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← Rankings

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

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 link”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 3 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

Affiliate Amazon Shortcode shows at wp.org #11 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 300+ 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

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 528 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 wp.org
1 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 2 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #4 ↑2 1 too low 4 Amazon Link Engine 2K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 ThirstyAffiliates – Affiliate Links, Link Branding, Link Tracking & Marketing Plugin 30K+ · 4.6★ (251) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #14 5 too low 10 Widgets for Amazon Reviews 2K+ · 4.0★ (45) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP 20K+ · 4.8★ (85) wp.org #15 ↑2 4 too low 12 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #21 ↓6 9 too low 13 AffiliateX – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Boxes, Comparison Tables & Affiliate Link Tracking 9K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #13 ↑1 14 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Amazon Pay for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.5★ (27) wp.org #6 ↓1 9 too high 16 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #23 ↓5 7 too low 17 Easy Affiliate Links 6K+ · 4.2★ (34) wp.org #24 ↓1 7 too low 18 WP-Lister Lite for Amazon 800+ · 3.9★ (22) wp.org #12 6 too high 19 affiliate-toolkit – Multi-Network Affiliate & Amazon Product Display 2K+ · 4.5★ (22) wp.org #17 ↑2 2 too high 20 Affiliate Link Marker 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too high 21 Affiliate Amazon Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 10 too high 22 Auto Tagger for Amazon Affiliate Links 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Amazing Affiliates – Toolkit for Amazon Associates with Amazon Product Blocks and Amazon PAAPI5 / Creators API integration 600+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓5 5 too high 24 DevDome Affiliate Manager: Amazon Affiliate Plugin for Amazon Associates 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑1 4 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.