What is GuideForms?

GuideForms is a WordPress plugin that lets you build interactive, multi-step guides to help your visitors find exactly the right content. Instead of browsing through endless lists or using basic search, visitors answer a series of visual questions — and GuideForms filters your posts, products, or any content type in real time to show only what matches.

The core concept

Think of GuideForms as a guided filter. Each step asks a question (using visual cards, sliders, or forms), and every selection narrows down the results behind the scenes. After the final step, visitors see a personalized list of matching content — with live match counts updating along the way so they always know how many results are left.

Everything runs directly inside your WordPress site. No external services, no iframes, no third-party scripts. GuideForms reads your existing content structure — categories, tags, custom fields, WooCommerce attributes, ACF fields — and uses a built-in facet index to deliver instant results.

What can you build with it?

GuideForms is flexible enough to cover a wide range of use cases. Here are the most common ones:

Other examples include recommendation quizzes, course finders, resource libraries, recipe filters, real estate property matchers, and job board filters — essentially anywhere visitors need help choosing from a large set of options.

How it works

The entire workflow breaks down into three parts:

1. You build a guide

Using the visual Guide Editor in your WordPress admin, you create a multi-step guide. Each step has a type — Cards for visual selections, Slider for numeric ranges, or Lead Form for capturing contact info. You map each step’s options to your content filters (a taxonomy, a meta field, a price range, etc.) using a point-and-click interface.

2. You embed it on a page

Drop the GuideForms Gutenberg block onto any page or post and select your guide from a dropdown. Alternatively, use the shortcode [guide id="123"] anywhere shortcodes are supported. The guide renders as a self-contained, interactive widget.

3. Visitors filter and find

When a visitor loads the page, they step through the guide one question at a time. Each selection triggers a real-time query against the facet index, and a live match count shows how many results remain. After completing the guide, they see a grid or list of matching content — with titles, images, excerpts, and links to the full posts.

Key features at a glance

• Visual Guide Builder — Drag-and-drop editor with live preview. No coding required.
• Three step types — Cards for visual selections, Slider for numeric ranges, Lead Form for capturing contact info.
• Smart filtering — Connects to taxonomies, post meta, ACF fields, WooCommerce attributes, and AAWP product data.
• Real-time match counts — Visitors see how many results remain as they make selections.
• Conditional logic — Show, hide, or skip steps based on previous answers.
• Funnel analytics — Track views, completions, drop-off rates, and popular selections.
• Lead capture & CRM sync — Collect contact info and send it to HubSpot, Mailchimp, FluentCRM, or any webhook.
• Lightweight frontend — Built with Preact (3 KB). No jQuery. Fast on any host.
• Works with any theme — Renders as a standalone widget. Inherits your design or lets you customize colors and typography.

Free vs. Pro

GuideForms is free to use with no limits on the number of guides you can create. The free version includes the Cards step type, all data source filters, conditional step visibility, basic analytics, and full design customization.

The Pro version adds Slider steps, Lead Form steps, advanced filter grouping (AND/OR logic), skip logic, funnel analytics with session browser, CRM integrations, and guide import/export. See the Free vs. Pro comparison for a full breakdown.

Next steps

Ready to get started? Head to the Installation guide to set up the plugin, then follow Creating Your First Guide for a step-by-step walkthrough.