wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “feedback forum”

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 “feedback forum”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

SurveyX Builder – Survey, Poll, Quiz & Feedback Form shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 7519 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 signals wp.org

Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #1 2

UserFeedback – Create Interactive Feedback Form, User Surveys, and Polls in Seconds 200K+ · 4.8★ (309) wp.org #2 3

Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 4

MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #4 5

WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184) wp.org #5 6

Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539) wp.org #11 5 too low 7

Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) wp.org #10 3 too low 8

Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce – CTX Feed – Support 220+ Shopping, AI & Social Channels 90K+ · 4.6★ (838) wp.org #17 9 too low 9

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #19 10 too low 10

Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) – Quiz Maker & Survey Maker 40K+ · 4.7★ (1282) wp.org #20 10 too low 11

Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #21 10 too low 12

CM Answers – Discussion Forum Plugin for WordPress Q&A 300+ · 3.8★ (86) wp.org #8 4 too high 13

Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP 100K+ · 4.5★ (252) wp.org #15 2 too low 14

Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275) wp.org #16 2 too low 15

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #13 2 too high 16

Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening 600K+ · 4.2★ (386) wp.org #14 2 too high 17

Rate My Post – Star Rating Plugin by FeedbackWP 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #18 1 too low 18

Transliterator – Multilingual and Multi-script Text Conversion 3K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #22 4 too low 19

Easy Table of Contents 600K+ · 4.4★ (221) wp.org #23 4 too low 20

Simple Commenter – Website Feedback tool 200+ · 5.0★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #12 8 too high 21

SurveyX Builder – Survey, Poll, Quiz & Feedback Form 2K+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #6 15 too high 22

ZenCommunity – Community, Forum, Social Network, Chat & Support Tickets 30+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #7 15 too high 23

Automatically Hierarchic Categories in Menu 2K+ · 4.6★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #24 1 too low 24

Business Reviews – build trust with real customer feedback 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #9 15 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.