wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “wp simple 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 simple forms”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 4 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
hCaptcha for WP shows at wp.org #13 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 70K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 88 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869)
wp.org #1 2 
Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186)
wp.org #2 3 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144)
wp.org #3 4 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387)
wp.org #5 1 too low 5 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #4 1 too high 6 
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 #6 7 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807)
wp.org #7 8 
Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (475)
wp.org #8 9 
All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676)
wp.org #9 10 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229)
wp.org #10 11 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708)
wp.org #11 12 
WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346)
wp.org #12 13 
WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490)
wp.org #15 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 15 
Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053)
wp.org #21 6 too low 16 
Everest Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form, Quiz, Survey & Custom Form Builder with AI 90K+ · 4.9★ (375)
wp.org #19 3 too low 17 
WP Simple Booking Calendar 10K+ · 4.8★ (227)
wp.org #18 1 too low 18 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88)
wp.org #13 5 too high 19 
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440)
wp.org #17 2 too high 20 
Really Simple CAPTCHA 300K+ · 4.2★ (131)
wp.org #16 4 too high 21 
MetForm – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Conditional Forms, Form Templates & Custom Form Builder for Elementor 500K+ · 4.7★ (509)
wp.org #23 2 too low 22 
WP Job Manager 70K+ · 4.4★ (237)
wp.org #22 23 
HTML Forms – Simple WordPress Forms Plugin 10K+ · 4.9★ (57)
wp.org #20 3 too high 24 
Kali Forms — Contact Form & Drag-and-Drop Builder 10K+ · 4.8★ (89)
wp.org #24 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.