How to Generate More Leads with Free Online Calculators (Pro Tips)

What if you could turn WordPress website visitors into leads without popups, gated content, or aggressive signup forms? That’s how free online calculators can work for you!

These interactive tools can provide personalized results in exchange for contact details. Whether it’s a mortgage calculator or a savings estimator, they grab people’s attention, deliver value, and encourage engagement.

But simply adding a calculator isn’t enough. To maximize conversions, you need to design it strategically — making it engaging, user-friendly, and optimized for lead capture. 🤔

In our experience, WPForms and Formidable Forms make this process incredibly easy with customizable templates and powerful features. In this guide, we’ll share how to create an online calculator that helps you generate more leads for your WordPress site.

Why Are Online Calculators Such Great Lead Generation Tools?

Online calculators are useful tools that can help visitors solve problems or answer questions. Even better, you can ask for the visitor’s email address before showing their results, which makes them a great way to generate leads.

You can use online calculators in lots of different industries and niches. For example, in the health and wellness space, you might add a BMI calculator and then encourage visitors to shop for a meal plan.

If you sell to a global audience, then a calculator that converts metric units to imperial units can increase sales by helping customers check if a product is the right size or weight.

You could also add a mortgage calculator to your real estate website or a car payment calculator to your vehicle dealership site.

The possibilities are endless, so it’s easy to see why online calculators are quickly becoming some of the most popular ways to grow your email list.

With that in mind, we’ll show you how to create an online calculator and generate leads. We will cover 2 methods, and feel free to use our links to jump to the method of your choice:

Ready? Let’s jump right in!

Method 1: Creating Online Calculators Using WPForms (Recommended)

The best and easiest way to create an online calculator for your WordPress site without writing a single line of code is to use the WPForms plugin.

WPForms is the best contact form builder and calculator plugin available, with over 6 million users, including us! It has been our trusted tool to display our contact forms and run our annual user surveys.

Learn more about why we love it in our full WPForms review.

Now, WPForms allows you to create all types of forms, including conversational forms, user-registration forms, and more.

On top of that, you get access to a wide range of calculator form templates that are ready to use out-of-the-box so you can start building trust and generating leads for your business.

Step 1: Installing and Activating the WPForms Plugin

Once you’ve purchased WPForms Pro, go ahead and install and activate the plugin in your WordPress dashboard. For further details, check out our step-by-step tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll need to head over to WPForms » Addons. Then click the ‘Install Addon’ button.

Since we will collect leads, you’ll also need to find the Lead Forms Addon.

So, let’s click ‘Install Addon’ in the Lead Forms Addon box.

Next, we will cover how to create an online calculator that users can use to perform calculations and get accurate estimations.

Step 2: Creating Your Online Calculator Form

Let’s start by navigating to WPForms » Add New. This will open the drag-and-drop online form builder, where you can create and customize your calculator form.

Next, simply give your new form a name by typing it into the box.

This is so that you can reference your calculator form later when you want to make changes or embed it on a page or post.

Below that, you can select a template that makes sense for you. In the left panel, you can navigate through the various categories under the ‘Calculator’ option.

For example, if you run a gym website, then you might choose from the ‘fitness’ category.

On the other hand, if you have a dealership or are a realtor, then you could select the ‘finance’ category to ensure your potential customers qualify for your products or services.

With a huge list of templates, you’ll find just about any type of online calculator you are looking for.

But for this tutorial, we will use the ‘Mortgage Lead Generator Form.’ Just hover over the template you want to use and select ‘Use Template.’

From here, you’ll be taken to the ‘Fields’ tab, where you will see the drag-and-drop form builder. All the available fields are in the left panel.

If you’d like to add a field, drag it from the left to the right side. On the right is the editor that lets you visually see what the form looks like.

With the Lead Forms Addon, you will automatically see page breaks. Before each page break, there is a ‘Next’ button so users can move to the next page when they’ve completed the required fields.

They’ll also see a progress bar below that breaks up the form into digestible sections and improves the user experience.

