wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “allow”
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 “allow”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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
WooCommerce PayPal Payments shows at wp.org #11 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 800K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.9★ average from 583 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Definitely allow mobile zooming 7K+ · 5.0★ (54)
wp.org #1 2 
Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040)
wp.org #3 1 too low 3 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144)
wp.org #4 1 too low 4 A Allow HTML in Category Descriptions 8K+ · 5.0★ (41)
wp.org #2 2 too high 5 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445)
wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708)
wp.org #8 2 too low 7 
Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012)
wp.org #5 2 too high 8 
TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667)
wp.org #9 1 too low 9 
Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423)
wp.org #10 1 too low 10 
Simple JWT Login – Allows you to use JWT on REST endpoints. 4K+ · 5.0★ (47)
wp.org #6 ↑1 4 too high 11 
Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601)
wp.org #13 ↑11 2 too low 12 
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209)
wp.org #15 ↑2 3 too low 13 
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440)
wp.org #12 ↑10 1 too high 14 
Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869)
wp.org #19 5 too low 15 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387)
wp.org #21 ↓3 6 too low 16 
WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1916)
wp.org #18 ↓5 2 too low 17 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807)
wp.org #17 ↓2 18 
Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397)
wp.org #20 2 too low 19 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #23 4 too low 20 
MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress 1M+ · 4.8★ (1497)
wp.org #22 ↓1 2 too low 21 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583)
wp.org #11 ↑1 10 too high 22 
Event Tickets and Registration 90K+ · 3.5★ (236)
wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 
Google for WooCommerce 800K+ · 2.7★ (268)
wp.org #14 9 too high 24 
Allow Only 1 Product in Cart 500+ · 5.0★ (9) thin reviews
wp.org #16 8 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.