Fluent Forms User Registration & User-Generated Posts Guide

Why User-Generated Posts Are a Game Changer

Fluent Forms Pro packs two standout features that go well beyond basic contact forms: user registration and post creation. These are specifically Pro features, so you will need the paid version to follow along.

The idea is straightforward but powerful. Instead of manually creating every piece of content on your WordPress site, you can let your visitors submit content directly through a form. That content gets turned into a real WordPress post, complete with custom fields, custom post types, and even a new user account for the person who submitted it. What used to require a developer and a pile of custom code now takes a handful of free plugins and some clever configuration.

Setting Up Custom Post Types and Custom Fields

Before touching Fluent Forms, you need a couple of free plugins from the WordPress repository. The first is Custom Post Type UI by WebDev Studios. This lets you create a dedicated post type separate from your regular blog posts. In this walkthrough, we set up a "Reviews" post type so user-submitted reviews live in their own section of the WordPress admin.

When creating the custom post type, pay attention to the labels. By default, the sidebar label will show up in lowercase, so manually setting the plural and singular labels with a capital letter keeps everything consistent with the rest of your WordPress dashboard.

The second plugin is Advanced Custom Fields (ACF). The free version works perfectly here. Create a new field group called something like "User Review Fields," add a number field for the rating (with a minimum of 1 and maximum of 10), and then set the field group to display only on your new Reviews post type. This rating field is what lets users score a product when they submit their review.

Building the Post Creation Form in Fluent Forms

Here is where Fluent Forms Pro earns its keep. When adding a new form, do not click the main "Add a New Form" button. Instead, click the small dropdown arrow next to it and choose "Create Post Form." This is a special form type that maps directly to WordPress posts.

You will be asked which post type the form should create. Since we set up a Reviews custom post type earlier, select that. Fluent Forms drops you into a blank form builder where you can drag in the fields you need: a name field, an email address, the post title (renamed to something like "Your Review Headline"), a number field for the rating score, and the post content field for the full review text.

The key step is field mapping. Under Settings & Integrations, create a new Post Creation feed. Map the post title to your headline field, the post content to the review body, and the ACF rating field to your score input. You also get to choose the default post status — set it to "Pending" if you want to screen submissions before they go live, or "Published" if you trust your users.

Adding User Registration to the Form

Fluent Forms Pro can create a WordPress user account at the same time the form is submitted. Under Marketing & CRM Integrations, add a new User Registration feed. Map the email field and first name from your form to the corresponding user fields.

For the password, you can leave it blank and have WordPress email the new user a link to set their own password. The most important setting here is the user role. Subscriber is the safest default — it gives people an account without any editing permissions. Only change this if you understand WordPress user roles and have a specific reason to grant more access.

You can also enable auto-login and email notifications so the user gets a seamless experience after submitting the form. One form submission, and you get both a new review post and a new user account created automatically.

Displaying User Reviews on the Front End

Getting reviews to display on your site is where Elementor Pro comes in. There are two approaches depending on what you want.

The first option is displaying reviews inline on the same page as the submission form. Drop an Elementor Posts widget below your form, then under the Query settings, change the post type to Reviews. You will instantly see submitted reviews appear in a grid. You can control how many show per page, add pagination, and style the cards with borders and padding.

The second option is creating a dedicated single post template for reviews. In Elementor's Theme Builder, create a new Single Post template and set it to the Review post type. Use dynamic tags to pull in the post title, content, and ACF fields like the rating score. The rating field can be formatted with a prefix like "Rating:" and a suffix like "/10" to give it context. Once published, every review automatically uses this template when someone clicks through to read the full submission.

Practical Tips and Final Thoughts

This setup combines four tools — Fluent Forms Pro, Custom Post Type UI, Advanced Custom Fields, and Elementor Pro — but most of the heavy lifting is free. The only paid components are Fluent Forms Pro and Elementor Pro, and both are well worth the investment if you are building anything beyond a basic blog.

A few practical tips: always set new submissions to Pending status if you are accepting public reviews, so you can moderate before publishing. Take advantage of ACF's flexibility to add more fields over time, like pros and cons lists or image uploads. And spend some time on the Elementor template design — a polished review page builds trust with your visitors.

The real takeaway here is that WordPress site owners no longer need a developer to build user-generated content features. With the right combination of plugins and some thoughtful configuration, you can have a fully functional review system up and running in under an hour.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.