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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “affiliate 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 “affiliate button”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

FluentAffiliate – Affiliate Program Management Suite, Affiliates Manager shows at wp.org #4 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense places #6 on merit, 4.9★ from 1463 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #1 2 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too low 3 affiliate-toolkit – Multi-Network Affiliate & Amazon Product Display 2K+ · 4.5★ (22) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too high 4 Coupon Affiliates – Affiliate Plugin for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.9★ (77) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Buttonizer – Floating Menus, Sticky Buttons, & Popup Builder 70K+ · 4.5★ (151) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #16 ↑4 10 too low 7 ThirstyAffiliates – Affiliate Links, Link Branding, Link Tracking & Marketing Plugin 30K+ · 4.6★ (251) wp.org #12 ↑1 5 too low 8 Easy Affiliate Links 6K+ · 4.2★ (34) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Affiliate Coupons – Coupon Display Manager – Excellent Tool for Affiliate Marketers 1K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Auto Affiliate Links 2K+ · 4.1★ (39) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 FluentAffiliate – Affiliate Program Management Suite, Affiliates Manager 2K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #4 7 too high 12 Affiliates Manager 8K+ · 4.1★ (61) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13 Custom Add to Cart Button Label and Link for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.6★ (27) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 Affiliates 2K+ · 4.5★ (137) wp.org #20 ↓1 6 too low 15 AffiliateX – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Boxes, Comparison Tables & Affiliate Link Tracking 9K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #15 16 WebToffee EU Order Withdrawal Button for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #13 ↓2 3 too high 17 WC Affiliate – WooCommerce Affiliate Plugin 300+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #14 3 too high 18 Content Egg – Affiliate Product Importer & Price Comparison 10K+ · 3.9★ (56) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Affilia – Affiliate Program 500+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 YITH WooCommerce Affiliates 6K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 AmaSync – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Importer for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Affiliate Amazon Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓1 4 too high 23 Affiliate Reviews 300+ · 3.3★ (3) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 DevDome Affiliate Manager: Amazon Affiliate Plugin for Amazon Associates 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓1 7 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.