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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “advanced settings”

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 settings”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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.

Ranked above its merit

AC Advanced Flamingo Settings shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 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 #8 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Advanced Editor Tools 1M+ · 4.5★ (354) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 Advanced File Manager – Ultimate File Manager for WordPress And Document Library Solution 100K+ · 4.8★ (441) wp.org #8 ↓2 2 too low 7 Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance 100K+ · 4.9★ (1962) wp.org #17 ↓7 9 too low 9 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too high 10 Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.8★ (284) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 Advanced Free Shipping for WooCommerce 40K+ · 4.8★ (122) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Advanced WordPress Backgrounds 30K+ · 4.8★ (44) wp.org #11 ↑5 1 too high 13 Advanced iFrame 40K+ · 4.4★ (54) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14 A Advanced Excerpt 80K+ · 4.3★ (101) wp.org #18 ↓1 4 too low 15 Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP 90K+ · 4.9★ (79) wp.org #23 ↑1 8 too low 16 Advanced Custom Fields: Font Awesome Field 90K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #20 ↑2 4 too low 17 Advanced Woo Search – Product Search for WooCommerce 60K+ · 4.8★ (248) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #24 ↓5 6 too low 19 reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced 60K+ · 3.2★ (59) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 Advanced Import 80K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓1 8 too high 21 Advanced Settings 3 200+ · 3.9★ (7) wp.org #9 12 too high 22 Advanced Popups 60K+ · 4.0★ (9) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 Easy PHP Settings 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 AC Advanced Flamingo Settings 800+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑2 14 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.