7+ Best Frontend Post Submission WordPress Plugins

A frontend post submission WordPress plugin allows users to create and publish posts from the frontend of a website without needing to access its backend. It simplifies the content collaboration process for guest authors, community users, and membership subscribers.

These plugins usually come with a built-in moderation feature that enables admins to review and edit the submitted posts before publishing them. So, if you are planning to crowdsource blog posts, collect user testimonials, or run a contest with user-submitted entries, a frontend post submission plugin can make everything easy.

Most of them come with customizable form fields, media upload options, and role-based access to simplify the workflow. In this blog post, we'll introduce you to the best frontend post submission WordPress plugins currently available in the market. Get started!

Why Use a Frontend Post Submission Plugin in WordPress

As already said, frontend post submission plugins are highly recommended if you are planning a multi-author blog, membership site, or user-generated content platform. Let's take a few minutes to explore why you may consider using such a plugin on your WordPress site.

a. Guest Blogging and Multi-Author Websites

Managing lots of guest posts manually can be tedious and time-consuming. A frontend post-submission plugin can save much valuable time by reducing the need for admin intervention in content management.

b. Collect User-Generated Content

Websites that depend on user-generated content, including forums, review sites, and communities, can experience significant advantages from frontend submission.

c. Membership and Subscription-Based Websites

Membership sites regularly need fresh content to grow. Post submission plugins can provide an intuitive interface by which users can submit their posts anytime without requiring access to the backend.

d. Contests and Giveaways

Frontend post submission plugins allow contest organizers to collect user content, such as essays and images, without overloading the admin dashboard.

e. Announcement Submissions

Websites that feature community events, business announcements, or press releases can enable users to submit their events directly from the frontend.

Best Frontend Post Submission WordPress Plugins

Now, in this section, we'll list and discuss the best frontend post submission WordPress plugins, covering their features and key takeaways. This can help you choose the right one for your website. Keep reading.

1. WP User Frontend

WP User Frontend is a feature-rich frontend post editor plugin. It includes a frontend dashboard, frontend editor, publishing, and uploader options. So, users can write and edit their posts and content directly from the frontend, without having to access the backend.

Users can write posts directly on the frontend or submit content through a post form, which the website admin can customize later. So, based on the rules and policies you set, users will be able to upload and manage content.

The plugin was first released in 2011 and developed by weDevs, which is behind the development of many popular WordPress plugins. Take a look at the key features of WP User Frontend:

Drag and Drop Form Builder

WP User Frontend offers a drag-and-drop form builder. Whether you want to create a post submission, registration form, or WooCommerce product form, just drag and place the field you need for the form. Then, customize it.

Live Preview

You can instantly check how the form looks before you finally publish it. As a result, you can make quick adjustments, ensuring the layout and structure perfectly align with your site's design.

Custom Fields

WP User Frontend offers 17 predefined field types. Besides, as it has integration with many other plugins, it can capture custom fields from other installed plugins. You just have to select the fields you need for the form.

Custom Post Type Support

The plugin supports custom post types. So, you can create any type of posts/pages/custom post types on the fly from the frontend.

WooCommerce Support

Integration with WooCommerce enables users to create products directly from the frontend. So, if you are planning to create a multivendor eCommerce site, this feature could be highly effective.

Registration Form Builder

WP User Frontend also functions as a registration form builder so you can collect additional information about users during the sign-up. You can even assign various specific roles to the registered users.

CAPTCHA Support

To help you get rid of spammers, the plugin allows you to integrate CAPTCHA.

In addition to all these, the plugin has various other features, like Custom Redirection, Image Submissions, Edit Post Notification, Action Hook Fields, and Post Expiration. WP User Frontend has a free and premium plugin. Get them by clicking the buttons below.

2. WPForms

WPForms is an extremely popular form builder plugin. Not only can it create post submission forms but also contact forms, payment forms, survey forms, and more. So, if you are planning to accept guest posts, you can create a post submission form, allowing users to submit content directly on the frontend.

Although WPForms doesn't allow users to write/edit content from the frontend as the WP User Frontend plugin does, you can customize the form fields, including post elements like Post Title, Content, Featured Image, etc., so the content perfectly fits into the site's format.

In addition, the plugin is also packed with many advanced features like spam protection, conditional logic, and form abandonment recovery.

Key features of WPForms:

• Drag-and-drop form builder with an intuitive interface
• 2000+ templates ready for various types of forms
• Easy to optimize for mobile devices
• Built-in spam prevention with CAPTCHA
• Allows to collect payment via PayPal, Stripe, Square
• Collect locational data about users via Geolocation
• Integrates Google Sheets, Zapier, Mailchimp, Slack, Dropbox, and more
• Set logic and conditions

3. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is popularly known as a contact form. But it offers much more than the typical contact form plugins. Like the above one, this plugin also allows you to create various forms, like registration forms, survey forms, quizzes, payment forms, and more.

The plugin is able to receive user-generated content through frontend post submissions. It's ideal for blogs, job boards, directories, customer reviews, testimonials, and more, similar to these via the plugin. What makes the plugin stand out from the rest is its robust data management and display capabilities.

You can collect data and display them to the users through stunning visualizations like charts, graphs, and reports. Besides, you can create dynamic web applications like event calendars or searchable databases directly from the form submission.

