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

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 “amazon”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 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

Amazon Pay for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #6 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.5★ average from 27 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Backup Migration places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 1338 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

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 #1 ↑7 2

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #2 ↓1 3

Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #3 ↑11 4

WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #5 ↑5 1 too low 5

Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too high 6

Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) not PHP-current wp.org #13 7 too low 7

WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #7 ↓3 8

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #15 ↓8 7 too low 9

Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #21 ↓6 12 too low 10

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #20 ↓1 10 too low 11

Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #12 ↓3 1 too low 12

Amazon Link Engine 2K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #9 ↓4 3 too high 13

Widgets for Amazon Reviews 2K+ · 4.0★ (45) wp.org #10 ↑2 3 too high 14

SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ · 4.7★ (25) wp.org #11 ↓8 3 too high 15

Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #16 ↓5 1 too low 16

BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) not PHP-current wp.org #23 ↑1 7 too low 17

Amazon Pay for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.5★ (27) wp.org #6 ↑7 11 too high 18

SMTP for Amazon SES – YaySMTP 3K+ · 4.2★ (10) thin reviews wp.org #8 ↓2 10 too high 19

AffiliateX – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Boxes, Comparison Tables & Affiliate Link Tracking 9K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20

affiliate-toolkit – Multi-Network Affiliate & Amazon Product Display 2K+ · 4.5★ (22) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #14 ↑8 6 too high 21

WP-Lister Lite for Amazon 800+ · 3.9★ (22) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #18 ↓1 3 too high 22

Affiliate Amazon Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23

Amazing Affiliates – Toolkit for Amazon Associates with Amazon Product Blocks and Amazon PAAPI5 / Creators API integration 600+ · 5.0★ (3) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24

DevDome Affiliate Manager: Amazon Affiliate Plugin for Amazon Associates 300+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #24

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.