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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “animation effects”

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 “animation effects”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 5 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

Animation Builder – An interface for adding scroll-triggered animations shows at wp.org #13 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 1680 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Blocks Animation: CSS Animations for Gutenberg Blocks 90K+ · 4.8★ (73) wp.org #1 2 Sticky Header Effects for Elementor 300K+ · 4.5★ (69) wp.org #2 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #3 4 Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 10K+ · 4.7★ (250) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Animation Addons – Elementor Addons, GSAP Animations, Elementor V4 Atomic Widgets & Elementor Templates 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #5 6 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too low 7 Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too low 9 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too low 10 HappyAddons for Elementor – 160 Elementor Widgets, GSAP Animations & Templates 400K+ · 4.8★ (489) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 Hover Effects – easily create any hover effect 7K+ · 4.8★ (17) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 Block Animations, Motion & Scroll Effects – Ghost Kit 6K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #10 ↑3 2 too high 13 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #22 ↓1 8 too low 15 Depicter — Popup & Slider Builder 70K+ · 4.6★ (235) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Flipbox – Awesomes Flip Boxes Image Overlay 9K+ · 4.7★ (149) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 AnimateGL – WebGL & CSS Scroll Animations and Hover Effects for Gutenberg and Elementor 2K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #15 ↑4 2 too high 18 Slider Hero with Video Background, Animation 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Weather Effect 4K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 Confetti – Celebration Effects for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (49) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 LottieFiles – JSON Based Animation Lottie & Bodymovin for Elementor 3K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too high 22 Page Animations And Transitions 1K+ · 2.8★ (32) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 Animated Text Block – Add Typing and Looping Text Effects 4K+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #23 24 Animation Builder – An interface for adding scroll-triggered animations 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓1 11 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.