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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “personal contact”

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 “personal contact”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

ActiveTrail – Contact Form 7 shows at wp.org #13 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 500+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

All-in-One WP Migration and Backup places #12 on merit, 4.5★ from 7676 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 Database for Contact Form 7, WPforms, Elementor forms 60K+ · 4.8★ (124) wp.org #1 2 Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275) wp.org #2 3 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 ↑4 4 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too low 7 Speed Contact Bar 4K+ · 4.6★ (56) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Spam Protection | Maspik 30K+ · 4.7★ (87) wp.org #7 ↓2 1 too high 9 Custom Contact Forms 6K+ · 3.5★ (171) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too high 11 Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection 5M+ · 4.7★ (1187) wp.org #19 ↑1 8 too low 12 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #23 ↑1 11 too low 13 CP Contact Form with PayPal 800+ · 3.8★ (65) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too high 14 Flamingo 800K+ · 4.2★ (121) wp.org #17 ↑1 3 too low 15 Contact Forms by Cimatti 700+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (584) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 too low 17 CF7 Mate – Contact Form 7 Styler, Multi-Step Forms & Conditional Logic 20K+ · 3.9★ (46) wp.org #22 5 too low 18 Quick Contact Form 1K+ · 4.9★ (21) wp.org #24 ↓1 6 too low 19 Store file uploads for Contact Form 7 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 Floating Contact Button for MAX and Telegram 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too high 21 Personal Dictionary – Vocabulary Games, Memory Games 70+ · 4.8★ (8) wp.org #14 ↓2 7 too high 22 Database for Contact Form 7 7K+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too high 23 UTM Tracker for Contact Form 7 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↑3 5 too high 24 ActiveTrail – Contact Form 7 500+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↑1 11 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.