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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “429”

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 “429”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 of the top 20. 3 plugins are 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

ParseLess shows at wp.org #16 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 60+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPO365 | MICROSOFT 365 GRAPH MAILER 10K+ · 5.0★ (40) wp.org #1 2 WPO365 | SEAMLESS WORDPRESS + MICROSOFT INTEGRATION (WPO365 | LOGIN) 10K+ · 4.9★ (154) wp.org #2 3 Etibot Makale Botu 30+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 IA SEO Generator 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Simple X Buttons – Share, Follow, Mention & Hashtag for WordPress 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Evergreen Content Poster – Auto Post and Schedule Your Best Content to Social Media 90+ · 4.1★ (13) wp.org #20 ↓1 14 too low 7 Cacheability 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Fast Index for Google Indexing API 300+ · 3.3★ (3) wp.org #8 9 Turbo Rate Limiter 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 10 Bottle 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 DevDome Link Monitor: Broken Link Checker, Dead Link Checker, Broken Link Finder 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 AutoLingo — Automatic Translation for Polylang & WPML 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↑4 2 too high 13 CB Bot Guard 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓2 14 PDEV Image Optimizer – WebP & AVIF 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 2 too high 15 Lookit Cache Purge for Sucuri 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 R Rockon Link Monitor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too low 17 SpamAnvil – AI Anti-Spam & Comment Spam Protection 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓2 2 too high 18 M MiniCRM Sync for WooCommerce 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Checkout Origin Guard 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 3 too low 20 YukDigitalz Connector for Google AI — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 ParseLess 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too high 22 Fstyle Static HTML Export — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Megop SEO – Bulk Editor, Internal Links, Broken Links & Search Console 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 BotObservatory – Live Bot Tracker & Anti-Scraper — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓1 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.