Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “affirm”, 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

GlobalPayments Gateway Provider for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #6 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 1K+ 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

WP EasyCart: Shopping Cart and eCommerce Store places #8 on merit, 4.5★ from 206 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 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #1 2 WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 700K+ · 3.1★ (237) wp.org #2 3 FunnelKit Payment Gateway for Stripe WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (53) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Fluid Checkout for WooCommerce – Lite 20K+ · 4.9★ (159) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Payment Gateway of Stripe for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.4★ (66) wp.org #5 6 ProfilePress – Paid Membership, Online Courses (LMS), Ecommerce, User Registration & Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content 100K+ · 3.1★ (938) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too low 7 Stripe Payment Forms by WP Full Pay – Accept Credit Card Payments, Donations & Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.2★ (26) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too low 8 WP EasyCart: Shopping Cart and eCommerce Store 3K+ · 4.5★ (206) wp.org #23 15 too low 9 PeachPay — Payments & Express Checkout for WooCommerce (supports Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, NMI) 300+ · 4.2★ (33) wp.org #14 5 too low 10 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 Customer Reviews Collector for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #22 11 too low 12 Payment Gateway for WooCommerce with Stripe – by Pay Addons 70+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #7 5 too high 13 Payment Plugins for Stripe Elementor – by Pay Addons 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #13 14 WooCommerce Gateway Affirm 6K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 11 too high 15 Accept Stripe for Contact Form 7 – by Pay Addons 30+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 Easy Stripe Payments & Donations 10+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 StellarPay – Stripe Payment Gateway for WooCommerce 200+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 Express Payment For Stripe 30+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Payoneer Checkout 5K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #24 ↓1 5 too low 20 GlobalPayments Gateway Provider for WooCommerce 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #6 14 too high 21 Consumer Financing by ChargeAfter 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 Rampex.io Payment Gateway 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 TrustLane Manual Gateways — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Sidcraft Commerce for Sidcraft Page Builder — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 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.