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

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 “anonymous”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 2 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

Whistleblowing & Contact Form – Secure, Anonymous, Drag & Drop Builder shows at wp.org #5 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 200+ 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

Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 4358 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Poll Maker by AYS – Versus Polls, Anonymous Polls, Image Polls 6K+ · 4.4★ (91) wp.org #1 2 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 Public Post Preview 100K+ · 4.6★ (79) wp.org #3 4 Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator 200K+ · 4.9★ (802) wp.org #8 ↓2 4 too low 5 Favorites 10K+ · 4.6★ (133) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 B bbPress – Anonymous Subscriptions 60+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #2 5 too high 8 GDPR Cookie Compliance – Cookie Banner, Cookie Consent, Cookie Notice for CCPA, EU Cookie Law 300K+ · 4.6★ (205) wp.org #13 ↓3 5 too low 9 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #18 9 too low 10 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #22 ↓5 12 too low 11 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Custom HTML Block Extension 7K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too high 13 Call Now Button – The Free Click to Call Button for WordPress 200K+ · 4.8★ (102) wp.org #23 ↑1 10 too low 14 Simple Comment Editing 2K+ · 4.8★ (55) wp.org #19 ↑1 5 too low 15 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #16 ↑3 1 too low 16 Anonymous Restricted Content 900+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #9 ↑3 7 too high 17 IP2Location Country Blocker 30K+ · 4.1★ (128) wp.org #20 ↓11 3 too low 18 Confetti – Celebration Effects for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (49) wp.org #17 ↓2 1 too high 19 VPN Guard – Block VPN, Proxy, Bots & Anonymous Visitors 200+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #11 ↑3 8 too high 20 Disable Everything 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 ↑2 6 too high 21 Whistleblowing & Contact Form – Secure, Anonymous, Drag & Drop Builder 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 16 too high 22 Easy Post Submission – Frontend Posting, Guest Publishing & Submit Content for WordPress 4K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #15 ↓2 7 too high 23 Pollify – Feedback Polls, Anonymous Polls, Up/down Voting, NPS Surveys, Export data 60+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 crouton 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 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.