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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “address plugin”

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 “address plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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

Email Address Obfuscation shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ 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

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 1267 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 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #1 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Email Address Encoder 100K+ · 4.2★ (160) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too high 7 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #9 ↑3 2 too low 8 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 9 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too high 10 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #10 ↓3 11 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #11 ↑2 12 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #23 ↑1 11 too low 13 Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #20 ↑1 7 too low 14 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #14 15 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 Autocomplete Google Address 2K+ · 4.0★ (25) wp.org #13 ↓3 3 too high 17 Address Autocomplete Anything – Google Address Autocomplete for Any Form 900+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #18 ↓2 1 too low 18 Autocomplete Address for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.8★ (24) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Address Book for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #16 ↓7 3 too high 20 ELEX WooCommerce Address Validation & Google Address Autocomplete Plugin 700+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 Plugin Compatibility Checker 9K+ · 4.2★ (12) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22 Email Address Obfuscation 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 ↓1 10 too high 23 Address Autocomplete via Google for Gravity Forms 1K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #24 ↓2 1 too low 24 UK Address Postcode Validation 700+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 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.