Key features of Formidable Forms:

• Drag-and-drop form building interface
• A comprehensive collection of pre-built template library
• Send custom email responses to users and admins
• Prevents spams via honeypot, reCAPTCHA, and Akismet integration
• Supports custom post type creation with ACF plugin
• Integrates various CRM and marketing plugins
• Hide or display form fields using conditional logic
• Allows the creation of multi-page forms

4. User Submitted Posts

User Submitted Posts is a simple but powerful WordPress plugin for allowing users to submit posts directly from the frontend. By embedding the [user-submitted-posts] shortcode, you can display a post-submission form anywhere on your site. You can even add the post submission form to multiple places on your site.

The form includes essential fields like name, email, post title, tags, categories, content, and image uploads. According to your preferences, customize these fields and set the post submission status. You can even enable spam protection with Google reCAPTCHA.

Key features of User Submitted Posts:

• Comes with built-in log-in and registration forms
• Includes various customizable fields
• Easy to restrict content and control who can see it
• Sends email notification when a form is submitted
• The plugin is available in 20+ languages
• Easy to control post submission control (pending, draft, and schedule)

5. Easy Digital Downloads (EDD)

Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a well-known eCommerce plugin for managing and selling digital products like eBooks, music, PDFs, software, and more. Not only does it provide an intuitive product management dashboard, but also integrates many secured payment systems to simplify product selling.

It has an extension named Frontend Submissions (FES) that enables users to submit and sell their digital products directly from the frontend. This feature can turn your website into a multi-vendor marketplace, similar to Amazon or eBay.

Users can register as vendors, create new products, update lists, track earnings, and communicate with customers – all from the frontend. The plugin has a drag-and-drop form builder by which you can easily design the submission forms for vendor registration.

Key features of Easy Digital Downloads:

• Manage vendor approvals and check products submitted before publishing
• Let vendors update their products, view earnings, and communicate with customers
• Support multiple pricing options, including variable pricing
• Easy to customize the form fields
• Allow customers to manage their accounts and download history
• Offer a wide range of addons to extend the plugin’s functionalities
• Generate detailed reports on sales, earnings, and customer activities
• Integrates with popular email marketing platforms

6. MemberPress

MemberPress is the nicest plugin in WordPress for building membership websites. It allows you to create premium content and manage access for subscribers. You can set up unlimited membership tiers and restrict user access to specific posts, pages, and files.

If you are thinking of creating a premium blogging site, online courses, or a gated community, MemberPress could be the ultimate solution. Setting up a post submission form with the MemberPress plugin is very simple. It comes as a built-in feature with the plugin.

It integrates with all the major payment gateways, email marketing solutions, and WordPress plugins so you can seamlessly manage your content, sales, and earnings.

Key features of MemberPress:

• Create various membership levels with easy pricing options
• A centralized dashboard to manage and track member subscriptions
• Integrates the popular payment gateways and many third-party plugins
• Restrict access to downloadable files based on membership levels
• Easy-to-connect marketing tools to promote your content
• Generate detailed reports to check the membership performance and earnings
• Support LSM integration and course creation

7. Frontend Post Submission Manager Lite

The Frontend Post Submission Manager Lite is a cost-free WordPress plugin that enables you to create posts straight from the frontend of your site. It includes a drag-and-drop form builder to design submission forms with as many field types as you want, including text inputs, dropdown menus, file uploading features, and more.

The plugin comes with five pre-designed form templates to quickly prepare your form. It ensures an efficient submission process through integration with Ajax-based form submission, Google CAPTCHA, and customizable redirection. Users can review their content before clicking the submit button. So, once the content is uploaded, they can check if the content layout is okay.

If there is any problem or further customization is needed, you can do it directly on the frontend before finally submitting it to the site administration. The plugin supports custom post types and taxonomies so you can collect more detailed information.

Key features of Frontend Post Submission Manager Lite:

• Offers a drag-and-drop form builder
• Supports adding unlimited custom fields with various field types
• Integrates Google CAPTCHA to prevent spam submission
• Customizable post status, author, and format settings.
• Forms are mobile-friendly and compatible with all browsers
• Translation-ready for multilingual websites
• Allows guest post submissions and logged-in user submissions

8. Thrive Ovation

Thrive Ovation simplifies the process of collecting and managing user-generated testimonials in a hassle-free way. The plugin helps you showcase real user experiences, their comments, and media feedback on your website that really can build trust, boost conversion, and have a positive impact on your site.

You can create dedicated testimonial submission forms that allow customers to share their experiences in an organized manner. Besides, the plugin can convert customer comments into testimonials with a single click. This automation can save you time and help you become more productive and efficient at work.

Key features of Thrive Ovation:

• Collects customer reviews by automated feedback requests
• Convert WordPress comments into testimonials
• Imports social media feedback as testimonials
• Allows you to maintain a testimonial library
• Seamlessly integrates with Thrive Suite
• Review, modify, and approve testimonials before publishing them

Make Content Submission Easy with Frontend Plugins

Frontend post-submission plugins make collecting user-generated content easier than ever. If you are running a busy website that has great financial value, incorporating a frontend post submission plugin becomes undoubtedly important. Manually collecting guest posts and user-generated content is not only time-consuming but can also cause errors if there is even the slightest carelessness.

When your site continuously receives lots of traffic and engagement, using such a plugin could make you more efficient and productive. However, don't forget to enable the CAPTCHA or other security features to protect your site from bots and spammers.

Lastly, clearly define content guidelines and permission policies so users can understand what they can submit and how their content will be used. Thus, you can leverage the frontend post submission plugin and take your content marketing to the next level.