wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “custom donations”
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 “custom donations”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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
Custom Price for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #9 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1388 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144)
wp.org #1 ↑1 2 
GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708)
wp.org #2 ↓1 3 
Charitable – Donation & Fundraising Platform (Donation Forms, Recurring Donations & Fundraising Campaigns) 10K+ · 4.9★ (219)
wp.org #4 1 too low 4 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387)
wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 
Donations via PayPal 20K+ · 4.7★ (27)
wp.org #3 2 too high 6 
Custom Post Type Permalinks 200K+ · 4.8★ (71)
wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 
Donation Platform for WooCommerce: Fundraising & Donation Management 7K+ · 4.9★ (99)
wp.org #7 ↓2 8 
Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) 10K+ · 4.9★ (80)
wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 
WP Custom Admin Interface 30K+ · 4.7★ (160)
wp.org #15 ↑1 6 too low 10 Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1388)
wp.org #22 12 too low 11 
Table Field Add-on for ACF and SCF 50K+ · 4.9★ (60)
wp.org #14 ↑1 3 too low 12 
Donorbox – Free Recurring Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 8K+ · 4.8★ (34)
wp.org #10 2 too high 13 
Paymattic – Secure, Simple Payment & Donation with Subscription Payments, Recurring Donations, Customer Management 3K+ · 4.8★ (44)
wp.org #11 2 too high 14 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too low 15 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #21 ↓4 6 too low 16 
SureCart – Ecommerce Made Easy For Selling Physical Products, Digital Downloads, Subscriptions, Donations, & Payments 80K+ · 4.8★ (289)
wp.org #23 7 too low 17 
Donation Thermometer 2K+ · 4.4★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #8 9 too high 18 
Custom Contact Forms 6K+ · 3.5★ (171)
wp.org #17 ↑2 1 too high 19 
Custom Fields for Gutenberg 1K+ · 4.9★ (17) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too low 20 
Kudos Donations: Easy Donations with Mollie | One-off & Recurring | PDF Receipts | Buttons & Forms 100+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews
wp.org #12 ↑1 8 too high 21 Custom Price for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #9 12 too high 22 
FundEngine – Donation and Crowdfunding Platform 1K+ · 4.2★ (22) thin reviews
wp.org #24 2 too low 23 
Custom Datepicker NMR 1K+ · 4.6★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↑2 5 too high 24 
SureDonation – Donation Forms, Fundraising Campaigns & Donor Management 4K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #16 8 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.