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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “atomic forms”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “atomic forms”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Atomic Addons – AI Website Builder for Elementor & WooCommerce shows at wp.org #10 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 30+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 1872 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #1 2 Spam Protection | Maspik 30K+ · 4.7★ (87) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too low 3 GSheetConnector – Elementor Forms Google Sheet Connector to Sync Submissions to Google Sheets 9K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too high 4 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5 Animation Addons – Elementor Addons, GSAP Animations, Elementor V4 Atomic Widgets & Elementor Templates 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too low 8 oopspam Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for WordPress Forms & Comments (No CAPTCHA) 6K+ · 4.9★ (51) wp.org #8 ↓1 9 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #12 ↓2 3 too low 10 PowerPack Addons for Elementor: Widgets, Form Styler and Templates 70K+ · 4.8★ (361) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #20 ↓3 8 too low 13 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #7 ↑2 6 too high 14 Atomic Edge Security – Firewall, Malware Scan and Login Security 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 10 too high 15 Dynamic Visibility for Elementor 50K+ · 4.6★ (89) wp.org #21 ↓2 6 too low 16 Cool FormKit Lite – Advanced Form Builder for Elementor 20K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 Conditional Fields for Elementor Form – Apply Conditional Logic 10K+ · 4.7★ (32) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too low 18 Input Mask For Elementor Form Fields 10K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #18 ↓5 19 aBlocks – Gutenberg Blocks, User Dashboard Builder, Popup Builder, Form Builder & Animation Builder 2K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Form Input Masks For Elementor Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (18) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too high 21 Country Code For Elementor Form Telephone Field 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22 Pronamic Pay with Mollie for Gravity Forms 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #14 ↑2 8 too high 23 Atomic Addons – AI Website Builder for Elementor & WooCommerce 30+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑11 13 too high 24 UltimaTour Contact Forms 40+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓2

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.