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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “article 50”

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 “article 50”, 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

Help Metric Article Helpful Feedback shows at wp.org #7 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 10+ 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

AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages places #12 on merit, 4.4★ from 1319 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #1 2 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Animate It! 20K+ · 4.9★ (127) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Cookiebot – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for GDPR, CCPA & Google Consent Mode 100K+ · 4.4★ (440) wp.org #5 ↑6 6 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #9 ↑3 3 too low 7 Echo Knowledge Base – Documentation, FAQs, Chat & Smart Search 10K+ · 4.9★ (124) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #11 ↓3 3 too low 9 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #14 ↑8 5 too low 10 RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator 40K+ · 4.6★ (361) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #18 ↓2 7 too low 12 AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages 70K+ · 4.4★ (1319) wp.org #21 9 too low 13 Otter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder for Gutenberg Editor & FSE 300K+ · 4.7★ (251) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 EU AI Act Ready 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #3 ↓1 11 too high 15 BotWriter – AI Writer & SEO Content Generator 1K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #12 ↓6 3 too high 16 Advanced iFrame 40K+ · 4.4★ (54) wp.org #24 ↓1 8 too low 17 Nexter Extension – Security, Performance, Code Snippets & Site Toolkit 10K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #15 ↑2 2 too high 18 Content Egg – Affiliate Product Importer & Price Comparison 10K+ · 3.9★ (56) wp.org #17 ↓4 1 too high 19 SNY Auto Featured Image 1K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Enfants IMG Performer 40+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #20 21 Help Metric Article Helpful Feedback 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↓2 14 too high 22 VOD Infomaniak 20K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 Klarvo AI Transparency for EU AI Act 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 13 too high 24 AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓1 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.