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← Rankings

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

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 “around”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 4 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.

U

Ranked above its merit

Upload Larger Plugins shows at wp.org #11 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 20 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1940 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 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #3 4 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #4 ↑3 1 too high 6 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too high 8 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #8 9 Prime Mover – Backup and Migration 10K+ · 5.0★ (141) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too low 10 Translate WordPress with Weglot 2.0 – Multilingual AI Translation 50K+ · 4.8★ (1940) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #9 ↑5 2 too high 12 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Jetpack Protect 100K+ · 4.6★ (123) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too low 14 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too high 15 PWA for WP – Progressive Web Apps Made Simple 10K+ · 4.6★ (230) wp.org #21 ↑1 6 too low 16 U Upload Larger Plugins 6K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too high 17 Lightbox for Gallery & Image Block 20K+ · 5.0★ (88) wp.org #22 ↑2 5 too low 18 Gutenberg 400K+ · 2.1★ (3888) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Lord of the Files: Enhanced Upload Security 1K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Real Custom Post Order: Create a custom order for your content 8K+ · 4.8★ (42) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Salat Times 500+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Microsoft Clarity 200K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #20 ↑3 2 too high 23 bunny.net – WordPress CDN Plugin 10K+ · 3.1★ (22) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 Payoneer Checkout 5K+ · 4.2★ (5) 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.