wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “amazon links”
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 links”, 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
Amazon Pay for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #5 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 10 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
Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 528 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
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 #2 3 
Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667)
wp.org #4 1 too low 4 
ThirstyAffiliates – Affiliate Links, Link Branding, Link Tracking & Marketing Plugin 30K+ · 4.6★ (251)
wp.org #6 2 too low 5 
Amazon Link Engine 2K+ · 4.4★ (31)
wp.org #3 2 too high 6 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706)
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 8 
Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #11 3 too low 9 
Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) not PHP-current
wp.org #17 8 too low 10 
Widgets for Amazon Reviews 2K+ · 4.0★ (45)
wp.org #8 2 too high 11 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528)
wp.org #24 13 too low 12 
Easy Affiliate Links 6K+ · 4.2★ (34)
wp.org #10 2 too high 13 
BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP 20K+ · 4.8★ (85)
wp.org #21 8 too low 14 
Auto Affiliate Links 2K+ · 4.1★ (39)
wp.org #12 2 too high 15 Amazon Pay for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.5★ (27) low rating, top placement
wp.org #5 10 too high 16 
Affiliate Links – Link Cloaking and Management 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) not PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #9 7 too high 17 
AffiliateX – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Boxes, Comparison Tables & Affiliate Link Tracking 9K+ · 4.5★ (35)
wp.org #16 1 too high 18 
affiliate-toolkit – Multi-Network Affiliate & Amazon Product Display 2K+ · 4.5★ (22) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #19 1 too low 19 
WP-Lister Lite for Amazon 800+ · 3.9★ (22) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #15 4 too high 20 
Affiliate Amazon Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #14 6 too high 21 
Check for Broken Links – Broken Link Checker & SEO Suite 1K+ · 4.0★ (6) thin reviews
wp.org #22 1 too low 22 
Auto Tagger for Amazon Affiliate Links 300+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #18 4 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 #20 3 too high 24 
DevDome Affiliate Manager: Amazon Affiliate Plugin for Amazon Associates 300+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #23 1 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.