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

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 “bacon”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 of the top 19. 2 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Five Star Restaurant Menu and Food Ordering 5K+ · 4.6★ (107) wp.org #1 2 FooSales – Point of Sale (POS) for WooCommerce 600+ · 3.2★ (13) wp.org #2 3 Any Ipsum 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 4 PromptPay for WooCommerce 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 5 Tickets & Passes for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Addovio Product Add-ons — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 ShadowScan Security Link — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 8 Seat & Table Booking for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 9 CodeBold Commerce – POS and Inventory for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 10 C Category Template Hierarchy 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓1 9 too low 11 C Customizable Konami Code — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 Slide Arts – Dynamic QR Link — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 13 FactorGuard – Two-Factor Authentication — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 14 Secured WP — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Sidcraft Commerce for Sidcraft Page Builder — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 16 Bacon Ipsum 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 2 too high 17 B BNS Inline Asides 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 M Missing Content 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 A ALL THE IPSUMS!!! 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 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.