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

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 “gravity form”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 3 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

Gravity Forms CLI Add-On shows at wp.org #10 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Gravity Booster – Styles & Layouts for Gravity Forms 30K+ · 4.6★ (199) wp.org #3 4 Gravity Forms + Custom Post Types 10K+ · 4.4★ (46) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #13 8 too low 6 GravityExport Lite for Gravity Forms 10K+ · 5.0★ (39) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Gravity Forms – Edit Entries 2K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #6 ↑9 2 too high 9 Multiple Columns for Gravity Forms 10K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Connector for Gravity Forms and Google Sheets 3K+ · 4.7★ (66) wp.org #12 ↓6 2 too low 11 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #16 ↓6 5 too low 12 Surbma | Divi & Gravity Forms 9K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #23 ↓2 10 too low 14 Gravity Forms Email Blacklist 10K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 گرویتی فرم فارسی | Persian Gravity Forms 20K+ · 4.5★ (41) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Live Summary for Gravity Forms 1K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too low 17 Smart phone field for Gravity Forms 5K+ · 4.2★ (23) wp.org #15 ↑3 2 too high 18 Gravity Forms CLI Add-On 20K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #10 ↑1 8 too high 19 Multi Page Auto Advance for Gravity Forms 2K+ · 4.3★ (20) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Image Picker For Gravity Forms 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 Pods Gravity Forms Add-On 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too high 22 Mailster Gravity Forms 800+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 WPSyncSheets For Gravity Forms – Connect Gravity Forms to Google Sheets 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Pronamic Pay with Mollie for Gravity Forms 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 2 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.