Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “broker”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

RealPress – Real Estate Plugin shows at wp.org #5 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 400+ 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

BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 85 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #3 ↓1 2 too low 2 Responsive Mortgage Calculator 7K+ · 4.4★ (21) wp.org #2 3 IMPress for IDX Broker 7K+ · 3.1★ (34) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Flexmls® IDX Plugin 1K+ · 3.5★ (22) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 BetterLinks – Link Shortener, Link Cloaking, Redirects, Affiliate Link Manager & MCP 20K+ · 4.8★ (85) wp.org #12 ↓4 7 too low 6 E2Pdf – Export Pdf Tool for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (59) wp.org #8 ↓3 2 too low 7 Mortgage Calculator 4K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 xSpeed Cache: AI-Powered Performance Hub with MCP, Caching & CDN 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #18 ↓1 10 too low 9 Showcase IDX Real Estate Search & Lead Capture 2K+ · 3.8★ (35) wp.org #10 ↓4 1 too low 10 Simple Mortgage Calculator 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 SimplyRETS Real Estate IDX 200+ · 4.9★ (8) wp.org #13 ↓6 2 too low 12 Financial Calculator 400+ · 3.8★ (4) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 Buying Buddy IDX CRM – Real Estate MLS Plugin 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #17 ↓5 4 too low 14 RealPress – Real Estate Plugin 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 ↓1 9 too high 15 DEPRECATED – Shipmondo – A complete shipping solution for WooCommerce 4K+ · 3.0★ (8) wp.org #20 ↓7 5 too low 16 Affiliate Reviews 300+ · 3.3★ (3) wp.org #16 ↓5 17 Apimo Connector 100+ · 4.0★ (6) wp.org #21 ↓6 4 too low 18 Connector for Propstack 30+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Loan Calculator 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 RateMyAgent Official 400+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓6 5 too high 21 SheetLink Forms for Google Sheets and Excel 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↓4 7 too high 22 Wapu Auth – Social Login for WordPress and WooCommerce 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓8 2 too low 23 Smart Loan Calculator 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓5 4 too high 24 Smart Forms & Calculators By Embed Sheets 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓4 2 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.