wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wordpress donations”

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 “wordpress donations”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

SureDonation – Donation Forms, Fundraising Campaigns & Donor Management shows at wp.org #12 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 4K+ 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

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 807 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #1 2

MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #2 3

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #3 4

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too low 5

Charitable – Donation & Fundraising Platform (Donation Forms, Recurring Donations & Fundraising Campaigns) 10K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #5 ↑1 6

Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186) wp.org #7 1 too low 7

Donations via PayPal 20K+ · 4.7★ (27) wp.org #4 3 too high 8

Donation Platform for WooCommerce: Fundraising & Donation Management 7K+ · 4.9★ (99) wp.org #9 10

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #14 ↓2 4 too low 11

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #19 ↓5 8 too low 12

Donorbox – Free Recurring Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 8K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #10 2 too high 13

SureCart – Ecommerce Made Easy For Selling Physical Products, Digital Downloads, Subscriptions, Donations, & Payments 80K+ · 4.8★ (289) wp.org #21 8 too low 14

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #22 ↑2 8 too low 15

GA Google Analytics – Connect Google Analytics to WordPress 400K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #23 ↑2 8 too low 16

Paymattic – Secure, Simple Payment & Donation with Subscription Payments, Recurring Donations, Customer Management 3K+ · 4.8★ (44) wp.org #16 17

Donation Thermometer 2K+ · 4.4★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #11 6 too high 18

Accept Donations with PayPal & Stripe 10K+ · 3.8★ (23) thin reviews wp.org #17 ↓4 1 too high 19

SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #24 5 too low 20

Kudos Donations: Easy Donations with Mollie | One-off & Recurring | PDF Receipts | Buttons & Forms 100+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews wp.org #13 ↑1 7 too high 21

FundEngine – Donation and Crowdfunding Platform 1K+ · 4.2★ (22) thin reviews wp.org #20 1 too high 22

FundPress – WordPress Donation Plugin 300+ · 3.8★ (4) thin reviews wp.org #15 7 too high 23

Mission – Donation Plugin for WordPress – Fundraising & Recurring Donations 70+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too high 24

SureDonation – Donation Forms, Fundraising Campaigns & Donor Management 4K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #12 ↑9 12 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.