Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “bug bounty”

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 “bug bounty”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

pretix widget shows at wp.org #6 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 16 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

Presto Player places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 346 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 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #2 3 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Event Tickets and Registration 90K+ · 3.5★ (236) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #12 7 too low 6 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #18 ↑2 12 too low 7 WPComplete 1K+ · 4.1★ (43) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color, Image & Size Swatches 200K+ · 4.6★ (51) wp.org #13 5 too low 9 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626) wp.org #16 ↑6 7 too low 10 Basic Google Maps Placemarks 2K+ · 4.4★ (51) wp.org #10 11 Presto Player 100K+ · 4.8★ (346) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Matomo Analytics – Powerful, Privacy-First Insights for WordPress 100K+ · 4.6★ (178) wp.org #19 ↓2 6 too low 14 Zoho CRM Lead Magnet 3K+ · 3.1★ (25) wp.org #5 9 too high 15 FOX – Currency Switcher Professional for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.4★ (250) wp.org #20 ↓4 5 too low 16 Security.txt Manager 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 13 too high 17 Minify HTML 10K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 MainWP Child – Securely Connects to the MainWP Dashboard to Manage Multiple Sites 700K+ · 5.0★ (71) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too high 19 Advanced Post Manager 4K+ · 3.5★ (11) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 DoubleScale CRM | All-in-One CRM – Sales, Multi-Channel Marketing, Newsletter, Booking, Helpdesk, Automation, MCP & More 80+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Astra Widgets 200K+ · 3.9★ (17) wp.org #21 ↓2 22 pretix widget 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 16 too high 23 C Cognitcxt AI Chat Assistant for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 9 too high 24 Olark Live Chat 1K+ · 2.5★ (2) wp.org #11 13 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.