Formboard adds server-rendered charts, KPIs, pivot tables, and dashboards to Gravity Forms — or to a CSV, Excel file, or Google Sheet, no forms plugin required. Every screen is a normal page load: nothing fetched in the background, nothing that breaks when your cache or security plugin does.
Formboard isn't a chart plugin bolted onto Gravity Forms — it's built from the ground up around one idea: nothing gets fetched, cached, or tracked that doesn't have to be.
Every screen is a normal WordPress page load. Adding a chart, applying a filter, importing a file — all a plain form submit. Nothing silently fails because a cache or security plugin blocked a background call.
Import a CSV, an Excel file, or a public Google Sheet as a dataset and build the exact same charts, KPIs, and pivot tables against it. Gravity Forms is optional, not a dependency.
Write ({Revenue} - {Cost}) / {Cost} * 100, not ({5} - {6}) / {6} * 100. A whitelist-only parser compiles it straight to parameterized SQL — no eval(), anywhere.
Every chart, KPI, and pivot table runs as a single SQL query straight against your entry tables. Raw entries are never loaded into PHP first, so it stays fast as your data grows.
No queue, no cron job, no API to configure. Formboard reads straight from your data and renders the result into the page, right then.
The only exception: a large import's progress bar polls a small endpoint so it can update live — and even that falls back cleanly to a plain page-reload with JavaScript off.
Connect a second Gravity Forms form — or a second dataset — to any Chart, KPI, Pivot table, or Table widget by matching a field on each, like an Orders form's "Email" to a Customers form's "Email."
Write advanced measures against a field's actual name — not a Gravity Forms merge tag or a bare id you have to look up. The syntax cheat-sheet next to the box lists every field's exact name to use.
ROUND, ABS, SQRT, CEIL, FLOOR, MIN, MAX, and the four basic operatorseval(), anywhereImport a CSV file, an Excel workbook, or a public Google Sheet as a dataset, map its columns once, and build widgets against it exactly like a Gravity Forms form. Refreshing that data later is just as safe as creating it.
Drop [formboard_dashboard] on any page and get the full editing experience — same PHP rendering, same POST handler, nothing rebuilt for the front end. Publish one finished report read-only with a second shortcode.
[formboard_report id="12"] — one report, read-only, embeddable anywhere[formboard_widget] — a single widget on its ownlogged_in="1" or cap="..."Most reporting add-ons pick one: fetch data in the background for a "live" feel, or require the forms plugin they're built for. Formboard does neither.
| Capability | Formboard | Typical reporting add-ons |
|---|---|---|
| Works without a forms plugin installed | ✓ CSV / Excel / Sheets | ✗ Usually required |
| Loads assets from a third-party CDN | ✓ Never — all bundled locally | Often, for charts & fonts |
| Background/AJAX requests on every screen | ✓ None — full page loads | Common, for a "live" feel |
| Formulas reference real field names | ✓ {Revenue}, not {5} | Usually merge tags or ids |
| Safe, resumable re-import (append/replace) | ✓ All-or-nothing swap | Rarely offered |
| Same app on the front end via shortcode | ✓ Full editing, not just embeds | Read-only embeds at best |
General comparison against common patterns in the category — not a claim about any specific named product. Want names? Read our Formboard vs. GravityView vs. wpDataTables breakdown.
Formboard was audited against WordPress.org's coding standards — parameterized queries, escaped output, and a locked-down file-import path throughout.
Bootstrap, Chart.js, chartjs-plugin-datalabels, and the Inter/Roboto Mono fonts all ship with the plugin and are served from your own site — nothing fetched from a CDN on page load.
Every database query is parameterized, every output is escaped at render time, and file uploads are whitelisted by extension with server-generated random filenames — no path traversal, no SSRF.
Licensed and sold through Freemius — a clearly-labeled, separate step during activation. The only outbound request Formboard itself ever makes is fetching the exact Google Sheet you paste, on your click.
Licensed and billed securely through Freemius. Every plan includes updates, support, and the full widget library — larger plans just cover more sites.
For a single site
For agencies & small teams
For unlimited sites
All plans licensed through Freemius · Renews annually, cancel anytime · 30-day money-back guarantee
No. Import a CSV file, an Excel (.xlsx) file, or a public Google Sheet link from the Imports tab and build widgets against that instead. Gravity Forms is only required if you actually want to report on entries submitted through it.
No. Every JavaScript/CSS library Formboard uses — Bootstrap, Chart.js, chartjs-plugin-datalabels, and its fonts — is bundled inside the plugin and served from your own site. The only outbound request Formboard ever makes on its own is fetching a Google Sheet's CSV export, and only at the moment you paste that link into the import wizard and confirm.
Formboard is licensed and sold through Freemius, a third-party licensing/billing service — activating your license is handled entirely by their bundled SDK, not by any of Formboard's own code. See Freemius's own privacy policy for what that SDK collects.
Nothing, by default. Deleting Formboard only removes its own lightweight settings — every report, widget, share, and imported dataset is left completely alone. A full destructive uninstall exists too, but it's off by default and has to be turned on explicitly first, in Settings → Data & uninstall.
Yes. [formboard_dashboard] runs the entire app — creating and editing reports included — on any front-end page. [formboard_report] and [formboard_widget] publish one finished report or widget read-only, with optional cap / logged_in access restrictions.
Server-rendered, self-hosted, and licensed per site through Freemius.