wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “9 may”
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 “9 may”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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 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
Create shows at wp.org #10 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 25 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Germanized for WooCommerce places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 496 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397)
wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 
W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420)
wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too low 3 
Sticky Header Effects for Elementor 300K+ · 4.5★ (69)
wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too low 4 
Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125)
wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 
Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #5 ↓1 6 
wp-lenta9may 80+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #1 5 too high 7 
Brave – Create Popup, Optins, Lead Generation, Survey, Sticky Elements & Interactive Content 20K+ · 4.8★ (209)
wp.org #11 ↑8 4 too low 8 
reSmush.it : The original free image compressor and optimizer plugin 100K+ · 4.3★ (166)
wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 
AI 60K+ · 4.2★ (10) thin reviews
wp.org #3 6 too high 10 Germanized for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (496)
wp.org #15 ↓6 5 too low 11 
Image Aspect Ratio Crop Field for Advanced Custom Fields 20K+ · 4.8★ (26)
wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too high 12 
Quads Ads Manager for Google AdSense 20K+ · 4.9★ (1087) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #13 ↓2 1 too low 13 
B2BKing — Ultimate WooCommerce B2B and Wholesale Plugin — Wholesale Prices, Bulk Order Form & More 10K+ · 4.9★ (109)
wp.org #14 ↓2 1 too low 14 
The Post Grid – Shortcode, Gutenberg Blocks and Elementor Addon for Post Grid 100K+ · 4.8★ (265)
wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too low 15 
AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434)
wp.org #22 7 too low 16 
Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176)
wp.org #18 ↓4 2 too low 17 
Dashboard Widgets Suite 4K+ · 4.9★ (38)
wp.org #12 ↓2 5 too high 18 
EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1842)
wp.org #23 ↓3 5 too low 19 
Cyr to Lat Enhanced 80K+ · 4.6★ (51)
wp.org #16 ↓3 3 too high 20 Create 6K+ · 4.3★ (25)
wp.org #10 10 too high 21 
Thank You Page for WooCommerce 10K+ · 5.0★ (43) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #24 ↓2 3 too low 22 
BotWriter – AI Writer & SEO Content Generator 1K+ · 4.4★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓3 2 too high 23 
Secure MCP Server for Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI Agents 8K+ · 5.0★ (10) thin reviews
wp.org #21 2 too high 24 
oik 2K+ · 3.7★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #19 ↓4 5 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.