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

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 spam site”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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.

Ranked above its merit

Dam Spam shows at wp.org #2 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ 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 #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 913 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. 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 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224) wp.org #1 2 WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection 10K+ · 4.6★ (213) wp.org #3 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 3 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3,992) wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 4 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398) wp.org #7 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 5 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 6 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #9 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 7 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 8 YOP Poll 10K+ · 4.4★ (452) wp.org #12 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 9 WP fail2ban – Advanced Security 60K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #8 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 10 User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913) wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 11 places below merit 11 Dam Spam 3K+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 12 iQ Block Country 20K+ · 3.9★ (166) wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 13 Wise Chat 4K+ · 4.4★ (105) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 14 Right Click Ban – Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 400+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #5 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 15 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #24 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 16 Security Ninja – WordPress Security & Firewall 7K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 17 SecuPress with Simple SSL – Simple and Performant Security 40K+ · 4.1★ (106) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 18 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #14 ↓6 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 19 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #19 ↓4 20 Checkout Shield for WooCommerce – Stop Fake Orders, Spam Bots & Card Testing 400+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #11 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 21 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #22 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 22 Fleet Agent Site Manager – Securely Connects Your Sites to a WPMgr Dashboard 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 23 Zamok – Security and Site Tools 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 24 ReportedIP Hive: Firewall, Brute Force Protection, 2FA and Anti-Spam 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 1 place 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.