wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “automatic posts”

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 “automatic posts”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Automatic Featured Images from Videos shows at wp.org #13 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 36 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 7520 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 signals wp.org

Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #1 ↑3 2

Duplicate Post 300K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #2 ↓1 3

Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296) wp.org #4 ↓1 5

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #8 ↓2 2 too low 7

Delete Duplicate Posts 10K+ · 4.8★ (153) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too high 8

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too low 9

Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (588) wp.org #11 ↑2 2 too low 10

Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #10 ↓1 11

Category Posts Block 40K+ · 4.5★ (79) wp.org #9 ↑2 2 too high 12

Automatic YouTube Gallery – Embed Auto-Updating YouTube Video Galleries, Feeds, Playlists & Channels 9K+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #7 ↑1 5 too high 13

LocoAI – Auto Translate for Loco Translate 70K+ · 4.9★ (642) wp.org #17 ↑2 4 too low 14

User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913) wp.org #18 ↓1 3 too low 16

Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17

Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #24 7 too low 18

Automatic Featured Images from Videos 6K+ · 4.6★ (36) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too high 20

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #22 2 too low 21

Automatic Domain Changer 10K+ · 4.3★ (29) wp.org #15 6 too high 22

Hide Posts 20K+ · 4.7★ (22) thin reviews wp.org #16 6 too high 23

Posts Table with Search & Sort 3K+ · 4.6★ (19) thin reviews wp.org #21 2 too high 24

Reorder Posts – Quick Post Type and Page Ordering 10K+ · 3.9★ (28) wp.org #23 ↑1 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.