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

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 “aac”, 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

DS Custom Audio Player shows at wp.org #8 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 80+ 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.

Buried gem

Videopack places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 63 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Podlove Podcast Publisher 3K+ · 4.3★ (45) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Super Video player – Fully Customizable Video Player with Playlist 2K+ · 4.2★ (30) wp.org #3 4 Easy Media Download 8K+ · 4.0★ (28) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Radio Station by netmix® – Manage and play your Show Schedule in WordPress! 1K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 SmartVideo – Video Player and CDN 1K+ · 4.1★ (19) wp.org #6 7 Voice Audio Widgets – Voice recorder with Forms, AI Powered STT, TTS, Transcriptions, Language Teaching 300+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Videopack 10K+ · 4.8★ (63) wp.org #19 11 too low 9 MMWW 200+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 Cleanup Orphan Images 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 6 too high 11 StreamCast – bring live radio to your site with a sleek player 1K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 Podlove Web Player 4K+ · 3.7★ (14) wp.org #23 11 too low 13 Audio Preview for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 Restrict WP Upload Type 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 DS Custom Audio Player 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Stream Player by netmix® – Streaming audio for WordPress! 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 ArgentWolf Video Processor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 Pro Mime Types – Manage file media types 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 4 too low 19 Nomad Pipeline Audio to Draft — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 D Dependent Media Audio Playlist for Beaver Builder — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 5 too high 21 ChameFlow AI — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 MEYDY Reel Studio — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Bharti Subtitles — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 5 too high 24 7S Video & Music Gallery — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 4 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.