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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “google 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 “google forms”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 of the top 20. 4 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

Gutena Forms – Contact Form, Survey Form, Feedback Form, Booking Form, and Custom Form Builder shows at wp.org #16 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 11 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #1 ↑2 2 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #4 ↑4 1 too low 4 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #3 ↑3 1 too high 5 Rich Showcase for Google Reviews 100K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #7 ↑5 2 too low 6 Advanced Google reCAPTCHA 200K+ · 4.8★ (430) wp.org #6 ↑7 7 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3156) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too high 8 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #8 ↑2 9 XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ · 4.8★ (2233) wp.org #9 10 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 GA Google Analytics – Connect Google Analytics to WordPress 400K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #10 ↑4 1 too high 12 WP Go Maps – Google Map, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet Map 300K+ · 4.8★ (3055) wp.org #13 ↓2 1 too low 13 Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) wp.org #12 ↑6 1 too high 14 Easy Google Maps by Supsystic – Custom Markers, Clustering & Map Themes 20K+ · 4.6★ (251) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 reCaptcha by BestWebSoft 100K+ · 3.9★ (391) wp.org #18 ↑2 3 too low 16 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #20 4 too low 17 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #15 2 too high 18 GSheetConnector – CF7 Google Sheets Connector & Save CF7 Entries to Database 40K+ · 4.4★ (129) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too high 19 WP Google Review Slider 30K+ · 4.9★ (373) wp.org #21 2 too low 20 HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57) wp.org #23 3 too low 21 GSheetConnector – Elementor Forms Google Sheet Connector to Sync Submissions to Google Sheets 9K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Gutena Forms – Contact Form, Survey Form, Feedback Form, Booking Form, and Custom Form Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #16 ↑3 6 too high 23 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓8

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.