wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “advanced button”
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 “advanced button”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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
Advanced Popups shows at wp.org #13 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 60K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 9 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1962 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440)
wp.org #1 2 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821)
wp.org #2 3 
Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463)
wp.org #3 4 
Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355)
wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 
Advanced Editor Tools 1M+ · 4.5★ (354)
wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too high 6 
ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051)
wp.org #6 ↓1 7 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322)
wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 
Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.8★ (284)
wp.org #10 2 too low 9 
Call Now Button – The Free Click to Call Button for WordPress 200K+ · 4.8★ (102)
wp.org #9 10 Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance 100K+ · 4.9★ (1962)
wp.org #17 ↓9 7 too low 11 
Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27)
wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too high 12 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333)
wp.org #14 ↑5 2 too low 13 
Advanced WordPress Backgrounds 30K+ · 4.8★ (44)
wp.org #11 ↑5 2 too high 14 
Advanced Woo Search – Product Search for WooCommerce 60K+ · 4.8★ (248)
wp.org #19 ↓6 5 too low 15 
AddToAny Share Buttons 300K+ · 4.7★ (1114)
wp.org #24 9 too low 16 
Advanced iFrame 40K+ · 4.4★ (54)
wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 
Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP 90K+ · 4.9★ (79)
wp.org #20 ↑1 3 too low 18 
Smooth Back To Top Button 40K+ · 4.9★ (31)
wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too high 19 
Buttonizer – Floating Menus, Sticky Buttons, & Popup Builder 70K+ · 4.5★ (151)
wp.org #23 4 too low 20 
Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48)
wp.org #21 ↓4 1 too low 21 
Button Block – Stylish buttons that get more clicks 5K+ · 5.0★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #12 ↓1 9 too high 22 
reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced 60K+ · 3.2★ (59)
wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Advanced Popups 60K+ · 4.0★ (9) thin reviews
wp.org #13 ↓1 10 too high 24 
Ko-fi Button 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
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.