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

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 “async”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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.

P

Ranked above its merit

Page Optimize shows at wp.org #5 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 200K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ad Invalid Click Protector (AICP) places #9 on merit, 4.7★ from 62 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 Autoptimize 800K+ · 4.7★ (1428) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Page Speed Optimizer: HTTP/2 Push, Async JavaScript, and Defer CSS 6K+ · 4.7★ (64) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 CSS JS Manager, Async JavaScript, Defer Render Blocking CSS 1K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 WPFront Scroll Top 200K+ · 4.9★ (142) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 OMGF | GDPR/DSGVO Compliant, Faster Google Fonts. Easy. 300K+ · 4.7★ (213) wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too low 7 Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too high 9 Ad Invalid Click Protector (AICP) 10K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #18 9 too low 10 Helper Lite for PageSpeed 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 WPify Woo – Withdrawal, CRN/VAT, QR payments, Heureka and more for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.9★ (49) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 Plus WebP or AVIF 5K+ · 4.6★ (26) wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too low 13 WPSpeed – WordPress Speed, Cache & Performance Optimization (Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed 100) 2K+ · 4.9★ (40) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 WP Coder – Insert & Manage Code Snippets 10K+ · 4.9★ (32) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 EasyFonts – Host Google Fonts Locally, Fast & Auto-Optimize, GDPR Compliant 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 Speed Up – Optimize CSS Delivery 500+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #21 5 too low 17 New Order Notification for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (14) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Lead Forensics 4K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↓2 10 too high 20 Smooth Scrolling 900+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 HelpGent – Video Funnels and Conversational Forms for WordPress 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 P Page Optimize 200K+ · 3.0★ (5) wp.org #5 17 too high 23 Async Image Credits – Lightweight automatic image credits 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 Web Worker Offloading 10K+ · 3.5★ (2) 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.