Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “active”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 4 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

Live Carts for WooCommerce: Track Active, Abandoned, and Converted Carts & Wishlists in Real Time! shows at wp.org #9 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 1463 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 Online Active Users 2K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #1 2 Active Directory Integration / LDAP Integration 4K+ · 4.9★ (211) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Next Active Directory Integration 2K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too low 7 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Active Campaign & Contact Form 7 3K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #13 ↓5 3 too low 11 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #15 ↓3 4 too low 12 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #19 7 too low 13 Active Woot Products Tables for WooCommerce. 100% FREE 1K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #8 ↓1 5 too high 14 Custom Post Type UI 1M+ · 4.6★ (276) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Active Directory/LDAP Integration for Cloud & Shared Hosting Platforms 40+ · 4.9★ (39) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 Inavii Social Feed – Live Social Proof Gallery 9K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 Copy Anything to Clipboard for WordPress – Copy Button, Copy Text & Copy Code 10K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 A authLdap 4K+ · 5.0★ (19) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too high 19 ActiveCampaign – The autonomous marketing platform 40K+ · 4.5★ (29) wp.org #23 ↓4 4 too low 20 ActiveCampaign for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.0★ (48) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 Live Carts for WooCommerce: Track Active, Abandoned, and Converted Carts & Wishlists in Real Time! 900+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↓1 12 too high 22 Hostinger Tools 3M+ · 3.5★ (40) wp.org #18 ↓4 4 too high 23 Integration for ActiveCampaign and Contact Form 7, WPForms, Elementor, Ninja Forms 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↓2 11 too high 24 Fullworks Active Users Monitor 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 7 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.