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← Rankings

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

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 “body”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Body Class By URL Parameter shows at wp.org #5 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 50+ 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

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #4 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 C Custom Body Class 10K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #1 2 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 Head & Footer Code 100K+ · 5.0★ (51) wp.org #4 ↑2 1 too low 4 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #11 ↑3 7 too low 5 Akismet Anti-spam: Spam Protection 5M+ · 4.7★ (1187) wp.org #8 ↓5 3 too low 6 Infinity23 (Formerly Tag Manager) – One Plugin That Replaces All The Rest 20K+ · 4.7★ (53) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 WebberZone Snippetz – Header, Body and Footer manager 2K+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #2 5 too high 8 Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer 90K+ · 4.5★ (142) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too low 9 Insert Headers And Footers 200K+ · 5.0★ (135) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Email Templates Customizer and Designer for WordPress and WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (133) wp.org #13 ↓3 3 too low 11 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #15 4 too low 12 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #16 ↑1 4 too low 13 AddFunc Head & Footer Code 20K+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too low 14 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #22 ↑1 8 too low 15 LottieFiles – JSON Based Animation Lottie & Bodymovin for Elementor 3K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 6 too high 16 Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too low 17 Affiliates Manager 8K+ · 4.1★ (61) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Dark Mode for WP Dashboard 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #24 ↓4 6 too low 19 Contact Form 7 – email body TinyMCE editor 400+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #7 ↑1 12 too high 20 Metronet Tag Manager 20K+ · 4.8★ (8) wp.org #23 3 too low 21 Header Footer Script Adder 1K+ · 4.1★ (7) wp.org #21 ↑3 22 WP Edit Username 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #20 ↑1 2 too high 23 Body Class By URL Parameter 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 18 too high 24 Global Body Mass Index Calculator 30+ · 3.0★ (3) wp.org #14 ↓1 10 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.