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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 6 of the top 20. 2 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

WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 735 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. 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★ (2113) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14366) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Ninja Forms – The Contact Form Builder That Grows With You 600K+ · 4.4★ (1395) wp.org #3 4 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 700K+ · 4.8★ (789) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 Formidable Forms – WordPress Form Builder for Contact Forms, Calculators, Quizzes & More 300K+ · 4.8★ (1380) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2178) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too high 7 Spam protection, Honeypot, Anti-Spam by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3205) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too low 8 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 600K+ · 4.7★ (503) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too high 9 Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) wp.org #10 ↓3 1 too low 10 SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.9★ (87) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too high 11 Calculated Fields Form – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact, Payment, Quote, Quiz & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (970) wp.org #18 ↑1 7 too low 12 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (735) wp.org #23 ↓7 11 too low 13 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #13 14 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #17 ↓3 3 too low 15 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (86) wp.org #21 ↓6 6 too low 16 Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #16 17 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #15 ↓3 2 too high 18 Constant Contact Forms 20K+ · 2.6★ (103) wp.org #11 ↓1 7 too high 19 Gutena Forms – Contact Form, Survey Form, Feedback Form, Booking Form, and Custom Form Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Sense Forms 200+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Snow Monkey Forms 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too high 22 Cognito Forms 2K+ · 4.0★ (19) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 14 too high 24 Crowdsignal Forms 200K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 ↓1 12 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.