The mortgage calculator form comes with the following fields:

• Home value
• Down payment
• Interest rate
• Mortgage period
• Monthly mortgage payment
• Annual payment amount
• Total interest paid
• Total mortgage payment

If you are a mortgage lender, then this template will contain most of the fields you are probably looking for. That said, you can always add or delete fields as needed.

For example, it might be appropriate to add multiple-choice fields that ask for the ‘Purpose of the Mortgage or Loan’ and the ‘Type of Property’ the user is looking for. That way, you can better meet their needs.

When you add the field, you can navigate to the ‘General’ tab under ‘Field Options’ and edit the details as needed.

Feeling stuck? Go ahead and try the AI Choices feature.

Just describe the list you need, and the AI will generate it for you – then you can edit, reorder, or adjust as needed.

Step 3: Changing the Calculations (Optional)

Once you have all of your fields set up, you might want to add or edit the calculations from this template. In this form, the calculation is controlled by the ‘Total Mortgage Payment’ field.

If you click on the field and go to the ‘Advanced’ tab, you can see that the ‘Enable Calculation’ option should already be toggled on. But if you want to keep the original calculation formula that comes with the template, you can leave this setting alone.

However, if you wish to edit the formula, then you can change the values in the ‘Formula’ text box.

When users enter the details, the form will automatically calculate the results based on the information they have provided.

At the top of the ‘Formula’ box, you can add arithmetic functions like:

• Addition (+)
• Subtraction (-)
• Multiplication (*)
• Division (/)

Every time you insert a formula, it must fall within the parentheses, which can be added at the top of the formula box.

Simply click ‘Insert Field,’ and you’ll see the list of codes associated with each field.

There are other rules you can put in place, such as the and if, else rule.

For example, if you used a formula like ‘Housing Expenses/Gross Monthly Income,’ then you can excess the applicant’s risk.

Using the ‘if/else’ rule would help you automatically deny or accept applicants based on the risk.

You can also click on ‘Cheatsheet’ next to the ‘Formula’ box to see all the available rules and functions you can add.

When you are done adding the formula, don’t forget to click ‘Validate Formula’ to make sure the calculations and syntax are correct.

New: Not comfortable with creating formulas? Don’t worry! WPForms now offers an AI Calculations feature that makes complex math as simple as having a conversation.

Simply click the ‘Generate Formula’ button next to the formula box and start chatting with the WPForms AI Assistant.

You can describe what you want to calculate in plain English.

For example, you can write “Calculate monthly mortgage payments based on home value, down payment, interest rate, and loan term.”

Then, the AI will generate the perfect formula automatically.

Step 4: Setting Up Contact Options

In your online calculator lead form, it’s also a good idea to ask customers how they want to be reached. That way, you can follow up with leads who have shown interest in what you have to offer.

This is a great place to add icons as well. Just click on the multiple-choice field, and then, you should see options to configure the multiple-choice options.

If you toggle the ‘Use icon choices’ button, then the icons will be added to your form.

You will now see face-smile boxes appear.

Simply click on the face-smile box in the left panel to add one to your form.

An ‘Icon Picker’ pop-up screen will then appear. Here, you can pick between 2,000+ icons.

Just use the search bar and type in the icon you are looking for.

You can also change the ‘Icon Color’ setting in the left panel.

Once that’s completed and you’ve chosen all your icons in the multiple-choice field, here’s what it should look like:

Another personal touch you can add to your form is a custom logo or header image at the top of your calculator form.

Simply click on the ‘Content’ field and drag it onto the right side of the form editor.

Then, you can select the ‘Content’ field to open the customization options.

In the ‘General’ tab, you can click on the ‘Add Media’ button to upload your company logo.

Step 5: Styling Your Calculator Form

Now, it’s time to customize the style of your lead form to better suit your brand and make it more attractive.

To do that, you’ll want to head over to Settings » Lead Forms.

When you turn on the ‘Advanced Style Settings,’ you can add a container around the fields and form, giving it stylish effects so it pops out more.

