Do you want to allow your visitors to easily upload files on your WordPress site?
A WordPress file upload plugin lets your users upload documents, images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and other files without having to log in to your website.
In this article, we’ll share our expert pick of the best WordPress file upload plugins.
WordPress Free Form Plugin With File Upload
- WPForms
WPForms
WPForms is a form builder that doubles as a WordPress file upload form plugin. It’s a beginner-friendly tool that lets you easily create a file upload form in WordPress. WPForms supports a variety of media types and file extensions including images, so you can also use it as a WordPress photo upload plugin.
By default, WPForms accepts the WordPress file upload types that are enabled for your site. However, you can also impose specific restrictions on your form’s file upload field if there are certain file formats you don’t want to be uploaded by strangers.
WPForms Pro lets you accept one or even multiple file uploads on your forms. You don’t need to paste any HTML to display the form on your site, and you can choose to store the uploads in the Media Library.
WPForms has 2 different WordPress file upload fields. The Modern style field is really neat. It lets your visitor upload files to WordPress using simple drag and drop actions.
Here’s a GIF showing how that works:
Modern file upload drag and drop
After a WordPress file uploads, WPForms will display a link to the file in the email notification.
File upload in email notification
Or, if you would rather receive uploaded files as attachments, you can Enable File Upload Attachments instead.
Enabling file upload attachments for an email notification
If you want to allow people to add an image to their entry, you can also use the Rich Text field on your forms. This is a great option if you’d like to accept embedded images, rather than getting the entry and the content separately.
Rich text editor for post submissions
Besides, WPForms comes with tons of great additional features.
Features:
Drag and Drop File Upload — The plugin is easy to use for both you and your visitors. The easy file upload option allows users to simply drag and drop their files into the upload field.
File Size and Type Adjustment — You can choose which file types users can upload and set the maximum file size limit. You may need to first change the max file upload size for your site, as the WPForms max file upload size can’t be larger than the default file upload size allowed by your website. WPForms also lets you set a limit for the number of files each user can upload.
AJAX Forms — Lets you accept file uploads with AJAX and no page reload.
Conditional Logic — Show or hide different fields based on previous selections. This is great if you want to keep your forms clutter-free and automatically hide the file upload field unless someone needs it.
Links to Files — Email notifications send you a link to the file, instead of the file itself, a great WordPress security practice so you can avoid emails going to spam.
Organization — Lets you store files in the WordPress Media Library for easy organization.
GDPR features — Easily add a GDPR agreement to your file upload forms.
And here’s the best part: you can even send uploaded files directly to Dropbox or Google Drive with the Zapier addon.
Create Your WordPress Form Now
- File Upload Types by WPForms
File Upload Types by WPForms
Looking to let your WordPress website accept uploads from your users for more file types or expand the capabilities of your WPForms plugin?
File Upload Types by WPForms lets you do that easily in the WordPress dashboard. It’s a free and open-source WordPress file upload plugin developed by the people behind WPForms that lets you easily add support for any file type with any extension or MIME type.
Select file types to add to the allowlist to fix the file type is not allowed error
To add support for different types of files, just check the box and save. Once you’ve done this, your visitors won’t see the ‘file type is not permitted’ error.
We have a tutorial on uploading AI files to WordPress if you want to see how easy it is to add new file types or create custom ones.
Features:
WPForms compatible — Built to work perfectly with WPForms, expanding its capabilities even further
Tons of file types — Upload more file types beyond the limited file extension types that WordPress allows by default
Internal controls — Adjust and control the internal file whitelist in WordPress
Easy to use — Simply click the checkbox next to the extensions you want to allow and unclick the checkbox to remove them
Custom file types — Add your own file types with the corresponding comma separated MIME types
Cost — File Upload Types by WPForms is a free and open-source software
Cost: File Upload Types by WPForms is free to download and use.
- Forminator
Forminator
Forminator is a hugely user-friendly form builder that allows you to accept WordPress uploads via forms for free.
It has a very easy visual form interface that you can use to quickly build a file upload form on your WordPress site.
However, files uploaded via a Forminator form aren’t automatically added to your WordPress Media Gallery (unlike WPForms, which adds all uploads to the Media Gallery).
If you’re considering using Forminator, here’s a full Forminator vs WPForms guide to help you decide if this is the form builder plugin for you.
Features:
Impose Upload Size Limit — It’s very easy to change file size restrictions on your upload form.
Restrict File Types — It supports default WordPress file types for upload, but you can restrict certain file types.
Cost: Forminator is a freemium plugin so you get the file upload functionality for free. For extra features, Forminator Pro plans start from $5/month.
- WP User Frontend
wp user frontend for wordpress file upload
WP User Frontend is a great WordPress file upload plugin if you’re accepting guest posts and want to allow user registration on your site. Then, those users will have the ability to upload files, and do other frontend activities on your site.
Features:
Upload Attachments — Registered users can upload attachments from the frontend of your website, keeping the backend admin stuff safe.
Featured Images — Lets users upload featured images for posts, making it a very useful WordPress image uploader plugin for guest posts.
Cost: WP User Frontend has a free version and a premium version that starts at $49/year.
- WP File Upload
wordpress file upload
The WP File Upload plugin is a straightforward file upload plugin that will allow your website visitors to upload files. It uses a shortcode, and you can take that and add it to pages or posts on your website.
Features:
Shortcode — If you know how to use shortcode, you can place this in different areas of your site.
Multiple Storage Locations — You can decide where you want to send the uploaded files to, like the WordPress Media Library.
Email Notifications — Set up WordPress emails to send out when a file is uploaded.
Page Redirect — Choose to redirect users to another page after their submission.
Cost: WordPress File Upload has a free version and a premium version starting at around $20.