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← Rankings

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

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 “advantage”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Pay Advantage shows at wp.org #4 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 20+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform places #10 on merit, 4.6★ from 708 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #1 2 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #3 ↑3 1 too low 3 Event Tickets and Registration 90K+ · 3.5★ (236) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too high 4 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too low 5 Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Cyr-To-Lat 300K+ · 4.7★ (98) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too high 7 Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005) wp.org #9 ↑7 2 too low 8 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #8 ↑3 9 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #14 ↑4 5 too low 10 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #22 ↑2 12 too low 11 Photoswipe Masonry 6K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 Smartsupp – live chat, AI shopping assistant and chatbots 20K+ · 4.7★ (131) wp.org #18 ↑3 6 too low 13 Mailgun for WordPress 80K+ · 3.8★ (49) wp.org #16 ↑1 3 too low 14 Premmerce Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 40K+ · 3.9★ (53) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 8K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Amazon Pay for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.5★ (27) wp.org #10 ↓1 6 too high 17 USPS Simple Shipping for Woocommerce 8K+ · 4.4★ (28) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 WPS Notice Center 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too high 19 Random Posts and Pages Widget 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too high 20 AyeCode Connect 10K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too high 21 Zoho ZeptoMail 5K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↑2 22 Pay Advantage 20+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #4 18 too high 23 Mediavine Control Panel 10K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Kliken: Ads + Pixel for Meta 30K+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↑1 12 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.