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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “activity tracker”

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 “activity tracker”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 16 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

WhatsLink Click Tracker shows at wp.org #5 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor places #8 on merit, 5.0★ from 55 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 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #1 2 Booking Activities 3K+ · 5.0★ (121) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Activity Log Pro – User Activity Log, Audit Log & Security Monitor 400+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Email Tracker 800+ · 4.4★ (21) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #13 ↓1 8 too low 6 Trace My IP – Visitor IP Tracker, Stats Analytics & Page Views Counter with Email Alerts 1K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too low 7 Project Manager – AI Powered Project Management, Task Management, Kanban Board & Time Tracker 5K+ · 3.8★ (187) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #23 15 too low 9 GDPR 10K+ · 4.3★ (58) wp.org #24 ↓2 15 too low 10 User Login History 10K+ · 4.6★ (29) wp.org #20 ↓1 10 too low 11 Alpaca Issue Tracker 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 WP Sessions Time Monitoring Full Automatic 400+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Google for WooCommerce 800K+ · 2.7★ (268) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 BaseCloud UTM Tracker 90+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 Remote Website Management by Watchful 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 atec 404 Tracker 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 ↑1 8 too high 17 WhatsLink Click Tracker 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 12 too high 18 Unstoppable Activity Tracker 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 8 too high 19 DevDome Activity Log: Track WordPress User Activity 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↑2 8 too high 20 MCP Tracker 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓1 8 too high 21 Leenkat Editorial Tracker 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 Codersly Visitor Tracker 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Webwall QR Campaign Tracker 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 LLM Bot Tracker – AI Crawler Detection & Analytics 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #17 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.