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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “forms”

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 “forms”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Crowdsignal Forms shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 200K+ 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

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 3221 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★ (2144) wp.org #1 2 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #2 3 Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #5 6 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #6 ↑4 7 Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) wp.org #7 ↑5 8 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #14 ↑7 6 too low 9 Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1388) wp.org #15 ↓4 6 too low 10 SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102) wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too high 11 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #21 ↓3 10 too low 12 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #12 ↑4 13 Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (259) wp.org #22 9 too low 14 Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too low 15 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #19 4 too low 16 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #11 ↑3 5 too high 17 Gutena Forms – Contact Form, Survey Form, Feedback Form, Booking Form, and Custom Form Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #10 ↑3 7 too high 18 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too low 19 Mollie Forms 3K+ · 4.1★ (19) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Snow Monkey Forms 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #16 ↑4 4 too high 21 Cognito Forms 2K+ · 4.0★ (19) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Crowdsignal Forms 200K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 ↑1 14 too high 23 WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓7 10 too high 24 Zoho Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder for Websites – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Order Forms & More 10K+ · 2.7★ (14) 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.