Tools
- Entry Previews
…and much more. With that said, let’s start the tutorial.
Step 1: Create a WordPress Form
WPForms makes it incredibly simple to create forms. There are several templates to choose from.
There’s also a visual drag-and-drop builder that makes it easy to customize your form.
We won’t go into detailed instructions here, as we’ve already covered this topic in our guide: How to Add a Contact Form to Your WordPress Website .
This tutorial will show you how to install WPForms, create and customize your form. It will also show you how to enable spam protection, set up automated form notifications, and connect to your email account.
Step 2: Manage form entries
Once you’ve added the form to your WordPress site, you can wait for people to submit entries. For now, we suggest submitting a few test entries.
When you submit a form entry, two things will happen:
- You will receive an email notification from the administrator
- The data will be stored in the WordPress database
To access this database, go to the WPForms » Entries section in your WordPress dashboard.
You will see a control panel that is easy to understand, even for beginners.
First, you’ll see a graph showing your form’s performance over time. Below it, you can see a list of the forms you’ve created.
When you click on a form name here, a new bulgaria phone number library page will open with all the entries for that form.
You can view the details of each submission. So in this form, which is “Request to call back”, you will see the columns for name, phone, and date/time.
Next to each entry, you can see actions to view, edit, and delete.
Now, WPForms even lets you manage each form submission. Click on any of the entries here and a new page will open.
You’ll see all the form details, plus a section to add notes. In the right sidebar, you can print, export, resend notifications, mark as unread, and highlight the entry.
As you can see, WPForms has a complete form entry management system. You’ll never need to leave your WordPress website to manage form entries.
Step 3: Disable storing form data in the database
To prevent form data from being stored in the WordPress database, you need to enable a setting in WPForms.
Edit the desired form and go to the Settings » General tab within the builder and scroll to the bottom.
You need to make sure to check the option remove interests to stop news feed that says: Disable storing entry information in WordPress. Save your form and you are done.
We recommend doing a test entry to ensure that your form’s email notifications are still working. Since your database will not store the form details, you should keep a copy of this email.
This brings us to the end of our tutorial. You now know where to find your form entries in the database and also how to view them in your WordPress dashboard.
FAQ about saving form data to WordPress database
Should I save form data to the WordPress database?
Saving form data to your WordPress database allows you to store and manage user-submitted information, allowing you to analyze, retrieve, and display it later. This is especially useful for contact forms, surveys, and user registrations.
How do I create a form in WordPress to collect data?
You can use a WordPress form plugin like WPForms to easily create forms. Install the plugin, create a new form, add the necessary fields, and embed the form on your website.
Can I save form data without using a plugin?
While using a form plugin is the simplest phone list method, you can also manually code a form and use PHP to process and save the data to the database. However, this is more complex and requires coding skills.