wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “drag and drop website builder”
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 “drag and drop website builder”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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
Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer shows at wp.org #9 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 400K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 81 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
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.
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322)
wp.org #1 2 
Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394)
wp.org #2 3 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #4 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 
WP Table Builder – Drag & Drop Table Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (681)
wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14,389)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
Page Builder: Pagelayer – Drag and Drop website builder 400K+ · 3.9★ (104)
wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 7 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #7 ↑3 8 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224)
wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 9 
Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140)
wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #10 ↓1 11 
Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4,699)
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 12 
Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1,005)
wp.org #12 13 
ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2,052)
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 14 
Visual Composer Website Builder 30K+ · 4.6★ (220)
wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 15 Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer 400K+ · 4.5★ (81)
wp.org #9 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 16 
Popup Maker – Boost Sales, Conversions, Optins, Subscribers with the Ultimate WP Popup Builder 600K+ · 4.9★ (4,515)
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 17 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398)
wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 18 
Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89)
wp.org #16 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 19 
Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (185)
wp.org #17 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 20 
WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (322)
wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 21 
Live Composer – Free WordPress Website Builder 10K+ · 4.4★ (212)
wp.org #21 ↓3 22 
Easy Form Builder by WhiteStudio – Drag & Drop Form Builder 1K+ · 5.0★ (70)
wp.org #22 ↓3 23 
Header Footer Builder for Elementor 30K+ · 5.0★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 24 
WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 4 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.