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

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 passwords”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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.

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Ranked above its merit

No Weak Passwords shows at wp.org #3 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 300+ 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

User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 913 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3,992) wp.org #1 2 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 3 Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1,033) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 4 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 5 Disable Application Passwords 3K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 6 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 7 WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection 10K+ · 4.6★ (213) wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 8 User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913) wp.org #14 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 9 Wise Chat 4K+ · 4.4★ (105) wp.org #10 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 10 YOP Poll 10K+ · 4.4★ (452) wp.org #16 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 11 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 12 SecuPress with Simple SSL – Simple and Performant Security 40K+ · 4.1★ (106) wp.org #11 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 13 Admin Custom Login 10K+ · 4.6★ (388) wp.org #18 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 14 WP fail2ban – Advanced Security 60K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 15 Security Ninja – WordPress Security & Firewall 7K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #17 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 16 WPMasterToolKit (WPMTK) – All in one plugin 5K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #15 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 17 N No Weak Passwords 300+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 14 places above merit 18 Apocalypse Meow 300+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #20 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 19 Atlant Security 800+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 20 B Blue Captcha 400+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #21 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 21 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #22 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 22 YITH WooCommerce Affiliates 6K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #23 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 23 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 24 Admin login URL Change 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.