wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “in field form labels”
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 “in field form labels”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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 #14 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 10 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.
Buried gem
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 3,224 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
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.
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #1 2 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14,389)
wp.org #2 3 
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1,440)
wp.org #3 4 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #4 5 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #5 ↑4 6 
Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418)
wp.org #7 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 
Checkout Field Editor (Checkout Manager) for WooCommerce 400K+ · 4.9★ (1,056)
wp.org #9 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 8 
Advanced Woo Labels – Product Labels & Badges for WooCommerce 10K+ · 5.0★ (64)
wp.org #6 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 9 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,398)
wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 
Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (260)
wp.org #10 11 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #16 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 12 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 13 
Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.8★ (166)
wp.org #13 ↑2 14 
Meta Field Block – Display Custom Fields for ACF, Meta Box and More 10K+ · 5.0★ (57)
wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 15 
Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1,389)
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 16 
CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135)
wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 17 
SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (103)
wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 
Flexible Checkout Fields for WooCommerce – WooCommerce Checkout Manager 80K+ · 4.7★ (296)
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 19 
Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce – Checkout Manager 20K+ · 4.9★ (165)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 20 
Contact Form by Supsystic – Drag & Drop Form Builder with Templates & Form Statistics 6K+ · 4.7★ (92)
wp.org #19 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 21 
GravityExport Lite for Gravity Forms 10K+ · 5.0★ (39)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 22 
WC – APG NIF/CIF/NIE Field 10K+ · 4.8★ (23) thin reviews
wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 23 
Custom Field Template 30K+ · 4.0★ (24) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 24 Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 10 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.