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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “attachment filter”

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 “attachment filter”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Autoremove Attachments shows at wp.org #9 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 15 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 5209 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Search & Filter 40K+ · 4.5★ (175) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Product Attachment for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Portfolio Filter Gallery – Photo Gallery 20K+ · 4.8★ (348) wp.org #3 4 Ajax Search Lite – Live Search & Filter 70K+ · 4.8★ (266) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #12 7 too low 6 Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Filter Gallery 3K+ · 4.6★ (22) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 A Attachments 8K+ · 4.8★ (53) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Download Attachments 8K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 Media Library Assistant 70K+ · 4.8★ (202) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too low 12 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (995) wp.org #19 ↑1 7 too low 13 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too low 14 Attachment Taxonomies 1K+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #5 9 too high 15 Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (491) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 WP Attachments – Smarter File Management & Download Lists 3K+ · 4.5★ (43) wp.org #10 6 too high 17 Postie 10K+ · 4.7★ (139) wp.org #18 ↑1 1 too low 18 Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (475) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Autoremove Attachments 3K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #9 10 too high 20 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 Enable Media Replace 600K+ · 4.4★ (302) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too high 22 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 too low 23 Notification Attachments for Gravity Forms 2K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #15 ↑1 8 too high 24 F Filter Admin Published Default 400+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #14 ↑1 10 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.