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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “contact form 7 captcha”

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 “contact form 7 captcha”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 5 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Captcha by Yandex for Contact Form 7 shows at wp.org #14 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Formidable Forms – WordPress Form Builder for Contact Forms, Calculators, Quizzes & More places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 1383 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2131) wp.org #1 2 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14377) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 CF7 Apps – Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, and Addons for Contact Form 7 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Spam protection, Honeypot, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3213) wp.org #10 ↓2 5 too low 6 Calculated Fields Form – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact, Payment, Quote, Quiz & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (971) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (257) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 700K+ · 4.8★ (798) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 600K+ · 4.4★ (1395) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too low 10 Image CAPTCHA for Contact Form 7 and WPForms by HookAndHook (DSGVO/GDPR) 70K+ · 4.7★ (49) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too high 11 Formidable Forms – WordPress Form Builder for Contact Forms, Calculators, Quizzes & More 300K+ · 4.8★ (1383) wp.org #19 ↓2 8 too low 12 Really Simple CAPTCHA 300K+ · 4.2★ (131) wp.org #12 13 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (22) wp.org #5 8 too high 14 Contact Form by BestWebSoft – Advanced WP Contact Form Builder for WordPress 30K+ · 4.0★ (292) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too low 15 LukasApps CAPTCHA tools for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.1★ (48) wp.org #7 ↑3 8 too high 16 reCaptcha by BestWebSoft 100K+ · 3.9★ (391) wp.org #20 4 too low 17 Contact Form by Supsystic 6K+ · 4.7★ (92) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 WPB Popup for Contact Form 7 – Showing Contact Form 7 Popup on Button Click 6K+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 D DS CF7 Math Captcha 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 Friendly Captcha for WordPress 10K+ · 3.9★ (18) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too high 22 Captcha by BestWebSoft – Advanced Spam Protection, Math & OCR-Friendly Captcha for Site Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (21) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Captcha by Yandex for Contact Form 7 4K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #14 ↓1 9 too high 24 Math Captcha for Contact Form 7 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 2 too high

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.