Updating from Freeform 1.x
Updating from Craft 2.x to Craft 3.x is a much bigger task than typical minor updates of course. Not to mention, things have changed greatly in how plugins are installed and updated due to the new Plugin Store, etc. Because of this, we've prepared a special documentation guide to help you upgrade from Freeform 1.x to Freeform 3.x.
Key Changes
Review the list of key changes made to Freeform 3.
Updating from 1.x
Instructions for updating from Freeform 1.x to Freeform 3.x

Changelog
Review the list of releases and changes for Freeform.
Key Changes
Freeform 3 brings some exciting new features to Freeform, but there have also been a few changes to what's offered between the Lite and Pro editions. The chart below will explain those changes so you know how to account for them in the future.
TIP
For a full list and comparison of all features available to Freeform 3 Lite and Pro, please check out the Compare Chart documentation.
✓ Added | ↻ Improved | × Removed | ✓/× No Change
Pricing & Support | Lite 3 | Pro 3 |
---|---|---|
Craft Compatibility | 3.4+ / 3.1+ | 3.4+ / 3.1+ |
Forms | ||
Built-in AJAX | ✓ | ✓ |
Conditional Rules logic | × | ✓ |
Build User registration forms | × | ✓ |
Built-in JS plugin (for improved flexibility) | ✓ | ✓ |
Fields | ||
⎼ Table | × | ✓ |
⎼ Opinion Scale | × | ✓ |
⎼ Invisible | × | ✓ |
⎼ Signature | × | ✓ |
⎼ Rich Text block | × | ✓ |
⎼ Confirm | × | ✓ |
⎼ Password | × | ✓ |
⎼ Multi-select | ✓ | ✓ |
⎼ Number, Phone, Website | Uses designated input types now | Uses designated input types now |
Populate fields with Element data | ✓ | ✓ |
Populate fields with Predefined options | ✓ | ✓ |
Set field attributes inside form builder | ✓ | ✓ |
Populate fields from URI query string | ✓ | ✓ |
Email Notifications | ||
HTML Email body | ✓ | ✓ |
Text Email body | ✓ | ✓ |
Include Reply-to, CC and BCC | ✓ | ✓ |
Attach predefined Assets/files to be included | × | ✓ |
Retroactively resend email notifications | × | ✓ |
Submissions | ||
Edit submissions on front end | × | ✓ |
Search on submission data on front end | ✓ | ✓ |
Unique submission token | ✓ | ✓ |
Limit form to 1 submission per user | × | ✓ |
Map submission data to Craft Elements | × | ✓ |
Relate submissions to Craft Elements | × | ✓ |
Automatically purge submission data | × | ✓ |
Exporting | ||
Export submission data | ✓ CSV | ✓ Excel, CSV, XML, JSON, Text |
Spam Protection | ||
Built-in Honeypot | ↻ | ↻ |
Javascript Enhancement for Honeypot | ↻ | ↻ |
Spam folder | ✓ | ✓ |
reCAPTCHA v2 Checkbox | ✓ | ✓ |
reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible | × | ✓ |
reCAPTCHA v3 | × | ✓ |
API Integrations | ||
CRM API integrations | × | ↻ |
Mailing List API integrations | × | ↻ |
Webhooks | × | ✓ Slack, Zapier, generic |
POST Forwarding | × | ✓ |
Accept Payments (Stripe) | × | ✓ |
Usability | ||
Rename plugin | × | ✓ |
✓ Added | ↻ Improved | × Removed | ✓/× No Change
Updating from 1.x
To transition from Freeform 1.x to Freeform 3.x, please follow the instructions below very carefully.
First things first, for Craft 3, you cannot use your old Solspace-generated license for Freeform. You'll need to contact us to have a new Craft 3 Plugin Store specific license generated for you. Please let us know the following info:
- Your Solspace.com account email address
- Plugin name & Solspace license key (listed together if you have more than 1 to transfer)
- Your Craft ID account email address
TIP
If you have a Freeform Lite + MailChimp license for Craft 2.x, you are entitled access to a Freeform Pro 3.x license. If you'd like to have the Pro license, please let us know when requesting transfer of license to the Plugin Store. Please note that the Pro license renewal is a higher price than Lite, if you wish to make this switch.
Once you have your new license, follow the steps below:
- BACKUP YOUR SITE FILES AND DATABASE.
- Follow the Craft Documentation for Upgrading from Craft 2.
- Carefully review the changelog for Freeform 3.x as well as the new key features/changes table above.
- Follow the regular installation instructions for Freeform 3.x. You essentially have to "install" Freeform again as if it's a fresh install, but Freeform/Craft will detect that you have old Freeform data in the database and perform a migration instead of a fresh install. You have the following options for installing Freeform 3 on Craft 3:
- Once installed, you can paste in your new Freeform 3 license into the license key area beside the plugin name (Craft CP -> Settings -> Plugins). By default, you'll be given access to the Lite edition. If you have a Pro license, or wish to trial it or upgrade to it eventually, follow the steps below:
- Click on the Lite \ Trial flag/button beside the plugin name, which will take you to the Freeform product page inside the Craft Plugin Store.
- Click on the Reactivate (or Try) button to activate the Pro edition for your site.
- Alternatively, you could edit the
edition
setting inside Craft's Project Config file to have a value ofpro
.
- Click on the Lite \ Trial flag/button beside the plugin name, which will take you to the Freeform product page inside the Craft Plugin Store.
- If your Freeform license is currently expired, you will need to renew the new Freeform 3 license. Your license can either be renewed directly inside your control panel, or through the Craft ID site.
- Carefully review Freeform inside the control panel and in your templates and ensure that everything works correctly and/or necessary updates to forms/templates/settings are made. If you ever use the demo templates to review/test/experiment, please note that we've made large updates to the demo templates for Freeform 3.x, so you may wish to reinstall them.
Icons made by srip from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY.