wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “payment 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 “payment form”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20. 7 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
WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments shows at wp.org #13 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 800K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.4★ average from 177 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143)
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 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807)
wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 
Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #3 1 too high 5 
Calculated Fields Form – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact, Payment, Quote, Quiz & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (973)
wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 
Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (259)
wp.org #6 ↑3 7 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220)
wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 
SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102)
wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too high 9 
Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1387)
wp.org #10 1 too low 10 
Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) heavy footprint
wp.org #9 ↑2 1 too high 11 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397)
wp.org #12 ↑5 1 too low 12 
MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #14 ↑10 2 too low 13 
RegistrationMagic – Custom Registration Forms, User Registration, Payment, and User Login 7K+ · 4.5★ (459)
wp.org #23 ↓7 10 too low 14 
Payment Plugins Braintree For WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.8★ (149)
wp.org #22 ↓1 8 too low 15 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408)
wp.org #21 6 too low 16 
Stripe Payment Forms by WP Simple Pay – Accept Credit Card Payments + Subscriptions with Stripe 8K+ · 4.4★ (117) not PHP-current
wp.org #16 ↓2 17 
Paymattic – Secure, Simple Payment & Donation with Subscription Payments, Recurring Donations, Customer Management 3K+ · 4.8★ (44)
wp.org #17 ↑2 18 
CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #11 ↓3 7 too high 19 
Paytium: Mollie payment forms & donations 2K+ · 4.5★ (64)
wp.org #20 1 too low 20 
Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #15 ↓2 5 too high 21 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #13 ↑2 8 too high 22 
Better Payment – Instant Payments, Donations, Fundraising with Subscriptions & More 5K+ · 4.6★ (14) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #24 ↓2 2 too low 23 
Payment Gateway for Authorize.net for WooCommerce 800+ · 5.0★ (3) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #19 ↑4 4 too high 24 
Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) heavy footprint thin reviews
wp.org #18 6 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.