You could also customize the color of the field borders, container background, and text.

Adding icons and customizing the appearance of your form is a great way to keep it looking sharp and professional.

Step 6: Editing the Confirmation Message

The last thing you’ll need to do is review and edit the confirmation message. WPForms will automatically send a confirmation message that summarizes the fields the user has completed and the calculations’ results.

To do that, let’s head over to Settings » Confirmations.

From here, you can choose to send the message directly on the page or redirect the user to another page. Then, edit the message in the text box.

Using Smart Tags is a great way to personalize your message based on the information that the user provided.

Once you are satisfied with how your form looks, just hit the ‘Save’ button.

This way, you don’t lose any changes you’ve made.

Step 7: Embedding Your New Online Calculator Form into a WordPress Page or Post

Next up, you will want to embed your online calculator into one of your WordPress pages or posts.

To do this, you’ll open any WordPress page or post, click the ‘+’ button to add a new block, and choose the WPForms block.

In the dropdown menu, you can select the online calculator form you’ve just created.

The form should automatically appear on the page.

If everything looks good already, go ahead and hit ‘Publish’ at the top.

Now, you’ve successfully added your online calculator to your WordPress site.

Just make sure to preview it before you are done.

It should look something like this:

With that done, you will want to review the form to ensure all the form fields and the calculations are working properly.

For instance, here’s what the confirmation message looks like when we’ve completed this form:

Step 8: Viewing Form Entries

If you head over to WPForms » Entries and select your form name, then you will see all the entries from your online calculator form.

You can easily view, edit, or trash each entry. If you view the entry, then you or your sales team can find all the lead information you are looking for.

You can also export this list and upload it to a marketing automation platform or connect it to a WordPress automation plugin like Uncanny Automator.

This will allow you to contact leads after they submit the online calculator form.

To learn more about how to do that, you can check out our guide on how to do lead generation in WordPress like a pro.

Method 2: Adding a Calculator With Formidable Forms (Advanced)

Another way to add online calculators to WordPress is by using the Formidable Forms plugin. It has an advanced drag-and-drop form builder and is among the best WordPress calculator plugins on the market.

We’ve tested it extensively, and you can see our complete Formidable Forms review to learn more about it!

The plugin specializes in helping people build complex forms with advanced calculations.

For instance, Formidable Forms comes with lots of calculator templates, including a mortgage calculator that you can add to your IDX real estate website and a BMI calculator ideal for health blogs and gym websites.

Formidable Forms also allows you to add conditional calculations. For example, based on the user’s responses on a form, you can tell the plugin which formula it should automatically use.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate both the free Formidable Forms Lite and the premium Formidable Forms plugins. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve done that, you can head over to Formidable » Global Settings and select ‘Add a license manually.’

To find your license key, just head over to the Formidable Forms website.

Then log into your account and go to the ‘Downloads’ page.

From here, simply paste your license key into the field on your WordPress site.

Make sure to click the ‘Save License’ button and then the ‘Update’ button at the top.

After that, you will see a ‘license activation success’ message.

Step 1: Choose a Calculator Form Template

Now, you are ready to create your first calculator. The first step is to navigate to Formidable » Forms and click ‘+ Add New.’

On the next screen, you’ll see all the different form templates from which you can choose.

From here, let’s scroll down and select the ‘Calculator’ category, where you’ll see all the available calculator templates that Formidable Forms offers.

To preview a template, simply hover over it and hit ‘View Demo.’ When you are ready to get started, hover over it and then click on ‘Use Template.’

For this guide, we will use the ‘Compound Interest Calculator’ template, but you can use any calculator template you want.

You’ll now see your chosen template in the Formidable Forms editor.

Step 2: Design Your Free Online Calculator

From here, you can point and click to customize any field in the form. For example, if you want to change the field label or number range for the ‘Initial amount,’ then click to select that field.

You can then make your changes using the settings in the left-hand menu.

