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

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 math captcha”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 17 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

RMGCaptcha Math Guard – Math CAPTCHA for Login and WooCommerce shows at wp.org #6 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 70+ 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

Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 375 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. 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 #4 3 too low 2 D DS CF7 Math Captcha 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #2 1 too high 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 Advanced Google reCAPTCHA 200K+ · 4.8★ (430) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Captcha by BestWebSoft – Advanced Spam Protection, Math & OCR-Friendly Captcha for Site Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (21) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832) wp.org #17 10 too low 8 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 301 Redirects – Redirect Manager 300K+ · 4.7★ (578) wp.org #20 11 too low 10 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #19 9 too low 11 Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 NEX-Forms – Ultimate Forms Plugin for WordPress 5K+ · 4.1★ (135) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 Math Captcha for Contact Form 7 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 8 too high 14 Honeypot Anti-Spam 10K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Captchinoo, admin login page protection with Google recaptcha 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 RMGCaptcha Math Guard – Math CAPTCHA for Login and WooCommerce 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 10 too high 17 BotShield CAPTCHA for Contact Form 7 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 8 too high 18 Frontend Dashboard Captcha 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 8 too high 19 HSArticle Math CAPTCHA for Forms 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 HSArticle Login Math Verification 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 D Dlit Easy Math Captcha 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 SKP WP Admin Login Captcha 900+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Math Captcha for Gravity Forms 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 C Custom Captcha Field for Fluent Forms 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 1 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.