AI Summary
When someone fills out a form on your WordPress site, where does that data actually go? If you’re using the right form plugin, the answer is: straight into your WordPress database, automatically.
With WPForms, every form submission is stored in your site’s database the moment a visitor hits submit. You don’t need to configure anything extra.
From there, you can view entries, search and filter them, export to CSV or Excel, sync with Google Sheets, and even generate PDFs.
In this guide, I’ll show you exactly where your WordPress form data lives, how to access it, how to manage your entries from the dashboard, and what you can do with all that stored data.
How to Save Form Data in WordPress Database
As you’ll learn below, you should be able to access and view your WordPress database even if you don’t have a technical background. Let’s start with where the data actually lives, then move into how you access and manage it.
Where Is the WordPress Database Stored?
Even though you might not see it on the frontend, WordPress automatically creates a database for you when it’s first installed.
The name, host, username, and password data are stored in the configuration file called wp-config.php under MySQL database settings.
WPForms stores all submitted form data in 6 tables in your native WordPress database:
- wp_wpforms_entries: The field values from your form submissions are stored here.
- wp_wpforms_entry_meta: Meta information about your entries like associated IDs and dates.
- wp_wpforms_entry_fields: Encoded entry information from your forms.
- wp_wpforms_tasks_meta: Information about background tasks processed by WPForms.
- wp_wpforms_payments: Payment details including status, amount, any discounts applied, currency, gateway, and transaction ID.
- wp_wpforms_payment_meta: Additional payment information such as the customer’s IP address and other internal data.
Note that the wp_ prefix is the default. The actual prefix is set in your wp-config.php file, so it may look slightly different on your site.
Most WordPress hosting providers include phpMyAdmin, a web-based database management tool that lets you browse and manage your database entries through a visual interface.
If you’re using Bluehost, you can find phpMyAdmin by scrolling to the bottom of your dashboard under Helpful Links » Advanced » phpMyAdmin.
How Do I Access My WordPress Database?
To view your form entries directly in the database using phpMyAdmin, select your WordPress database and click on the wp_wpforms_entries table.
You’ll find all your form entries in the fields column. You can browse, search, and create tables from here. For more details, check out this beginner’s guide to WordPress database management with phpMyAdmin.
That said, most people don’t need to touch phpMyAdmin at all. WPForms gives you a much easier way to manage everything from your WordPress dashboard, which is what we’ll cover next.
How to Manage Form Entries in WordPress
If you’re wondering where does WPForms data go? —it goes right into your WordPress dashboard under WPForms » Entries. You don’t have to dig through phpMyAdmin or database tables.
Let’s walk through how to view and manage your entries. First, you’ll need a form. If you don’t have one yet, check out our guide on how to create a simple contact form. You can build one from scratch or pick from 2,100+ templates.
Before moving on, make sure entry storage is enabled. Go to your form builder and click Settings » General. Under the Advanced section, confirm that Disable entry storing information in WordPress is turned off.
After publishing your form, submit a test entry so you have data to work with. Then navigate to WPForms » Entries in your dashboard.
From here, you can favorite entries, mark them as read, or delete the ones you don’t need. You can even classify specific entries as spam.
You can also search and filter your entries. Use the broad Any form field search, or set conditions across specific fields to find a particular submission.
If you want, you can also filter form entries by date, which is really useful when you want to trace entries that probably got lost among others.
To open the individual entry page for a particular submission, open the Form Entries page and click View next to the entry you’d like to look at in more detail.
From an individual entry page, you can see a ton of information, including the user’s field input and selections, the date of submission, and user details, if applicable.
Viewing Payments in WPForms
If you’re collecting payments through your forms, you can accept credit card payments with the free version or with WPForms Pro.
Payment details are stored in the WordPress database regardless of which version you use. Access your payment data on the Payments screen in the WPForms settings area.
Here, you’ll find a list of all the payments made on your site with their details and the specific form used to make them.
At the top of the Payments page, you’ll immediately see a visual representation of your payment information through a graph. This graph provides an overview of your payment data.
If you’re a WPForms Pro user, you can also add coupon codes to your forms. Coupon details show up in the Payments area alongside your revenue and transactions.
