Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 plugins”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 3 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.

U

Ranked above its merit

Upload Larger Plugins shows at wp.org #9 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 20 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #3 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 reviews, but shows at wp.org #7. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #1 2 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #2 3 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too low 4 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too high 5 Online Active Users 2K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Freesoul Deactivate Plugins – Disable plugins on individual WordPress pages 8K+ · 4.8★ (104) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #14 ↑6 4 too low 11 Next Active Directory Integration 2K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #5 6 too high 12 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #16 ↓2 4 too low 13 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #15 ↓3 1 too low 15 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 Active Directory Integration / LDAP Integration 4K+ · 4.9★ (211) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too low 17 U Upload Larger Plugins 6K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #9 ↑1 8 too high 18 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 Plugins Garbage Collector (Database Cleanup) 10K+ · 4.4★ (92) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 Plugins List 700+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #13 ↑2 8 too high 22 Download Plugin 60K+ · 4.5★ (27) wp.org #22 23 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #23 1 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.