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

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 “bonuses”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 2 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.

Buried gem

Wallet System for WooCommerce – Digital Wallet, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Instant Cashback, Referral program, Partial & Subscription Payments places #6 on merit, 4.9★ from 65 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 Wallet for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.7★ (188) wp.org #1 2 Loyalty Points Rewards and Referral for WooCommerce – WPLoyalty 3K+ · 5.0★ (310) wp.org #2 3 Coupon Affiliates – Affiliate Plugin for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.9★ (77) wp.org #3 4 Goaffpro Affiliate Marketing 4K+ · 4.8★ (44) wp.org #4 5 Memberful – Membership Plugin 900+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #5 6 Wallet System for WooCommerce – Digital Wallet, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Instant Cashback, Referral program, Partial & Subscription Payments 1K+ · 4.9★ (65) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards 10K+ · 3.3★ (53) wp.org #7 8 Simple Points and Rewards for WooCommerce – Create a Loyalty Program 400+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 WC Affiliate – WooCommerce Affiliate Plugin 300+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #9 10 E Extra Price Fields for Woocommerce- Display extra price info on Woocommerce products 2K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #10 11 FluentAffiliate – Affiliate Program Management Suite, Affiliates Manager 2K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Siren Affiliates – Affiliate & Partner Program Manager for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #12 13 UNIVERSAM 10+ · 3.9★ (12) wp.org #21 ↑1 8 too low 14 Binary MLM For WooCommerce 10+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too high 15 Binary MLM Plan 10+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #16 ↓3 1 too low 16 Player Leaderboard 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too high 17 PW Loyalty Points and Rewards for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 MAXPOS Integration 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 C Casino Management 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 payever Checkout – Composable Payment Gateway 800+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 GameEngine – Gamification, Points, Badges & Leaderboards 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 Claimlume Faucet Rewards — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 Loyalty for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 Subscriber Manager Lite for Telegram — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24

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.