Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “blogs”, we agree with wp.org 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

Blog Floating Button shows at wp.org #6 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 8K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 27821 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #1 2 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Ultimate Post Kit – Elementor Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider & Blog Layout Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #7 ↑4 1 too low 7 Blog Designer Pack – Blog, Post Grid, Post Slider, Post Carousel, Category Post, News 30K+ · 4.7★ (79) wp.org #8 ↑4 1 too low 8 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #18 8 too low 11 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #20 8 too low 13 WP Blog Post Layouts 9K+ · 4.7★ (83) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too low 14 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #19 ↑1 5 too low 15 Blog Filter – Post Grid Filter by Category or Tag 7K+ · 4.9★ (81) wp.org #15 ↑1 16 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #21 5 too low 17 Simple Blog Stats 4K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too high 18 Disable Blog 20K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #9 ↓2 9 too high 19 EleSpare – News, Magazine and Blog Addons for Elementor 10K+ · 4.9★ (44) wp.org #17 ↑1 2 too high 20 Blogmentor – Blog Layouts for Elementor 4K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too high 21 Simple Blog Card 3K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 ↑1 9 too high 22 Blog Floating Button 8K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑2 16 too high 23 Blogsqode – Blog Layouts and News Post Design 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 Classic Blog Grid 3K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #23 ↓2 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.