Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “bracket”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 3 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

Bracket Post Order shows at wp.org #6 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

VS Event List places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 82 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Weight Based Shipping for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.6★ (83) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too low 2 String locator 100K+ · 4.6★ (125) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Simple Tournament Brackets 300+ · 4.1★ (8) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 too high 4 Click to Chat – HoliThemes 600K+ · 4.8★ (131) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater (Add Alt Text, Image Title For Image SEO) 100K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Leaflet Map 30K+ · 4.9★ (58) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too low 7 Woody Code Snippets – Insert PHP, CSS, JS, and Header/Footer Scripts 50K+ · 4.5★ (221) wp.org #11 ↑3 4 too low 8 Etsy Shop 3K+ · 4.0★ (30) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too high 9 VS Event List 8K+ · 4.9★ (82) wp.org #16 ↓4 7 too low 10 VS Contact Form 6K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #14 ↑2 4 too low 11 AboveWP Bulgarian Eurozone 2K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too high 12 Copy Anything to Clipboard for WordPress – Copy Button, Copy Text & Copy Code 10K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #21 ↑3 9 too low 13 Prevent XSS Vulnerability 6K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓2 1 too high 14 Current Year Shortcode VICT 800+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 AnWP Football Leagues 700+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #22 ↓1 7 too low 16 Calculate Prices based on Distance For WooCommerce 300+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too low 17 Easy Optimizer – PageSpeed, Cache & Core Web Vitals (Unused CSS, Delay JS, Lazy Load) 1K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Tournamatch 100+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #17 ↑5 1 too high 19 Bracket Post Order 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 ↑1 13 too high 20 AnWP Sports Leagues – Basketball, Ice Hockey, Handball, Rugby & More 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 S Shortcodes in Sidebar 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 HTML Editor for Contact Form 7 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 PrettyCode • Code syntax highlighting with CodeMirror 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 ↓3 24 Range Slider for Elementor Forms 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 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.