wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “form to post”
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 to post”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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 #17 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 7 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.
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.
Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2,186)
wp.org #1 2 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #2 3 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14,389)
wp.org #3 4 
Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528)
wp.org #4 5 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
Calculated Fields Form – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact, Payment, Quote, Quiz & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (973)
wp.org #8 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 
Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 8 
Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (588)
wp.org #7 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398)
wp.org #9 ↑4 10 
Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (260)
wp.org #10 11 
Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1,238)
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 12 
Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (108)
wp.org #11 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 13 
MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509)
wp.org #13 ↓2 14 
WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (322)
wp.org #21 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 15 
The Post Grid – Shortcode, Gutenberg Blocks and Elementor Addon for Post Grid 100K+ · 4.8★ (265)
wp.org #19 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 16 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322)
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 17 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409)
wp.org #16 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 
CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135)
wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 19 
Post My CF7 Form 2K+ · 4.8★ (48)
wp.org #15 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 20 
Ultimate Post Kit – Elementor Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider & Blog Layout Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (58)
wp.org #18 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 21 
Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types 10K+ · 4.4★ (46)
wp.org #20 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 22 
Post Fields for Contact Form 7 3K+ · 5.0★ (34)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 23 
Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts 5K+ · 4.7★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 24 Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #17 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 7 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.