wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “beautiful admin”
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 “beautiful admin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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
Admin Custom Font shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 13 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Beautiful Cookie Consent Banner 40K+ · 4.5★ (95)
wp.org #1 2 
User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738)
wp.org #3 1 too low 3 
Beautiful taxonomy filters 2K+ · 4.9★ (68)
wp.org #2 1 too high 4 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833)
wp.org #4 5 
TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625)
wp.org #7 2 too low 6 
Admin Custom Login 10K+ · 4.6★ (388)
wp.org #6 7 
WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387)
wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 
Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132)
wp.org #8 ↑1 9 
BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55)
wp.org #5 4 too high 10 
MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435)
wp.org #13 ↓3 3 too low 11 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333)
wp.org #11 ↑1 12 
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440)
wp.org #12 ↑3 13 
Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601)
wp.org #18 5 too low 14 
Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125)
wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358)
wp.org #19 ↓3 4 too low 16 
PublishPress Capabilities: User Role Access Control, Admin Area Permissions 90K+ · 4.7★ (143)
wp.org #14 ↓3 2 too high 17 
Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167)
wp.org #20 ↑1 3 too low 18 
WP Frontend Admin – Display WP Admin Pages in the Frontend 400+ · 4.9★ (54)
wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too high 19 Admin Custom Font 900+ · 4.5★ (13) thin reviews
wp.org #10 9 too high 20 
UiPress lite | Effortless custom dashboards, admin themes and pages 6K+ · 4.1★ (21) thin reviews
wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21 
All In One Lightbox – show any media in beautiful popups 3K+ · 5.0★ (7) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↓3 22 
Clean WP Admin Theme – Simple design 100+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #17 ↓4 5 too high 23 
Extendify 500K+ · 4.7★ (10) host-installed base thin reviews
wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24 
Unnotifier — disable admin notices individually 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #23 ↓4 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.