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← Rankings

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

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 redirection”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

404 Image Redirection (Replace Broken Images) shows at wp.org #11 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 500+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1146 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #1 2 Redirection 100K+ · 5.0★ (419) wp.org #2 3 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #6 ↓2 3 too low 4 Easy HTTPS Redirection (SSL) 100K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #5 6 SEO Redirection Plugin – 301 Redirect Manager 10K+ · 4.3★ (73) wp.org #4 ↑2 2 too high 7 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #8 ↓1 9 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #14 ↑4 5 too low 10 WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #15 ↓4 4 too low 12 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #12 ↑2 13 SEO Engine – Smart SEO with AI, Schema & Redirection for WordPress 1K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #9 4 too high 14 CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) wp.org #7 ↑1 7 too high 15 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #23 ↑1 8 too low 16 Translate and boost SEO – Automatic AI translation – wpLingua 2K+ · 4.9★ (33) wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too high 17 All 404 Redirect to Homepage 200K+ · 4.1★ (96) wp.org #18 ↑2 1 too low 18 Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (475) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 Linguise – AI Automatic Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #17 ↑2 2 too high 20 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Scheduled & Automatic Order Status Controller for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too high 22 A Automatic File Renamer 40+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too high 23 404 Image Redirection (Replace Broken Images) 500+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #11 ↑1 12 too high 24 PayZen for WooCommerce 600+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #22 ↑1 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.