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Do you want to limit the number of form entries on your WordPress website?
Limiting form entries is useful if you’re running a contest or event that have a cap on the number of participants, want form entries from a specific region, or can’t accept more forms after a particular date.
In this article, we’ll show you how to limit the number of WordPress form entries.
When Should You Limit WordPress Form Entries?
There are many situations where limiting the number of form entries on your WordPress site can be beneficial.
Whether you need to create an event RSVP form with limited seats, to restricting feedback form for registered members only, WordPress forms have the flexibility to limit form entries based on your needs.
Here are few ways that you can restrict WordPress form entries:
- Limit total number of form entries allowed – great for RSVP forms or contests / giveaways.
- Restrict form submissions by a deadline date – great for scholarship forms, event RSVPs, job application forms, and more.
- Restrict form entries to logged-in users only – great for those who have a membership sites or online store.
- Limit one WordPress form entry per person – really helpful when creating a feedback form to ensure double feedback aren’t submitted.
- Limit WordPress form entries by age verification – really helpful when you need to be in compliance with local laws.
- Restrict WordPress form entries by user location or IP address – great for blocking out specific regions or preventing spam.
Depending on your needs, WordPress form plugins give you the flexibility to customize your workflows to save you time.
That said, let’s look at how you can limit form entries in WordPress.
Limiting the Number of WordPress Form Entries
The best way to limit form entries is by using WPForms. It’s the best WordPress contact form plugin, and over 5 million websites use it to create smarter forms.
WPForms offers a Form Locker addon that allows you to manage permissions and control who can access your forms. Plus, it lets you set up different types of form entry limits on your website.
Note: you’ll need WPForms Pro because it includes the Form Locker addon. There’s also a WPForms Lite version that you can try for free.
First, you’ll need to download and install the WPForms plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you’ll need to go to WPForms » Settings from your WordPress admin panel and then enter the license key. You can easily find the key in your WPForms account area.
Next, you need to activate the Form Locker addon in WPForms.
Simply head to WPForms » Addons and navigate to the ‘Form Locker Addon.’ Then click the ‘Install Addon’ button.
After that, you’ll need to create a WordPress form.
Simply head over to WPForms » Add New from the WordPress dashboard.
On the next screen, you’ll see the WPForms form builder. Go ahead and enter a name for your form at the top.
Next, you can select from pre-built form templates to get started quickly or use a blank template to start from scratch. For this tutorial, we’ll use the ‘Contest Registration Form’ template.
After that, you can edit your form using the drag and drop form builder.
The form template will have default form fields already in place. However, you can add more fields by simply dragging them from the menu on your left and dropping them onto the template. There are plenty of fields available, including checkboxes, dropdowns, address, phone number, and much more.
You can further edit any form field and set up form entry limits.
For example, let’s say you don’t want the same user to submit multiple forms on your WordPress blog. To create this form limit, simply click the Email field in the form template.
After that, you can click the ‘Advanced’ tab from the menu panel on your left and enable the ‘Require unique answer’ option.
You can do the same for other form fields like name and username. This way, people will be limited to one entry and cannot use the same email or name to submit a form.
Next, go to the ‘Setting’ tab in the form builder and select the ‘Form Locker’ settings.
You’ll see different settings under Form Locker that you can use to limit the number of form entries.
You can enable all of the options if you want. However, we’d recommend enabling 1 or 2 options to limit form entries so it doesn’t hurt the user experience and improves engagement.
Let’s see each of these settings in detail.
1. Limit WordPress Form Entries through Verification
If you enable the ‘Form Verification’ option in the Form Locker settings, you’ll see more options appear.
You can limit form entries by requiring users to enter a password, email, or age. Simply click the Type dropdown menu and select an option.
For example, if you select ‘Age,’ then you can specify how old a user has to be to access the form.
You can set a minimum, maximum, or an exact age verification for your form entries.
2. Add a Start and End Time and Date for Form Entries
Next, you can enable the ‘Form Scheduling’ option.
This will let you add a start time and date along with an end time and date for your form entries.
It’s really helpful if you’re running a time-sensitive campaign.
You can also add a Closed Message that will appear when someone tries to submit a form after the end date and time.
3. Only Allow Logged-In Users to Submit Forms
WPForms also lets you limit form entries to only logged-in users.
Simply enable the ‘Logged in users only’ option. Then add a message that will appear for logged-out users that try to submit the form.
4. Set Total Form Entry Limits and Restrictions
You can limit the total number of forms that can be submitted by enabling the ‘Enable total entry limit’ option.
For example, let’s say you have an order form for your online store and only have 1,000 of an item in stock. Simply enter the number in the Limit field and add a message when the form closes.
Similarly, you can also set up restrictions on your form entries by clicking the ‘Enable user entry limit’ option.
WPForms lets you restrict form entries based on IP address and email address. To set it up, go ahead and click the checkbox for ‘Restrict by IP address’ and ‘Restrict by email address’ options.
Then select an option from the dropdown menu and enter the number of form entries you want to limit.
In our example, we’ve set the limit to 1 per day. You can change this to per week, month, or year.
After you’ve enabled the options you want to use to limit the number of form entries in WordPress, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top.
Adding Your Form to Your WordPress Website
Now that you’ve created a form, the next step is to add the form to your WordPress website.
The easiest way to do that is to click the ‘Embed’ button in the WPForms form builder. You can also add the form using a shortcode or the WPForms block.
Once you click the button, a popup window will appear asking you to select an existing page or create a new one.
For this tutorial, we’ll click on the ‘Create New Page’ option.
Next, you’ll need to enter a name for your page and click the ‘Let’s Go!’ button.
Next, you’ll see the form in the WordPress content editor, and you can make any final changes you’d like to your form.
After that, preview your page and publish it.
You can also test the WordPress form entry limits you’ve set.
For example, if you’ve set an age restriction on your form and someone doesn’t meet the age limit, then they won’t be able to submit the form.
On the other hand, let’s say you get the total number of form entries that are needed, or it’s past the end date and time for filling out the form.
In such situations, a user will be shown a message when they visit the form landing page.
WPForms allows you to have full control over your form workflows. You can add conditional logic, choose to send form entries to multiple recipients, or even connect your form with your favorite email marketing services.
This is the form builder plugin that we use on w3schools, and there’s a reason why over 5 million websites use it to build smarter forms.
We hope this article helped you learn how to limit the number of WordPress form entries. You can also see our guide on how to start your own podcast and our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners.
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The post How to Limit the Number of WordPress Form Entries first appeared on w3schools.
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