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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “atom import”

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 “atom import”, we and wp.org disagree 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 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

ForthFocus Atom XML Converter for Blogger™ shows at wp.org #2 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 100+ 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

Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 113 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #3 ↓1 2 too low 2 Import XML and RSS Feeds 2K+ · 3.8★ (24) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #14 ↓1 9 too low 6 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #12 ↓3 6 too low 7 Knit Pay – Cashfree, Instamojo, Razorpay, PayPal and more 2K+ · 4.9★ (100) wp.org #17 ↓1 10 too low 8 Comet Cache 20K+ · 4.4★ (108) wp.org #16 ↓1 8 too low 9 Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion 10K+ · 4.8★ (113) wp.org #23 ↓1 14 too low 10 RSS Feed Widget 2K+ · 3.9★ (26) wp.org #10 11 BtW Importer – Free Blogger/Blogspot Migration 600+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 ForthFocus Atom XML Converter for Blogger™ 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 ↑1 10 too high 13 Blogger Import Wizard – Blogger to WordPress Importer 80+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 8 too high 14 PressForward 100+ · 4.6★ (11) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too low 15 Nginx Cache Purge Preload 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓1 9 too low 16 Feed Importer for Blogger 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↑3 8 too high 17 Fail2WP 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↑1 1 too low 18 ezCache 10K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #20 ↓2 2 too low 19 Import Export by RockStarLab 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 too high 20 RSS Retriever Lite 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↓1 9 too high 21 DaazSync – RSS News Aggregator 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓1 8 too high 22 Bat Importer for Blogger – Unlimited & Free Blogger Importer 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too high 23 RefiTune – Site refiner toolkit 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 BlogPort Migrator for Blogger 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 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.