wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp forms”
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 “wp forms”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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
WP Accessibility shows at wp.org #16 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 60K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 68 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143)
wp.org #1 2 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807)
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 
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209)
wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 
Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186)
wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 
Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397)
wp.org #6 ↑1 7 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228)
wp.org #7 ↑3 8 
All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676)
wp.org #8 ↑7 9 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706)
wp.org #10 1 too low 10 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617)
wp.org #11 ↓3 1 too low 11 
WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346)
wp.org #9 ↑5 2 too high 12 
WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184)
wp.org #12 ↑9 13 
WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490)
wp.org #15 ↓6 2 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 #14 ↑2 15 
WP Reset 300K+ · 4.8★ (1014)
wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too low 16 
WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138)
wp.org #22 ↓1 6 too low 17 
hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88)
wp.org #13 ↓2 4 too high 18 
Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375) heavy footprint
wp.org #18 19 
WP Data Access – App Builder for Tables, Forms, Dashboards, Charts & Maps 10K+ · 4.9★ (88)
wp.org #17 2 too high 20 
WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215)
wp.org #20 ↓1 21 WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68)
wp.org #16 5 too high 22 
WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81)
wp.org #24 2 too low 23 
MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #23 24 
Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #21 ↓5 3 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.