wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “visual 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 “visual form”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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 #4 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 17 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

Form Maker by 10Web – Mobile-Friendly Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder places #12 on merit, 4.5★ from 778 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #1 2

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808) wp.org #2 3

Gallery by Visual Portfolio 50K+ · 4.8★ (340) wp.org #3 4

Calculated Fields Form – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact, Payment, Quote, Quiz & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (973) wp.org #7 3 too low 5

Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #6 1 too low 6

Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (108) wp.org #5 1 too high 7

Bit Form – Contact Form, Payment Forms, Multi Step Forms, Calculator & Custom Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (259) wp.org #8 1 too low 8

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #12 4 too low 9

Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1388) wp.org #11 2 too low 10

Visual Composer Website Builder 30K+ · 4.6★ (220) wp.org #10 11

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #15 4 too low 12

Form Maker by 10Web – Mobile-Friendly Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 30K+ · 4.5★ (778) wp.org #17 5 too low 13

CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #9 4 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 #16 2 too low 15

SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102) wp.org #13 2 too high 16

Contact Form Email 8K+ · 4.3★ (102) wp.org #14 2 too high 17

Advanced Form Integration — Connect Forms to 300+ Apps 9K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #18 1 too low 18

Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #23 5 too low 19

Cool FormKit Lite – Advanced Form Builder for Elementor 20K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #21 2 too low 20

Form Input Masks For Elementor Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (18) thin reviews wp.org #19 1 too high 21

Gutenverse Form – Contact Form Builder, Block Form & Booking Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #4 17 too high 22

Visual Builder for Contact Form 7 400+ · 3.7★ (6) thin reviews wp.org #22 23

Hash Form – Drag & Drop Form Builder 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #24 1 too low 24

GTranslate Visual Addon 400+ · 4.3★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #20 4 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.