Save form entries on your site, or only email them?

The short version

• Email alone is fragile. Saved entries are the safety net when the email fails.
• Gravity Forms saves entries. WPForms Lite and Contact Form 7 don’t, on their own.
• Keep caught spam in a spam list, not deleted, so you can rescue a real lead.
• Only give entry access to people who need it, and delete old entries on a schedule.
• If leads also go to a CRM, the CRM becomes the main record; the site copy is the backup.

How do I check whether my form saves entries?

Sign in to WordPress and look for an Entries screen under your form plugin’s menu. If you see past submissions there, entries are saved. If there’s no such screen, or it’s empty while emails have been arriving, entries probably aren’t being saved on the site. Check before you conclude that, though: your user role may not be allowed to see entries, a filter or retention setting may hide or clear them, or the form may store entries somewhere else, such as a CRM.

What each common plugin does today:

WPForms Lite

WPForms’ own Lite Connect page explains that the free version doesn’t save entries to your WordPress database. Lite Connect sends a backup to WPForms’ servers instead. Those backups only cover entries after you turn it on, and you can only see them by upgrading to a paid license. The page says they expire after one year. For a business that relies on its forms, that’s not a safety net you can use on a bad day.

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 emails each message and stores nothing. Its maker’s Flamingo plugin describes itself as “a message storage plugin originally created for Contact Form 7, which doesn’t store submitted messages.” Install it and messages appear in your WordPress admin, searchable.

Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms stores every entry by default. Its form settings also decide what happens to submissions flagged as spam. The default, Create an entry and mark it as spam, keeps them in a Spam list you can check. The other choice, Do not create an entry, throws them away. Keep the default.

How do I keep saved entries safe?

Stored leads are personal data: names, phone numbers, sometimes details about a home or health. Treat them that way.

1. Limit who can see them. Only people who handle leads need access. Check your WordPress users, and remove anyone who has left.
2. Use strong sign-ins. Every admin should have their own login with two-step sign-in. Our help article on turning on two-factor login shows how.
3. Don’t collect what you don’t need. No card numbers, ID numbers or passwords in a contact form, ever.
4. Protect uploaded files separately. Entry-screen permissions don’t cover the files themselves. Gravity Forms’ file upload security page says download links are obscured but rely on the link staying private: anyone who has the link can usually open the file unless the site requires sign-in before downloads, which is a developer setting. If a form takes photos or documents, have that setting checked, and don’t ask for sensitive documents through a website form until it has been tested.
5. Delete on a schedule. Decide how long you keep leads and clear older ones. Our privacy guide on how long to keep form submissions helps you set the period, In Gravity Forms, the form’s Personal Data settings include a Retention Policy that can trash or permanently delete entries after a number of days you choose, according to its personal data documentation.
6. Mention it in your privacy policy. Say what the form collects, why, and how long you keep it. See what a small business privacy policy should cover.

Why does saving entries matter?

When a form email goes missing, the owner usually doesn’t know. No bounce comes back. The customer assumes you’re not interested and calls someone else. With saved entries, a monthly look at the Entries screen shows everything that came in, and you can compare it with what reached your inbox.

Saved entries also help after a hosting move, a domain change or a new mail setup, which are the moments when form email most often breaks.

What are the common mistakes and edge cases?

• Assuming entries are saved because emails arrive. Check the Entries screen; don’t assume.
• Deleting spam automatically. A real customer who typed a link in their message can be flagged. Keep a spam list and skim it weekly.
• Never clearing old entries. Years of personal data sitting on a website is a risk with no benefit.
• Exporting entries to a spreadsheet and emailing it around. Now there are copies everywhere. Share access to the screen, or use a CRM.
• Storing file uploads forever. Photos and documents sent through a form sit in your uploads folder. Include them in your deletion schedule.

What if entries are saved but emails still don’t arrive?

That tells you the form works and the sending is broken. Our help article on form emails that go to spam or go missing finds the missing leads, and the guide to making WordPress send email properly fixes the cause. Meanwhile, check the Entries screen daily so nothing waits.

Should leads go into a CRM instead?

Saving on the site is the minimum. Once you have more leads than one person can track in an inbox, send them into a CRM or a shared leads inbox as well, so every lead has an owner and a status. See sending form leads into a CRM or HighLevel. The site copy then becomes a backup. Remember that each copy needs the same care, which our privacy guide on vendors and processors explains.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

Flamingo is free. Gravity Forms and paid WPForms versions are annual licenses; see each vendor’s pricing page. Checking whether entries are saved takes a few minutes. Switching plugins to get saved entries means rebuilding the form, which is usually an hour or two per form plus testing.

How does E-3 handle this?

“Why are my form emails going to spam or missing?” is one of the ten questions our clients have asked most. Saved entries are often how those lost leads are found. On sites we look after through website care and our leads and follow-up service, checking that a form stores entries is one of the first things we look at. Any change to a form is tried on a staging copy of the site before it goes live.

Related questions

• How do I route form leads to the right person?
• Which WordPress form plugin should I use?
• How do I send form leads into a CRM?
• How long should I keep form submissions?
• Back to the complete guide to forms and lead follow-up

Sources

1. Using Lite Connect entry backups in WPForms Lite (WPForms documentation)
2. Flamingo (WordPress.org plugin directory)
3. Form settings: spam detection (Gravity Forms documentation)
4. Gravity Forms pricing and add-ons (Gravity Forms)
5. File upload security (Gravity Forms documentation)
6. Personal data settings (Gravity Forms documentation)