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WordPress doesn’t provide a way for your site’s users to upload files or submit new content.
If you have a client, site authors, or other users who need to submit files, you can use a plugin to add this functionality to your site.
There are a handful of high-quality plugins that can add a file upload form to your site. Below you’ll find the seven best plugins for adding frontend file uploading to WordPress.
If you want eCommerce customers to upload files, you might prefer our collection of WooCommerce file upload plugins.
WordPress file upload plugins
Each plugin below has a similar functionality and a few unique features. Make sure to check out each one individually to make the best choice for your site.
1. WPForms
Plugin Description
WPForms is my favorite form plugin. I use it on the Contact page for this website and all other websites I manage.
I love this plugin because it’s extremely intuitive for building custom forms. It’s also easy to include a file upload option. In fact, it’s just as easy to include the file upload field as a name or email field.
One of the best reasons for using WPForms for file uploads is that you can set a size limit on the file uploads and choose exactly which file extensions you want users to be allowed to upload. This can be really useful if you only want to use JPG images and not PNG, for instance.
If you want to learn more about WPForms, check out my full review here. It’s got tons of screenshots and a few thousand words of in-depth detail.
Features
- Easily create any form you want
- Add conditional logic to show/hide different fields
- Custom email notifications and confirmations
- Create unlimited forms
- Additional settings for file uploads
2. Ninja Forms - File Uploads
Plugin Description
The core Ninja Forms plugin is free and has been installed on over 1 million+ WordPress websites. It has a drag-and-drop editor that lets you create custom contact forms. While the free plugin is great on its own, there are paid add-ons that include more specialized functionality, like this File Uploads add-on.
With the File Uploads add-on, you can add an upload field into any of your forms. There are simple options to limit the number of files uploaded, control the max file size, and restrict which file types are accepted. Even cooler are the options for saving uploaded media.
User-uploaded items can be accessed via the Submissions page, but you can also choose to save the media items in your Media Library or on an external server. For instance, you can have all uploads sent directly to Dropbox or Google Drive instead of storing them in WordPress.
- Allow multiple file uploads
- Limit file size
- Restrict uploads to certain file types
- Send uploads to Dropbox and Google Drive
3. WordPress File Upload
Plugin Description
WordPress File Upload is an excellent plugin for allowing users to upload files. This plugin provides a shortcode, making it easy to add an upload form to any post or page on your site. Here’s a tutorial on shortcodes if you’ve never used them.
Since this plugin’s output comes from a shortcode, you can easily create an upload form and output it on any post or page of your website. It’s also nice that you can choose a server location for uploaded files besides using the Media Library.
Features
- Choose where to send uploaded files (Media Library or other destination)
- Add multiple fields, including checkboxes and email address fields
- Send email notifications upon upload
- Visual editor for customizing form
- Redirect to another page after a submission
4. Filetrip
Plugin Description
Filetrip is an awesome plugin for routing user-uploads to other external cloud storage services. For example, when a user uploads a document, you can have Filetrip automatically send it to Google Drive, Dropbox, or a custom FTP location.
Filetrip doesn’t include its own form builder, but rather, it’s meant to be used with another form plugin. Filetrip works with Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and Caldera Forms. If you enable user uploads for any of those form builders, Filetrip can automatically sync them to external storage for you.
Features
- Syncs files to and from external storage
- Can send files to multiple locations
- Works with most popular form plugins
- FTP option allows files to be sent to any location on your server
- Nice interface
5. WP User Frontend
Plugin Description
WordPress has built-in support for multiple authors allowing them to write and edit their posts from the regular admin menus. While access to vital settings is restricted, you may not want them to use your site’s admin menus at all. This is where WP User Frontend comes in handy.
WP User Frontend lets users create and edit profiles and submit posts without accessing your site’s backend. It has a depth of functionality for allowing guest authors on your site, and the premium version is especially feature-rich.
Features
- Let users submit posts from the frontend
- Advanced profile editing
- Display anywhere with custom shortcodes
- Custom post type support
- Email reminders for submissions, publication, and subscribes/unsubscribes
- Upload images and any other file type
6. Ajax Multi Upload for WordPress
Plugin Description
The Ajax Multi Upload plugin makes it easy to add Ajax-powered forms to your site. Using Ajax, users can use auto upload and submit files through a form without needing to reload the page. This makes for a smoother user experience.
Features
- Ajax-powered forms
- Single and multiple file uploads
- Integrates well with other forms
- Limit the number and size of uploads
- Upload statistics
7. Frontend Uploader
Plugin Description
This plugin is great for letting users submit content to your site. While you can use it to let users submit posts and pages, it can also handle submissions for custom post types. Of course, this plugin works well for simple file uploads as well.
While this plugin may provide more functionality than you need, it will work great for anyone who wants users to submit more content than a single file.
Features
- Handles submissions for all popular file types
- Allows post, page, and custom post type submission
- Shortcode for displaying a form anywhere
- Shortcode is highly customizable
Evaluating the best file upload plugins
My top recommendation is for WPForms because of its ease-of-use and customizability.
If you like the Ninja Forms plugin, then the File Upload extension is an obvious choice.
The last plugin I’ll highlight here is WordPress File Upload, which doesn’t have as nice a style but is free and works perfectly well for user upload forms.
Thanks for checking out this collection post on the best file upload WordPress plugins. If you found a great new plugin for your website, make sure to share this post before you go.