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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “side 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 “side contact”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 5 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

Floating Side Tab shows at wp.org #5 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Translate WordPress with GTranslate places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 4962 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 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #1 2 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #2 3 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #3 4 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #9 5 too low 5 Contact Form by Supsystic – Drag & Drop Form Builder with Templates & Form Statistics 6K+ · 4.7★ (92) wp.org #11 6 too low 6 Side Menu Lite – Sticky Floating Side Menu 7K+ · 4.0★ (12) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #23 ↑1 16 too low 8 Contact Form Clean and Simple 7K+ · 4.7★ (195) wp.org #16 8 too low 9 Image CAPTCHA for Contact Form 7 and WPForms by HookAndHook (DSGVO/GDPR) 70K+ · 4.7★ (49) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.7★ (99) wp.org #10 11 Modern Cart – WooCommerce Side Cart & Popup Cart 60K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 Webheadcoder Multi-Step Forms for Contact Form 7 50K+ · 4.2★ (49) wp.org #8 5 too high 14 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Float menu – awesome floating side menu 30K+ · 4.4★ (41) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 Custom Contact Forms 6K+ · 3.5★ (171) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Contact Form to Chat Apps | Click to Chat to Order – FormyChat 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 10 too high 18 Generate PDF using Contact Form 7 4K+ · 4.7★ (40) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Calculation for contact form 7 1K+ · 4.5★ (22) wp.org #19 ↑1 20 Sticky Side Buttons 10K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 Floating Side Tab 600+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 16 too high 22 PVB Contact Form 7 Calculator 600+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too high 23 Contact Button – The All-in-One Website Widget 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↑1 10 too high 24 Contact Form Plugin 2K+ · 2.8★ (17) wp.org #22 ↑1 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.