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

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 leads”, 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

PaapiPlugin – Amazon Affiliate Product Boxes, Tables and Search shows at wp.org #14 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 1911 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708) wp.org #1 2

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #2 3

FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (250) wp.org #3 4

Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #4 5

WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #6 1 too low 6

Icegram Engage – Popups, Welcome Bars, Optins, Slide-Ins & Lead Generation for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (370) wp.org #5 1 too high 7

All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements 40K+ · 4.9★ (542) wp.org #8 1 too low 8

Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #7 1 too high 9

Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #10 1 too low 10

Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & WooCommerce Marekting Automation for WordPress 50K+ · 4.6★ (1170) wp.org #11 1 too low 11

Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #9 2 too high 12

Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons 10K+ · 4.9★ (1911) wp.org #17 5 too low 13

Total Upkeep – WordPress Backup Plugin plus Restore & Migrate by BoldGrid 40K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #13 14

Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #19 5 too low 15

FunnelKit – Funnel Builder Plugin for WooCommerce Checkout 30K+ · 5.0★ (1028) wp.org #23 8 too low 16

FunnelKit Payment Gateway for Stripe WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (53) wp.org #12 4 too high 17

Customer Engagement System – Popup Builder, Forms, CRM & Email Marketing Automation 9K+ · 4.5★ (340) wp.org #24 7 too low 18

Widgets for Booking.com Reviews 9K+ · 4.9★ (65) wp.org #20 2 too low 19

Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #18 1 too high 20

MPL-Publisher — Ebook & Audiobook Creator 700+ · 4.9★ (46) wp.org #22 2 too low 21

Customer Reviews Collector for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.7★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #21 22

Spreadr Woocommerce Plugin – Amazon Importer for Dropshipping and Affiliate 400+ · 2.7★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #16 6 too high 23

PaapiPlugin – Amazon Affiliate Product Boxes, Tables and Search 10+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #14 9 too high 24

AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #15 9 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.