Countdown calculator template

Free build guide: Countdown calculator for WordPress

This guide rebuilds the Countdown calculator from this site in Gravity Forms: 1 input, 7 live results and no submit button. Expect about 24 minutes by hand. The template above is the same form as an import file, and the bundle adds a PDF version of this guide with a screenshot of every setting, plus the stylesheet.

You will end up with:

• Days to go
• Weeks
• and days
• Months
• Hours
• Business days to go
• Weekends in between

What you need

• Gravity Forms (any license) — Calculation fields are in core; datediff(), today(), floor() and min() need GP Advanced Calculations.
• GP Advanced Calculations (Gravity Wiz) — Exponents, functions and date math in calculation fields. The formulas in this template use its syntax. Part of Gravity Perks; needs the Spellbook plugin active as well.

The formulas below use GP Advanced Calculations syntax: exponents, functions or date math that core calculation fields cannot do. Install and activate it, with its Spellbook parent plugin, before you start; without it every result shows 0.

1. Create the form

1. Go to Forms → New Form and name it Countdown.
2. In Form Settings → Form Layout, set the CSS Class Name to fo-live-only. Step 3 uses it to hide the submit button.
3. Leave the form open in the editor; the fields come next.

2. Add the fields, in this order

Field IDs are assigned as you add fields. If yours come out differently, change the {Label:ID} references in the formulas to match your IDs. Settings not mentioned stay at their defaults.

1. Date you are counting to · Date · ID 1
Date Input Type Date Picker; Date Format mm/dd/yyyy; Default Value 12/25/2026; Description “A wedding, a launch, a holiday, a due date.”.

2. Days to go · Number · ID 2
Number Format 9,999.99; Description “Whole days from today, not counting today. If the date has passed, this is days since.”; Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) - datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) )

3. Weeks · Number · ID 3
Number Format 9,999.99; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) - datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ) - ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) - datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ) % 7 ) / 7

4. and days · Number · ID 4
Number Format 9,999.99; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) - datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ) % 7

5. Months · Number · ID 5
Number Format 9,999.99; Description “Whole calendar months.”; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

if( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) < datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ):
0 - datediff( today(), {Event:1}, unit='months' )
else:
datediff( today(), {Event:1}, unit='months' )
endif;

6. Hours · Number · ID 6
Number Format 9,999.99; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) - datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ) * 24

7. Business days to go · Number · ID 7
Number Format 9,999.99; Description “Mondays to Fridays between today and the date; public holidays not excluded.”; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 0.

if( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) < datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ):
0
else:
( floor( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) / 7 ) ) * 5 + min( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) % 7 ), 5 ) ) - ( floor( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) / 7 ) ) * 5 + min( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) % 7 ), 5 ) )
endif;

8. Weekends in between · Number · ID 8
Number Format 9,999.99; Description “Weekend days ÷ 2.”; Layout: half width, on the same row as its neighbor (drag the field beside it in the editor; no CSS class needed); Custom CSS Class (Appearance tab) fo-result fo-result--sub; tick Enable Calculation, Rounding 1.

if( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) < datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) ):
0
else:
( datediff( today(), {Event:1} ) - ( ( floor( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) / 7 ) ) * 5 + min( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", {Event:1} ) % 7 ), 5 ) ) - ( floor( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) / 7 ) ) * 5 + min( ( datediff( "1970-01-05", today() ) % 7 ), 5 ) ) ) ) / 2
endif;

3. Hide the submit button

The results are live, so nothing needs submitting. Add this filter to your theme’s functions.php or a code-snippets plugin; it hides the button on any form carrying the fo-live-only class:

add_filter( 'gform_submit_button', function ( $button, $form ) {
	return str_contains( (string) rgar( $form, 'cssClass' ), 'fo-live-only' ) ? '' : $button;
}, 10, 2 );

Or with CSS alone: .fo-live-only_wrapper .gform_footer { display: none; }

4. Put it on a page and make it look like this

Add the form to any page with the Gravity Forms block, or the shortcode [gravityform id="X" title="false" ajax="false"]. The form inherits your theme’s styles; the classes you set in step 2 are hooks for the look you see on this site:

• fo-result on a calculation field makes it the big teal result panel.
• fo-result fo-result--sub makes the smaller secondary figures.
• fo-segmented on a radio field turns it into a segmented switch.
• Two fields on one row is the editor’s own column layout: drag a field beside another and the row splits in half. No CSS class is needed, and the old gf_left_half Ready Classes are deprecated.

The bundle includes the two stylesheets that implement those classes, with notes on matching your brand colors. Without them the form still works; it just looks like your theme’s default Gravity Forms styling.

How the math works is explained under “How it’s calculated” on the live Countdown calculator.