I’ve been building custom WP themes for a long time (ACF, CPTs, the usual). For forms I mostly use CF7, occasionally Gravity Forms.

Recently a client needed a scholarship application collecting hundreds of submissions, each with several file uploads. WP didn’t feel like the right tool: public upload folders, sensitive documents, and a site that quietly turns into a 100GB file repository. We went with Cognito Forms using their JS embed. It worked well, and the WP site stores none of the sensitive data.

I know GF can store uploads outside the public path and you can bolt on retention rules. I’d still rather offload it. Retention, access control, and breach liability sit with the vendor instead of with me and a client who will never purge anything.

Now another client takes job applications through their WP site, and I’d like to steer them the same way, maybe Jotform. Am I overthinking it? What do you use for this, and is there a hosted option you’d recommend or avoid?