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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “what the cf7”

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 “what the cf7”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

CF7 Submissions – Securely Store Contact Form 7 Data and Attachments, Reply to the Sender and more shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Tablesome Table – Contact Form DB – WPForms, CF7, Gravity, Forminator, Fluent places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 89 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 GSheetConnector – CF7 Google Sheets Connector & Save CF7 Entries to Database 40K+ · 4.4★ (129) wp.org #1 2 CF7 Mate – Contact Form 7 Styler, Multi-Step Forms & Conditional Logic 20K+ · 3.9★ (46) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.8★ (166) wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #3 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 5 Void Contact Form 7 Widget For Elementor Page Builder 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 6 Multi Step for Contact Form 7 10K+ · 4.7★ (77) wp.org #8 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147) wp.org #16 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 8 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275) wp.org #17 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 10 Extensions For CF7 (Contact form 7 Database, Conditional Fields and Redirection) 5K+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 11 Tablesome Table – Contact Form DB – WPForms, CF7, Gravity, Forminator, Fluent 7K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #22 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 11 places below merit 12 Post My CF7 Form 2K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 13 CF7 Invisible reCAPTCHA 6K+ · 3.1★ (14) wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 14 Post Fields for Contact Form 7 3K+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #19 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 15 PDF Forms Filler for CF7 3K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #11 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 16 WOW Styler for CF7 – Visual Styler for Contact Form 7 Forms 3K+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #10 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 17 ACF Field For CF7 10K+ · 4.7★ (11) wp.org #14 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 18 Database for Contact Form 7 7K+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #15 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 19 AntiSpam for Contact Form 7 10K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #21 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 20 Email Addon for Contact Form 7 3K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #24 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 21 Connect CF7 to HubSpot – Contact Form 7 CRM Integration 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 22 CF7 Submissions – Securely Store Contact Form 7 Data and Attachments, Reply to the Sender and more 2K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 10 places above merit 23 Classic Honeypot for CF7 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 24 SMTP for Contact Form 7 1K+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #23 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 1 place 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.