How to Convert Formidable Forms to Gravity Forms, WPForms, or Any Other Plugin

April 16, 2026

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Formidable Forms is kind of the power user's choice. If you need calculated fields, application-style forms, or directory listings, it can do things the other plugins can't. But that power comes with complexity. And sometimes a project just doesn't need all of it.

Maybe you inherited a client site built on Formidable and you want to move it to something your team knows better. Maybe the client is downsizing to a simpler plugin now that their needs have changed. Either way, those forms need to migrate. And this is where it gets interesting, because Formidable is the one plugin where almost nobody has written a migration guide. There's just... nothing out there.

Why Formidable migrations are different

Formidable Forms exports as XML. Every other major form plugin uses JSON (except Contact Form 7, which uses shortcode). So you're not just translating field names. You're translating between two completely different data formats.

None of the other plugins have a "import from Formidable" tool. WPForms' importer doesn't support it. Fluent Forms' built-in migrator doesn't support it. Gravity Forms doesn't have any third-party form importer at all. If you're leaving Formidable, you've been stuck doing it by hand. Until now.

How to do it

In Formidable Forms, go to Forms, then select the form you want to export. Click the dropdown and choose Export. You'll get an XML file.

Go to formporter.com. Select "Formidable Forms" as the source and pick whatever plugin you're moving to. Upload the XML file. Hit Convert.

FormPorter parses the XML, extracts all the field definitions, maps the Formidable field types to whatever your target plugin calls them, and outputs a properly formatted import file. Labels, required settings, field descriptions, and field order all carry over.

Download the result and import it into your new plugin.

What to know about Formidable exports

Formidable's XML exports are structured differently from its internal database. The export focuses on the form structure (fields, types, labels, descriptions) rather than the full settings object. This means some Formidable-specific features like calculated fields, lookup fields, and repeater sections won't have equivalents in other plugins anyway. Those are Formidable-only features.

Standard fields convert cleanly though. Text, email, textarea, phone, select, radio, checkbox, number, date, hidden, and name fields all map directly to their counterparts in every other supported plugin.

Moving TO Formidable

Going the other direction works too. If you're converting from Gravity Forms, WPForms, Ninja Forms, Fluent Forms, or CF7 into Formidable, FormPorter generates a valid XML file you can import. Same tool, just flip the dropdowns.