wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “contact form 7 discord”
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 discord”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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
Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form shows at wp.org #3 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 19 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons places #5 on merit, 5.0★ from 776 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #1 2 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (413)
wp.org #2 3 
Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty 300K+ · 5.0★ (1,245)
wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 4 
Advanced Form Integration — Connect Forms to 300+ Apps 9K+ · 4.8★ (91)
wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 5 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (776)
wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 6 
Happyforms – Form Builder for WordPress: Drag & Drop Contact Forms, Surveys, Payments & Multipurpose Forms 20K+ · 4.4★ (433)
wp.org #10 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 7 
Booking for Appointments and Events Calendar – Amelia 90K+ · 4.6★ (795)
wp.org #14 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 8 
Sticky Chat Widget – Floating Chat Icons, Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, Email & Message Buttons 10K+ · 5.0★ (39)
wp.org #8 ↓1 9 
Social Chat – Click To Chat App Button 200K+ · 4.9★ (696)
wp.org #15 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 10 
Bit integrations – Form Integration, Webhook, Spreadsheets, CRM, LMS & Email Automation 20K+ · 4.9★ (160)
wp.org #13 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 11 
Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1,033)
wp.org #16 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 12 
Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709)
wp.org #18 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 13 
Nextend Social Login and Register 200K+ · 4.9★ (447)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 14 
Social Login, Social Sharing by miniOrange 10K+ · 4.6★ (356)
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 15 
Contact Form to Chat Apps | Click to Chat to Order – FormyChat 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews
wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 11 places above merit 16 
Uncanny Automator – MCP Server + Automation MCP for Claude & ChatGPT 40K+ · 4.9★ (157)
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 17 
Quill Forms | Conversational Multi Step Forms, Surveys & quizzes 3K+ · 4.8★ (44)
wp.org #17 ↓2 18 
Chat Widget: Floating Customer Support Button for 30+ Channels, Supporting SMS, Calls, and Chat – Bit Assist 9K+ · 4.9★ (112)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 19 
Bit Flows: AI Agent Automation & Integrations for Forms, CRM, eCommerce, Google Sheets, and More 1K+ · 4.9★ (64)
wp.org #22 ↓5 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 20 
VPSUForm – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder with Email Automation 200+ · 5.0★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 11 places above merit 21 
HT Contact Form – Drag & Drop Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 4.2★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #7 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 14 places above merit 22 Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 19 places above merit 23 
miniOrange Discord Integration 100+ · 3.5★ (8) thin reviews
wp.org #11 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 12 places above merit 24 R RT Webhook for Contact Form 7 100+ · 0.0★ (0) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.