Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “accent”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Serious Slider shows at wp.org #9 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.4★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

EmbedPress places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 307 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Remove Uppercase Accents 8K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #1 2 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Clean Image Filenames 30K+ · 4.6★ (21) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Fourteen Colors 8K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #4 5 Currency Converter Widget 2K+ · 4.9★ (88) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Joli Table Of Contents – Table of Contents with Gutenberg Block & Shortcode 7K+ · 4.9★ (43) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too low 7 BEA – Sanitize Filename 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Otter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder for Gutenberg Editor & FSE 300K+ · 4.7★ (251) wp.org #18 ↓1 10 too low 9 Greek Multi Tool 1K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 Rename Media Files: Improve Your SEO 8K+ · 4.8★ (40) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too low 11 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 Events Search & Filter Bar for The Events Calendar 3K+ · 4.8★ (29) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Genial Comments 4K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 Ajax Cart for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.4★ (39) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 Pure Metafields 10K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #10 5 too high 16 Nepali Date Utilities 1K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #8 8 too high 17 Event Countdown for The Events Calendar 3K+ · 4.6★ (48) wp.org #24 ↓3 7 too low 18 Serious Slider 20K+ · 3.4★ (8) wp.org #9 ↓1 9 too high 19 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 Mortar for Bricks Builder 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓1 7 too high 21 Modal Fly Cart & AJAX Add to Cart for WooCommerce 2K+ · 3.5★ (11) wp.org #21 ↓2 22 Advanced Product Search For WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 PDF Gallery Viewer 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 8 too high 24 CI BMI Calculator 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓2 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.