wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “contacts”
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 “contacts”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 4 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
CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) shows at wp.org #12 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 300K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.8★ average from 135 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186)
wp.org #1 2 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144)
wp.org #2 3 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387)
wp.org #3 4 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221)
wp.org #5 1 too low 5 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807)
wp.org #4 1 too high 6 
Database Addon for Contact Form 7 – CFDB7 600K+ · 5.0★ (1875)
wp.org #6 ↑3 7 
Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty 300K+ · 5.0★ (1244)
wp.org #10 ↑3 3 too low 8 
Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (108)
wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too high 9 
Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275)
wp.org #8 ↑7 1 too high 10 
Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.8★ (166)
wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397)
wp.org #11 ↑6 12 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too low 13 
Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1388)
wp.org #19 ↑1 6 too low 14 
MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509)
wp.org #15 ↓5 1 too low 15 
ReCaptcha v2 for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 5.0★ (89)
wp.org #14 ↑2 1 too high 16 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408)
wp.org #16 ↓2 17 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135)
wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too high 18 
SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102)
wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too high 19 
Drag and Drop Multiple File Upload for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (94)
wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20 
Database for Contact Form 7, WPforms, Elementor forms 60K+ · 4.8★ (124)
wp.org #24 4 too low 21 
LukasApps CAPTCHA tools for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.1★ (48)
wp.org #20 ↑2 1 too high 22 
Webheadcoder Multi-Step Forms for Contact Form 7 50K+ · 4.2★ (49)
wp.org #23 1 too low 23 
Constant Contact Forms 20K+ · 2.6★ (107)
wp.org #18 ↓11 5 too high 24 
Mailercloud – Integrate webforms and synchronize website contacts 100+ · 4.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↑3 3 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.