Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “form monitoring”

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 “form monitoring”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 3 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

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 it throws errors on current PHP, 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

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App places #9 on merit, 4.7★ from 528 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #1 2 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too low 4 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #8 ↑4 3 too low 6 Limit Login Attempts Security – Login Security, 2FA, Firewall, Brute Force Prevention 1M+ · 4.8★ (1488) wp.org #13 ↓7 7 too low 7 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #14 ↑2 7 too low 8 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #18 ↓8 10 too low 9 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #21 12 too low 10 Generate PDF using Contact Form 7 4K+ · 4.7★ (40) wp.org #11 ↑2 1 too low 11 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #15 ↑3 3 too low 13 Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening 600K+ · 4.2★ (386) wp.org #16 ↑1 3 too low 14 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #22 ↑2 8 too low 15 CheckView – Form & Checkout Testing 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #10 ↑1 5 too high 16 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #17 ↑2 1 too low 17 Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations 2K+ · 4.5★ (64) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Spam Protect for Contact Form 7 10K+ · 4.1★ (12) wp.org #12 ↑2 6 too high 19 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Super Monitoring 50+ · 4.4★ (9) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 Uptime Monitoring for WordPress – My Website is Online 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 ↑2 15 too high 22 Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 19 too high 23 BugSnag Error Monitoring plugin 2K+ · 3.7★ (9) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 ShopMonitor.io – Automated Checkout & Form Monitoring 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓5 4 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.