What to Do With Your Stored Form Data
Once your form entries are saved in the database, WPForms gives you several ways to put that data to work beyond just viewing it in the dashboard.
Export to CSV or Excel
You can export entries directly from the Entries screen as a CSV or XLSX file. This is useful for offline analysis, sharing data with your team, or importing into other tools. See our guides on exporting form entries to CSV and exporting to Excel for the full walkthrough.
Send Entries to Google Sheets Automatically
With the Google Sheets addon (requires a Pro license), every new form submission syncs to a Google spreadsheet in real time. No manual exports needed. This is useful if your team already works in Google Workspace and wants live access to form data.
Generate PDFs from Entries
The PDF addon (requires a Pro license) lets you auto-generate styled PDF documents from form submissions. You can use this for contracts, receipts, applications, or any scenario where you need a formatted document from form data. You can also save form submissions as PDF files and send them as email attachments.
Automate Entry Management
The Entry Automation addon (requires an Elite license) lets you schedule automatic entry exports, deletions, and notifications. For example, you could automate your entry exports to run every Monday morning, or auto-delete entries older than 90 days to keep your database clean.
Connect to 10,000+ apps
With the Zapier addon or Make addon (requires a Pro license), you can send form data to virtually any external tool: CRMs, project management apps, email platforms, spreadsheets, and more.
Bonus: Keeping Your Stored Form Data GDPR Compliant
If you’re collecting personal information from visitors in the EU, GDPR compliance is a requirement. The good news is that WPForms stores all entry data on your own server.
Your data never passes through WPForms’ servers, and they have zero access to your entries. That’s 100% data privacy by default.
Beyond that, WPForms includes built-in GDPR tools across all license tiers. Here’s what you can do: Enable GDPR Enhancements.
Go to WPForms » Settings » General and toggle on GDPR Enhancements. This unlocks additional privacy controls:
- Disable User Cookies: Stops WPForms from assigning a UUID cookie to visitors. (This also disables Related Entries, Geolocation, and Form Abandonment features.)
- Disable User Details: Prevents collection of IP addresses and user agent data. You can apply this site-wide or on a per-form basis under Settings » General » Advanced in the form builder.
Add a GDPR Agreement field
When GDPR Enhancements are enabled, a dedicated GDPR Agreement checkbox becomes available in the form builder. This field is always required, has no default checked state, and provides the explicit consent that GDPR requires before collecting personal data.
For a detailed walkthrough, see the full guide on creating GDPR-compliant forms in the WPForms documentation. And if your forms handle sensitive data, consult with legal counsel to make sure your setup meets your specific compliance obligations.
FAQs About Saving WordPress Form Data to a Database
Here are answers to common questions about WordPress form data storage.
Does WPForms Lite save form entries to the database?
No. WPForms Lite sends submissions via email only. It does not store entries in your WordPress database or dashboard. To save entries to the database, you need WPForms Basic ($49.50/year) or higher. See our guide on how to see entries for free in WPForms for alternatives.
Where does WPForms data go?
WPForms stores all form data in 6 tables in your native WordPress database (wp_wpforms_entries, wp_wpforms_entry_meta, wp_wpforms_entry_fields, wp_wpforms_tasks_meta, wp_wpforms_payments, and wp_wpforms_payment_meta). You can access entries from WPForms » Entries in your dashboard, or view the raw data through phpMyAdmin. Your data stays on your server and is never sent to WPForms’ servers.
Can I export WordPress form entries?
Yes. WPForms lets you export entries as CSV or XLSX files directly from the Entries screen. With the Pro plan, you can also auto-sync entries to Google Sheets in real time, generate PDFs, or connect to external tools via Zapier or Make.
Next, Export and Save Your Form Entries
Now you know exactly where your WordPress form data is stored, how to manage it from your dashboard, and how to put it to work with exports, integrations, and automation.
If you want to take the next step, check out our guides on how to export WordPress form entries to CSV and how to save form submissions as PDF files.
Ready to build your form? Get started today with the easiest WordPress form builder plugin. WPForms Pro includes lots of free templates and offers a 14-day money-back guarantee.
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Why sunmittion in WP form is not creating record in Salesforce though connected
Hey Jem, we are sorry for any trouble. In order to make sure we answer your question as thoroughly as possible and avoid any confusion.
