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How to Create a Custom Airtable Form in WordPress (Easy Way)

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Do you want to make a custom Airtable form for your WordPress site?

Airtable is a data management tool that lets you create your own custom data-driven apps. Basically, you can collect data with a form on your website and use it to make spreadsheets, contact lists, booking calendars, and more.

In this article, we will show you how to create a custom Airtable form in WordPress.

how-to-create-a-custom-airtable-form-in-wordpress-og

Why Create a Custom Airtable Form in WordPress?

Airtable is a data management tool that allows you to create custom data-driven apps. That way, you can better visualize the data collected on your website using WordPress forms.

For instance, you can use your WordPress contact form data in Airtable as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool to manage leads and contacts captured by your WordPress forms.

You can also store data from user surveys on Airtable.

Here are a few other use cases for using Airtable in WordPress:

  • Organize tasks by project, assign responsibilities, and use Kanban views to visualize project progress.
  • Create a content calendar for content pieces, track publication dates, and assign writers and edits to increase your blog traffic.
  • Maintain a database of inventory items to track quantities for your online store.

Basically, you can use data collected from your WordPress contact forms in Airtable to create custom apps, workflows, and tools for your business.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create a custom Airtable form in WordPress.

How to Create a Custom Airtable Form in WordPress

To create our custom Airtable form in WordPress, we will first make a contact form using WPForms.

It is the best WordPress form builder plugin on the market and allows you to create any kind of form easily using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

After that, we will connect our form to Airtable by using a service called Zapier.

Zapier works as a bridge to connect two different apps without any code. You can use it with dozens of online apps, including WPForms and Airtable.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Create Your Form in WPForms

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You will need the Pro version or higher to access the Zapier addon for WPForms.

Upon activation, you need to go to the WPForms » Settings page.

Under the ‘General’ tab, enter the license key from your account on the WPForms website and hit ‘Verify Key.’

verify key in WPForms

Next, you need to visit the WPForms » Add New page in your WordPress dashboard. This will launch the WPForms builder interface, where you can choose from over 1200 pre-built templates.

Make sure to give your form a name so you can easily refer back to it.

name your WPForms

For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using the ‘Simple Contact Form.’

Go ahead and click on ‘Use Template.’

Use template for simple contact form

From here, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop editor, where you can easily customize the form.

Let’s say we are creating a contact form to collect leads from B2B prospects. In this case, we will want to add ‘Company’ and ‘Phone Number’ to our contact form.

To add the Company, you need to add a ‘Single Line Text’ item, then click on the element and rename the field to ‘Company.’

Add company field to WPForms

If you want prospects to provide their phone number, just drag the field option ‘Phone’ onto the editor.

Feel free to add any other fields that fit your needs. For more details, you can see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

Phone field

Once you’ve set up your form, you need to add it to your WordPress website.

Simply hit the ‘Embed’ button up top.

embed button

You can choose to embed the contact form on an existing page or a new page.

In this case, we will pick ‘Select Existing Page.’

Select existing page

Choose any page you’d like and select the ‘Let’s Go!’ button.

This will take you to the WordPress editor of that page.

Embed in a page

All you have to do is hit the ‘+’ button in the top left corner.

Then, find and select the WForms widget to add it to your page.

WPforms block

From here, you can choose the contact form you’ve just created.

That will automatically embed the form into your page.

choose contact form

Next up, make sure to hit the ‘Update’ button up top.

Now, your form should be added to your WordPress page.

update button

After you have added your form to your website, go ahead and create a test entry. This will be used to set up and check the connection between WPForms and Airtable.

Here’s our test entry, with name, email, phone, company name, and a message:

Contact form entry

Activate the Zapier Addon for WPForms

We will be using Zapier to build a bridge between WPForms and Airtable. To do that, you need to install and activate the WPForms Zapier Addon.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to the WPForms » Addons page and find the Zapier addon. Then, go ahead and install and activate it.

Zapier addon

Now, you need to go to the WPForms » Settings.

On the ‘Integrations’ page, simply click on the Zapier logo here, and you will get your Zapier API key. You need this to connect Zapier to your WPForms account.

Copy the API key somewhere safe or keep this tab open, as you will need it in the later step.

Zapier api

Set Up a Base and Table in Airtable

Next, we need to create a base in Airtable to store all of the information that we collect from our contact form.

If you are new to Airtable, then there’s a chance that you may not know how to set up a base and table.

First off, the base is the top-level database used to organize and store information. A table in Airtable is similar to a sheet in a spreadsheet.

Once you’ve created an account on Airtable, go ahead and click the ‘Start from scratch’ option in your home dashboard.

If you have an existing spreadsheet that you want to migrate over to Airtable, then just click the ‘Quickly upload’ option.

Start from scratch

Go ahead and name your base and table.

We’ve decided to name our base ‘Sales CRM’ and the table ‘Contacts.’

Rename base and table in Airtable

Then, change the top column labels to match the form fields you’ve just created in WPForms.

In this case, we added a label for Name, Company, Email, and Phone.

Change labels

Keep this tab open, as we will refer back to it later to check whether our WordPress automation works.

Create a Personal Access Token

Now, you need to prepare Airtable to connect with WPForms via Zapier. To do that, you need a personal access token to connect Airtable with Zapier.

Simply navigate to Airtable and click the ‘Account’ button under your profile logo.

Airtable account

A personal access token lets you create multiple tokens that provide access to the information held in your Airtable databases.

In the ‘Overview’ tab, go ahead and click the ‘Go to developer hub’ button.

Go to developer hub

You’ll be taken to the developer hub, where you can create tokens to connect with your Airtable data.

Under the ‘Personal access tokens’ tab, click the ‘Create token’ button.

Create token

From here, you will be required to fill in important information. First, you need to name the token so that you can easily refer to it later if you want to edit the permissions.

