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

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 “busting”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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 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

Disable CSS JS Cache shows at wp.org #5 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #1 2 Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 Image Watermark 40K+ · 4.2★ (298) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Prevent Browser Caching 10K+ · 4.9★ (29) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too high 5 PDF.js Viewer 20K+ · 4.4★ (53) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Cachebuster 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 ATR Cookie Notice 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Simple:Press Forum 300+ · 4.2★ (24) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 WP Remove Query Strings From Static Resources 3K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 Disable CSS JS Cache 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 too high 12 WP-Force Images Download 90+ · 4.9★ (8) wp.org #23 ↓1 11 too low 13 Product FAQ for WooCommerce — Tab, Accordion & AI FAQ Generator 80+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #15 2 too low 14 Auto podcast import 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 15 PrimePlaced – Advanced password protection 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too low 16 Search Engines Blocked in Header 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 6 too high 17 Manage/Remove version number from CSS & JS 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 Theme SCSS Compiler 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Devenia Replace Media 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 W WP-Stateless – Gravity Forms Addon 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 HTL Clear All Cache — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 RefiTune – Site refiner toolkit 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too high 23 Weblix Analytics – Real-Time Stats & Visitor Counter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24 WPC Multi Currency for WooCommerce 60+ · 1.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓1 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.