Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “ban”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 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.

Ranked above its merit

SePay Gateway shows at wp.org #15 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #3 ↑1 2 too low 2 WP-Ban 8K+ · 3.7★ (27) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #5 ↓2 2 too low 4 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1033) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 YOP Poll 10K+ · 4.4★ (452) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Right Click Ban – Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 400+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #2 6 too high 9 GA Google Analytics – Connect Google Analytics to WordPress 400K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security 100K+ · 4.9★ (160) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 WP fail2ban – Advanced Security 60K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 iQ Block Country 20K+ · 3.9★ (166) wp.org #12 ↓3 13 Wise Chat 4K+ · 4.4★ (105) wp.org #16 ↑3 3 too low 14 Banhammer – Monitor Site Traffic, Block Bad Users and Bots 1K+ · 4.4★ (19) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #23 ↓2 8 too low 16 Disable Media Sizes 10K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #14 ↓1 2 too high 17 Disable WP REST API 30K+ · 4.8★ (36) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Disable WP Sitemaps 10K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too low 19 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #22 ↓11 3 too low 20 Disable Lazy Load 9K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #24 ↓2 4 too low 21 Admin login URL Change 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓1 3 too high 22 Country Block – Ultimate Geo-Blocker, IP Ban & Login Security 100+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 VietQR 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 SePay Gateway 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 9 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.