Would you mind reach out to us with additional details and form URL so that we can help you further on this case?
Thanks.
The article is confusing, i wasted few hours with wpforms and now i see that wpform is not storing data in database and the only table created by wpforms is wp_forms_tasks_meta
Hi there,
We are sorry for any trouble. In order to make sure we answer your question as thoroughly as possible and avoid any confusion.
Would you mind reaching out to us with additional details of the issue you are facing here!
Thanks 🙂
Same as the above user. Totally outdated doc. This is probably a money grab. It now says:
Your form entries are not being stored locally, but are backed up remotely. If you upgrade to WPForms PRO, you can restore your entries and they’ll be available in the WordPress dashboard.
It appears they stop storing it in the DB.
Hi Jason,
I am sorry to hear about the confusion you are facing here! Please know that this article is regarding the data table of how the data is stored in the database. The one that you are referring to, is the Lite Connect feature to enable storage of entries while you are the Lite version. Please see this guide for more details.
Hope this helps!
hey i want to store my wpform entries to mysql databse, kindly help me in this
Hi Manisha,
to connect WPForms to a MySQL database would be great, though we do not have one at the moment. I have made a note and placed it on our feature list to consider in the future as we continue to plan out our roadmap.
I see that Zapier, a connector service, does have the ability to connect to this. If you’d like to consider that approach, it would be a way you could possibly connect to the service now. We have a Zapier addon available with our Pro license level or higher .
Here’s our tutorial on setting up the Zapier addon.
You can see Zapier’s page on this specific integration here
Hope this helps! 🙂
Hello,
Is it possible to encrypt the personnal datas in database?
We’d like not to have personnal datas in clear in database
Hi Sylvain – I am sorry as we do not have an inbuilt feature to encrypt data at database level. However, we do follow the standard rules of WordPress in storing data in database.
Hope this helps! 🙂
I would just like to be able to edit the form entry data in more of a grid view instead of having to go into each form submission. Users enter data and then we update a few other fields. Is there a “sheet editor” view that allows updating more than one record at a time?
Hey Jason – I apologize, we currently don’t have a entry sheet editor feature that would allow you to edit multiple entires at once. I do agree this would be great, and I’ll add this into our feature request tracker so that it’s on the developer’s radar.
Can I create a unique login ID and Password with this plugin for my website users
Hey Oseni – You can consider using our User Registration addon that allows you to create login and registration forms that can be used to allow users to login and register. The User Registration addon comes with the Pro and above license level.
Hello there, can you help me with an issue, I do update a spesific value in all the saved entries in db and they are shown the correct value, but in the dashboard the system still shows the entry entered from the form which is different and doesn’t change.
Why is this happening?
Hey George – We’d be happy to help! When you get a chance, please drop us a line in support so we can assist.
If you have a WPForms license, you have access to our email support, so please submit a support ticket.
Otherwise, we provide limited complimentary support in the WPForms Lite WordPress.org support forum.
Thanks 🙂
I’m working with the WPFORM plugin in WordPress, and I want to configure it to allow users to upload only CSV files. Specifically, I want to read and process the CSV data once it’s uploaded. Does anyone have experience with this or can guide me on how to achieve it?”
Sure, you can absolutely allow CSV file upload by following our this doc.
Hope this helps, thanks 🙂
Could I use this method to publish to my website, the data that I’ve captured in the database?
Hi Keely – We don’t currently have any built-in ability to display form submissions, though I agree this would be super useful and have noted it on our feature request list.
In the meantime, if you’re willing to give some code a try we do have a code snippet that will allow you to display a table of all entries on the frontend of your site.
The code from that tutorial will create a shortcode that can display a table with all entry data for a form. The code is ready to go, you just need to copy and paste it. Then, much like the shortcode that displays our forms, you’ll need to add the following shortcode to your page content:
[wpforms_entries_table id=”FORMID”]
Within this shortcode, FORMID will need to be replaced with the ID of your form. Here’s a screenshot showing one way to find a form’s ID.
And in case it helps, here’s our tutorial with the most common ways to add custom code like this.
For the most beginner-friendly option in that tutorial, I’d recommend using the WPCode plugin. This will protect your code from updates and keep it easy to manage right within your WordPress admin area.
I hope this helps! Thanks 🙂