Under ‘Scopes,’ you must select what users can do when given access to this token. In this case, we will select the option that says, ‘data.records:write,’ so that users can create, edit, and delete records.

Once that is done, just click on the ‘Create token’ button.

Create token from airtable

A popup will appear telling you that your token has been created. Just copy it and keep it somewhere safe.

We will be adding this token to Zapier so that we can connect our Airtable database to WordPress.

copy token

Make Your Zap to Send Data From Your Website Form to Airtable

Next, go to the Zapier website. Here, you need to create a free account or sign in to your existing account.

In your Zapier dashboard, click the ‘Create a Zap’ button on the top-left to start the configuration wizard.

Create a zap

Note: In Zapier, a ‘zap’ is a process with a trigger and an action. Our trigger will be someone filling in the form, and our action will be to create a record in Airtable.

At the top of the screen, you need to give your zap a name, and then you can set up the trigger.

Set up name for trigger in Zapier

Scroll down and click on the ‘Trigger’ box.

Next, you will want to find and select the WPForms app to start the trigger.

WPForms zapier trigger

In the ‘Choose App & Event’ box, type ‘WPForms’ into the search bar.

After that, simply click on the WPForms icon that comes up.

Choose WPForms as your trigger app

A sidebar window will appear on the right of your screen. Under Event, choose ‘New Form Entry’ as the trigger to initiate the action.

Then, simply hit the ‘Continue’ button.

New form entry event trigger

Next, you will need to click the ‘Sign In’ button to log in to your WPForms account.

This allows Zapier to grab all of the new form entry data and insert it into your Airtable.

Sign in to WPForms

A pop-up window will appear.

You will need to enter the API key that you generated earlier, plus the URL (domain name) of your website.

allow zapier access to WPForms

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Continue’ button to move on.

Next, you will be asked to select the form you created earlier from the dropdown list.

Continue button

Once you’ve selected the contact form, go ahead and select ‘Continue.’

The ‘Refresh fields’ button lets you reload the data to reflect the most recent form entries.

Add trigger to Zapier

Next, click on the ‘Test trigger’ button.

Zapier will find your most recent entry, which will confirm whether the trigger is set up correctly.

Test trigger

You should then see a message telling you that Zapier found a test entry.

The data from your form entry will be shown on the screen:

Continue with selected record

Click the ‘Continue with selected record’ button to carry on. You are now in the Action part of the Zap, where you need to choose your second app.

Simply type ‘Airtable’ into the dropdown to find the app. Then click on the Airtable widget.

Connect airtable to zapier

Once Airtable is connected to your zap, you will see the dropdown for choosing an action event.

The action event is simply what you want to happen when someone completes the form on your site. You need to select ‘Create Record’ here.

Then, hit the ‘Continue’ button.

Create record

Now, Zapier will prompt you to sign in to Airtable.

Simply click the ‘Sign In’ button and then log in.

Sign in to connect airtable

A new window will appear telling you that Zapier is requesting Airtable access. Essentially, this allows Zapier to automatically send your form entry data into the created fields in your Airtable.

All you need to do is click the ‘+ Add a base’ link. Then, choose which workspaces you want to give Zapier access to. If you don’t have a preference, then just click the option that says, ‘All current and future bases in all current and future workspaces.’

Then, once selected, go ahead and click on the ‘Grant access’ button.

Grant access

Now, you will see a ‘Continue’ button.

Just click this to carry on making your zap.

Continue with making zap

Under the Action tab, you’ll need to first add your ‘Base’ and ‘Table’ from the given dropdown menus.

We are going to use our Sales CRM as the base and add our new contacts to the Contacts table.

Add base and table to zap

Also, you need to tell Zapier which fields from your WPForms form should correspond to the columns in your Airtable table.

For all the applicable fields, simply select the correct field using your test data. It should look something like this:

table fields to add to zap

Then, click the ‘Continue’ button to keep going.

Zapier will now prompt you to send a test record to Airtable using your test data.

You will see a preview of the data. Simply click on ‘Test step.’

Test step

This will send the test data to your chosen table in Airtable, creating a new record.

Go ahead and review the preview record to check the information is correct.

Test record

You may want to double-check that the record has been correctly added to Airtable.

It’s a good idea to check that the data went through to your Airtable base and that the information was entered correctly into the proper fields.

Airtable data

Now, head back over to Zapier.

You simply need to click the ‘Publish’ button to finish creating your zap.

Publish zap

Give it a few seconds for the Zap to publish.

At the top of your screen, you should see an ‘On’ button, indicating the Zap is live.

Zap is on

Also, if you ever need to edit the Zap, such as changing which table or fields to send your form entry to, you can always find your Zap on the home dashboard of Zapier.

Just click on the title of the Zap to edit it.

Edit zap

Your zap is now running. All form entries through your connected form will be added to the Airtable table that you selected.

Bonus: How to Send SMS Messages to Your Leads

If you found this integration helpful, then you may want to also send SMS notifications to people who have completed your contact form.

This is a great way of keeping them up to date with the status of their request.

For example, let’s say you have prospects who visit your landing page and then complete your form, indicating interest in your services. While the form data is entered into an Airtable, you will want another connection that automatically sends SMS messages to your leads so they know what to expect from you.

The best option is to use Brevo, which is an email marketing service that also lets you send SMS messages to your leads.

Brevo website

With this software, you will be able to import your contacts and then send text message campaigns. For more information, just follow our tutorial on how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a custom Airtable form in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guides to the best business phone services and how to get SMS text messages from your WordPress forms.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

4 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. Jiří Vaněk says

    I have some polls on my blog, but this way is more comfortable for doing sheets with answers an data of users on my blog. This is a good idea how to do it in better way. Thanks a lot.

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