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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “annotation plugins”

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 “annotation plugins”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Hide Archive Label shows at wp.org #9 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 1497 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Image Hotspot – Map Image Annotation 3K+ · 4.9★ (22) wp.org #1 2 Interactive Image Map Plugin – Draw Attention 20K+ · 4.9★ (114) wp.org #2 3 GSpeech TTS – WordPress Text To Speech Plugin 3K+ · 4.8★ (178) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too low 4 Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades 100K+ · 4.6★ (572) wp.org #10 ↓1 6 too low 5 ExactMetrics – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Plugin) 200K+ · 2.5★ (1546) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Lazy Load for Videos 9K+ · 4.4★ (105) wp.org #7 ↑3 1 too low 7 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 Unlimited Elements for Elementor 300K+ · 4.8★ (525) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too low 10 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too low 11 MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress 1M+ · 4.8★ (1497) wp.org #18 ↑1 7 too low 12 Simple YouTube Embed 4K+ · 4.2★ (15) wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too high 13 Marker.io – Visual Website Feedback 4K+ · 5.0★ (44) wp.org #23 ↓1 10 too low 14 demon image annotation 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 ↓1 10 too high 15 Premmerce 400+ · 4.7★ (32) wp.org #24 ↓1 9 too low 16 Simple Ebook Viewer 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #15 ↓7 1 too high 17 Hypothesis 200+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #22 ↓5 5 too low 18 Simple Analytics 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 ↑1 7 too high 19 Plover Kit – Blocks, Patterns, Responsive Layout and Gutenberg Editor Enhancements 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 3D viewer by Visody 900+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #20 ↓2 21 Hide Archive Label 900+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↓3 12 too high 22 Annotix – Visual Website Feedback & Annotation 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓1 10 too high 23 Previu – Visual Client Feedback for Elementor 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑2 4 too high 24 PDF Password Protect 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 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.