If you are building an extension to an existing plugin then Gravity Forms is probably one of the best. It’s mature, stable, and targeted at developers to extend further. Specifically, it has a very powerful API, rich mix of hooks and filters, and is very well documented and supported. It’s large enough to support an ecosystem of quality code developers who specialise on Gravity Forms.
So that’s what Ben Ramsden, the creator behind GFChart, did. He built GFChart, a helpful extension for the Gravity Forms WordPress plugin, that allows you to take the data from your Gravity Forms submissions and turn it into visual charts to more easily understand the information.
From a value perspective, utilising GFChart saves website developers, owners and business managers a huge amount of time. It would take a capable developer several hours to build a basic chart, and that’s before testing, presuming that their client knows their exact needs up front, and can get a good test data set. Once the GFChart plugin is installed it is usually possible to produce powerful and insightful live reports in less than 90 seconds.
By eliminating the need to login to view or download data, and by being always up to date (real-time), managers have a live status dashboard and can focus their attention where it is required. In eCommerce and event booking scenarios, two of GFCharts main use cases, that is enormously powerful.
“Most of our success has come from understanding our customers, listening to their needs and giving them what they want”, states Ramsden.
Their own website, www.gfchart.com, is full of Pre-Configured Templates, How-To’s, and Use-Case Scenarios so users can identify with a problem they may be trying to solve, and get the answer there and then.
“Great customer service has helped us build our very strong customer base. We get very genuine reviews every week praising our support and response to problems which developers and website owners may face.”
GFChart has come a long way in it’s own development since it was created 10 years ago. Whilst it still has niche appeal, at $69 it is extraordinary valuable for that niche.