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← Rankings

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

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 “actor”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Protect Login shows at wp.org #7 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #1 2 Jetpack Protect 100K+ · 4.6★ (123) wp.org #2 3 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 R Really Simple CSV Importer 40K+ · 4.9★ (107) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Restrict User Access – Ultimate Membership & Content Protection 10K+ · 4.3★ (94) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Ads.txt & App-ads.txt Manager for WordPress 2K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 SNORDIAN's H5PxAPIkatchu 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #5 3 too high 9 Melapress File Monitor 5K+ · 4.1★ (32) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Melapress Login Security 3K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too low 12 Known Agents – Track AI Bots and Crawlers, Block Scrapers, Analyze LLM Referral Traffic 1K+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #12 ↑1 13 Schema Package – Structured Data & Rich Snippets Tool for SEO 200+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #23 ↑1 10 too low 14 Protect Login 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 B bbp buddypress profile information 70+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #15 16 Lumière Movies 30+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 HIPAA Forms 700+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Atomic Edge Security – Firewall, Malware Scan and Login Security 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 19 B bbp profile information 100+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 MAS Videos 1K+ · 3.0★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too high 21 A Axismundi Actors — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Wonli Scroll Storytelling 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 Fense Block Vpn & Proxy 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 bad_ip WP 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 2 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.