Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “automatically”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Clear Autoptimize Cache Automatically shows at wp.org #2 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 19 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 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 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #3 ↑1 2 too low 2 Automatically Hierarchic Categories in Menu 2K+ · 4.6★ (13) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1865) wp.org #6 ↑2 2 too low 5 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #11 ↑6 6 too low 6 Alt Text AI – Automatically generate image alt text for SEO and accessibility 20K+ · 4.7★ (35) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #12 ↑4 5 too low 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #13 5 too low 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #16 ↓13 7 too low 10 Auto Upload Images 20K+ · 4.3★ (106) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too high 11 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #10 ↓3 1 too high 12 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #18 ↓3 6 too low 13 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 #19 ↓7 6 too low 14 EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1842) wp.org #20 ↓1 6 too low 15 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #15 ↑3 16 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #24 ↓4 8 too low 17 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (625) wp.org #17 18 Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #21 ↑1 3 too low 19 AxiaChat AI – Free AI Chatbot (Answers Customers Automatically) 500+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #9 ↑2 10 too high 20 Auto Delete Post – Ultimate plugin for deleting a post automatically 300+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #7 ↑2 13 too high 21 Clear Autoptimize Cache Automatically 4K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #2 19 too high 22 RapidLoad AI – Optimize Web Vitals Automatically 600+ · 4.2★ (70) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 AutoListicle: Automatically Update Numbered List Articles 60+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 9 too high 24 Berq Used CSS – Remove Unused CSS Automatically 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 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.