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Comparison · Mkt Auto
Craft CMS vs Formidable Forms
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Craft CMS and Formidable Forms — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Craft CMS vs Formidable Forms: at a glance
What is Craft CMS?
Craft CMS 6.0 is a full Laravel rewrite — alpha releases are shipping breaking API changes every week.
Craft CMS 6.0 is mid-alpha, with a complete architectural shift from Yii to Laravel as its foundation. The alpha cadence has been weekly or better, each release removing legacy event-based APIs and replacing them with modern Laravel patterns — service containers, Artisan commands, Inertia/Vue CP pages. Image handling was overhauled to intervention/image with libvips support and new format coverage (HEIC, JPEG XL). The 5.x line continues receiving security and bug patches in parallel.
What is Formidable Forms?
Formidable Forms ships field-level abandonment drop-off graphs and conversational form drafts across its add-on ecosystem
Formidable is shipping a focused round of improvements across its add-on ecosystem: Abandonment v1.2 adds a drop-off graph showing field-level abandonment rates in the Reports tab, paired with draft save/resume for conversational forms. Stripe Forms v3.2 migrates to Stripe's current confirmCardPayment API. Conversational Forms v1.3 adds draft save/resume and start-over buttons. WPML Forms v2.0 redesigns the translation interface for per-language editing.
Craft CMS vs Formidable Forms: editorial side-by-side
Craft CMS
5.0MKT AUTO
Craft CMS 6.0 is a full Laravel rewrite — alpha releases are shipping breaking API changes every week.
◆ Current state
Craft CMS 6.0 is mid-alpha, with a complete architectural shift from Yii to Laravel as its foundation. The alpha cadence has been weekly or better, each release removing legacy event-based APIs and replacing them with modern Laravel patterns — service containers, Artisan commands, Inertia/Vue CP pages. Image handling was overhauled to intervention/image with libvips support and new format coverage (HEIC, JPEG XL). The 5.x line continues receiving security and bug patches in parallel.
◆ Where it's heading
Every alpha release trades backward compatibility for a cleaner platform foundation. Plugin authors are absorbing breaking changes in batches, with a compatibility shim (yii2-adapter) as the bridge. The CP frontend is moving steadily to Inertia/Vue, and the fluent component APIs suggest a design system consolidation. Once the alpha phase closes, Craft 6 will require full plugin rewrites — the ecosystem disruption is the price of the architectural cleanup.
◆ Prediction
The next alpha releases will focus on stabilizing the plugin API surface and filling gaps in the Inertia/Vue CP migration. A beta tag is plausible within 2-3 months if the breaking-change cadence slows. Expect the yii2-adapter compatibility layer to become a first-party migration guide rather than a long-term support path.
Formidable Forms
5.0MKT AUTO
Formidable Forms ships field-level abandonment drop-off graphs and conversational form drafts across its add-on ecosystem
◆ Current state
Formidable is shipping a focused round of improvements across its add-on ecosystem: Abandonment v1.2 adds a drop-off graph showing field-level abandonment rates in the Reports tab, paired with draft save/resume for conversational forms. Stripe Forms v3.2 migrates to Stripe's current confirmCardPayment API. Conversational Forms v1.3 adds draft save/resume and start-over buttons. WPML Forms v2.0 redesigns the translation interface for per-language editing.
◆ Where it's heading
The consistent pattern is bringing conversational forms to feature parity with standard forms: draft save, start-over, abandonment tracking, and repeater support are all landing in the conversational forms path this cycle. The Formidable MCP server (Forms API v2.0.1, from the prior cycle) signals an upcoming AI-native direction — form data and submissions becoming accessible to AI agents via MCP is a distinct product surface that hasn't been fully exploited yet.
◆ Prediction
The next likely move is an AI-assisted form builder or response handler that leverages the MCP server foundation, given the established MCP compatibility layer and the trend toward AI-native WordPress tooling.
Alternatives to Craft CMS and Formidable Forms
Other Mkt Auto products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Craft CMS or Formidable Forms.
Buttondown
Buttondown gives publishers granular AI-crawler controls as daily fixes continue
Gumloop
Gumloop ships Gumball, background subagents, and a model router in two weeks—each one changes how agents work.
Pimcore
Pimcore's 2026.2 branch is in steady bug-fix mode, targeting storage races, workflow correctness, and image processing.
Moosend
Moosend's only visible signal is blog content—no public product changelog available
Lemlist
Lemlist ships domain purchasing, real-time lead scoring, and phone enrichment — the cold-email tool is becoming infrastructure.
See all Craft CMS alternatives → · See all Formidable Forms alternatives →
Recent activity from Craft CMS and Formidable Forms
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 15h agoFormidable FormsConversational Forms v1.3
- 15h agoFormidable FormsStripe Forms v3.2
- 1d agoFormidable FormsAbandonment v1.2
- 6d agoFormidable FormsWPML Forms v2.0
- 7d agoFormidable FormsFormidable Forms v6.35
- 7d agoFormidable FormsDatepicker Options v3.1
- 14d agoCraft CMSCraft CMS 6.0.0-alpha.18
- 28d agoCraft CMSCraft CMS 6.0.0-alpha.17
- 1mo agoCraft CMSCraft CMS 6.0.0-alpha.16
- 1mo agoCraft CMS5.10.13.2
- 1mo agoCraft CMS5.10.13.1
- 1mo agoCraft CMSCraft CMS 6.0.0-alpha.15
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Craft CMS and Formidable Forms?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Craft CMS and Formidable Forms are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Craft CMS better than Formidable Forms?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Craft CMS and Formidable Forms are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Mkt Auto products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Craft CMS?
Top Craft CMS alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Craft CMS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/craft-cms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Formidable Forms?
Top Formidable Forms alternatives in Mkt Auto are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Formidable Forms alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/formidable-forms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.