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

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 “acl”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

AI Agent by SiteGround shows at wp.org #2 but places #10 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 1M+ installs carry it up the search order; its 1.7★ average from 98 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 807 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 VikBooking Hotel Booking Engine & PMS 8K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Limit Login Attempts Security – Login Security, 2FA, Firewall, Brute Force Prevention 1M+ · 4.8★ (1488) wp.org #7 ↓1 5 too low 3 Vitepos – Point of Sale (POS) for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (54) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Offload Media – Cloud Storage 1K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #3 ↑20 1 too high 5 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #12 ↓2 7 too low 6 Redis Object Cache 500K+ · 4.5★ (179) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too low 7 B BU Section Editing 50+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #17 ↓4 9 too low 9 SpinupWP 30K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #21 ↓2 12 too low 10 AI Agent by SiteGround 1M+ · 1.7★ (98) wp.org #2 ↓1 8 too high 11 WP Cassify 900+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 Memberful – Membership Plugin 1K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #23 ↓1 11 too low 13 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 RunCache – Full-Page, Object, and Edge Caching 4K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 ↓2 8 too high 15 BP Groups CiviCRM Sync 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 ↓3 7 too high 16 S Sanch MultiDomain LDAP Auth for Active Directory — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↓2 7 too high 17 Zinn® Cache 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓2 7 too high 18 noindex SEO 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓2 2 too low 19 OffloadForge – Cloud Media Offload for S3, DigitalOcean Spaces & Google Cloud — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too high 20 Zloj S3 – Offload Media to Amazon S3 & S3-Compatible Storage — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓3 6 too high 21 Secure Role-Restricted Draft Previews — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 FolderForge – AI-powered media library organizer for WordPress — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 RR Media Offload for S3 / S3-compatible storage — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓2 5 too high 24 SteadWeave Companion — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓2 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.