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

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 “animations”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Tumult Hype Animations shows at wp.org #6 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Smart Slider 3 places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1125 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 wp.org
1 Animations for Blocks 10K+ · 4.8★ (27) wp.org #1 2 Blocks Animation: CSS Animations for Gutenberg Blocks 90K+ · 4.8★ (73) wp.org #2 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #3 4 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 HappyAddons for Elementor – 160 Elementor Widgets, GSAP Animations & Templates 400K+ · 4.8★ (489) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Superb Addons: Blocks, Patterns, Pre-built Pages, Sliders, Popups, Free Forms, Animations & More 80K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Animation Addons – Elementor Addons, GSAP Animations, Elementor V4 Atomic Widgets & Elementor Templates 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #11 ↑9 3 too low 9 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #15 ↓4 6 too low 10 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #17 ↑1 7 too low 11 SVG Support 1M+ · 4.8★ (356) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #19 ↓2 7 too low 13 Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #9 ↓1 4 too high 14 Block Animations, Motion & Scroll Effects – Ghost Kit 6K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #10 ↑2 4 too high 15 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #21 ↓7 6 too low 16 Tumult Hype Animations 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #6 10 too high 17 AnimateGL – WebGL & CSS Scroll Animations and Hover Effects for Gutenberg and Elementor 2K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #14 3 too high 18 Maintenance & Coming Soon Redirect Animation 3K+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #18 ↓3 19 Page Animations And Transitions 1K+ · 2.8★ (32) wp.org #12 ↓2 7 too high 20 T4B News Ticker – Responsive News Scroller, Slider, and Animations 7K+ · 4.5★ (16) wp.org #20 ↓4 21 Scrollsequence – Cinematic Scroll Image Animation Plugin 3K+ · 4.6★ (19) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 UiCore Animate – Free Animations, Transitions, and Interactions Addon for Elementor & Gutenberg blocks 40K+ · 3.2★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓3 23 RTMKit for Elementor – Modular Addons, Widgets, Templates, Icon Library, GSAP Animations, MCP & Store Ready 40K+ · 2.7★ (16) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Animation Builder – An interface for adding scroll-triggered animations 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓3 8 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.