To add more fields to the calculator, simply select the ‘Add Fields’ tab in the left-hand menu. Then, drag the field onto the calculator template.

For example, if you want to collect the visitor’s email address, then you’ll need to add a field where people can type in this information. To do this, you can drag and drop an ‘Email’ field onto the calculator template.

After that, you’ll want to click on the ‘Email’ field and adjust the ‘Field Options’ settings.

You can typically use the default settings, but to generate as many leads as possible, it’s a good idea to check the ‘Required’ box. This means visitors will need to enter an email address in order to see their results.

If needed, you can continue to customize your calculator by changing the values for the fields and even adding new fields.

Step 3: Adjusting the Calculations

Formidable Forms comes with ready-made templates that already have pre-built calculations. That said, if you want to adjust the formulas or values, you can.

To check the calculations, you’ll want to click on any of the field elements that would be affected by the formula. When you click on any field element, you should also see an ID number.

In the left-hand panel, you need to go to the Field Options » Advanced tab. Under ‘Default Value,’ you’ll see the formula used.

In this case, we see that ‘Total compound interest’ has an ID of 20.

The formula ‘[18]+[19]’ states that the ‘Compound interest on principal’ + ‘Compound interest on deposits’ equals the ‘Total compound interest.’

If you are unsure about the ID number for a particular field or want to see which fields you can add to your formula, just click on the three-dot icon next to ‘Default Value.’

Then, you can select the field you are looking for in the Field List dropdown menu. You can pick any field you’d like, and it will be added to the ‘Default Value’ for use in your formula.

Something to keep in mind is that you will use all standard mathematical symbols, such as:

• + for addition
• – for subtraction
• * for multiplication
• / for division
• () for grouping certain calculations together
• Math.pow() for adding exponents to an equation

Here’s an example of what it looks like.

As previously shown, the [] is the notation for ID numbers.

Once done, you’ll want to preview the form to ensure the calculations work properly.

When you are happy with how the calculator forms, just click the ‘Save’ button.

You should see a message appear asking you to name your form.

Go ahead and give it a name so that you can easily refer to it later. Then, simply hit the ‘Save’ button.

After a few moments, you’ll see a ‘successfully updated’ message.

Step 4: Add a Free Online Calculator to WordPress

You are now ready to add the calculator to any page or post on your WordPress website. You need to head over to the page or post where you’d like to add your calculator form.

To start, let’s type in a title for the calculator page.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘+’ icon. Then select the ‘Formidable Forms’ block. When the right block appears, simply click it to add it to the page.

After that, you need to open the ‘Select a form’ dropdown and choose the calculator you created earlier.

WordPress will now load the custom calculator automatically.

At this point, you can continue editing the page by adding text, images, a description of the calculator, categories and tags, and more.

When you are ready to make the calculator live, go ahead and click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button in the right-hand corner.

Your new calculator page is now live on your website.

This is what it looked like on our demo website:

Bonus Tip: Get More Leads with OptinMonster

Your next task is to drive people to the free online calculator so you can increase the number of subscribers and leads for your small business website.

That’s where OptinMonster comes in.

OptinMonster is the best WordPress lead generation plugin. It comes with professionally designed templates and a drag-and-drop editor that you can use in your campaigns.

At WPBeginner, we actually use OptinMonster to display popups and header banners whenever we offer special deals. It’s been working really well for us, and you can refer to our complete OptinMonster review for more insights about it!

OptinMonster has tools like lightbox popups, slide-in popups, header and footer banners, countdown timers, and more.

All of these tools are perfect for promoting your free online calculator so you can get more users and conversions.

If you run an online store, then OptinMonster also has an advanced ‘Exit-Intent’ feature that can convert abandoning visitors into customers and subscribers.

To learn more, you can see our article on how we increased our email subscribers by 600% with OptinMonster.

We hope this article helped you learn how to generate more leads with online calculators. You may also want to see our expert picks of the best online form builders and our guide on how to add save & continue functionality in WordPress forms.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.