Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 textarea”, 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

Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form shows at wp.org #5 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 15 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

Contact Form Email places #12 on merit, 4.3★ from 102 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (108) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 Form Maker by 10Web – Mobile-Friendly Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 30K+ · 4.5★ (778) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 Contact Form by Supsystic – Drag & Drop Form Builder with Templates & Form Statistics 6K+ · 4.7★ (92) wp.org #6 ↑12 7 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Advanced Form Integration — Connect Forms to 300+ Apps 9K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #9 ↑1 10 DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.7★ (99) wp.org #13 ↓5 3 too low 11 Conditional Fields for Elementor Form – Apply Conditional Logic 10K+ · 4.7★ (32) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too low 12 Contact Form Email 8K+ · 4.3★ (102) wp.org #17 5 too low 13 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 NEX-Forms – Ultimate Forms Plugin for WordPress 5K+ · 4.1★ (135) wp.org #21 ↑2 7 too low 15 Lead Form Builder & Contact Form 8K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #10 ↑1 5 too high 16 Gutena Forms – Contact Form, Survey Form, Feedback Form, Booking Form, and Custom Form Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 PDF Forms Filler for CF7 3K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Snow Monkey Forms 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Form Block 300+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 ↑4 1 too high 20 Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↑1 15 too high 21 Comment Form WP – Customize Default Comment Form 600+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Hash Form – Drag & Drop Form Builder 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 7 too high 23 Aims Textarea Wordcount with/without Space For Contact Form 7 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 9 too high 24 Contact Form Query 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.