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

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 “caldera”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 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

Caldera Forms Google Sheets Connector shows at wp.org #1 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages places #10 on merit, 4.4★ from 1319 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too low 2 WP Armour – Honeypot Anti Spam 400K+ · 5.0★ (1471) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Supreme Modules Lite – Divi Theme, Extra Theme and Divi Builder 200K+ · 4.8★ (109) wp.org #5 6 reCaptcha by BestWebSoft 100K+ · 3.9★ (391) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 HandL UTM Grabber / Tracker 10K+ · 4.8★ (146) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 HappyAddons for Elementor – 160 Elementor Widgets, GSAP Animations & Templates 400K+ · 4.8★ (489) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages 70K+ · 4.4★ (1319) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too low 12 Master Addons for Elementor – Elementor Addons, Widgets, Mega Menu Builder, Popup Builder, Widget Builder & Template Kits 30K+ · 4.5★ (212) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 AutomatorWP – No-Code Workflow Automation, Integration & Webhooks Plugin, now with AI 6K+ · 4.8★ (202) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 La Sentinelle antispam 3K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 E2Pdf – Export Pdf Tool for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (59) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 CMB2 300K+ · 5.0★ (91) wp.org #16 ↓2 17 Caldera Forms Google Sheets Connector 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 ↑1 16 too high 18 Elements Plus! 6K+ · 4.8★ (23) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 HIPAA Forms 800+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #11 ↑4 8 too high 20 Captcha by BestWebSoft – Advanced Spam Protection, Math & OCR-Friendly Captcha for Site Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (21) wp.org #23 ↑1 3 too low 21 Elastic Email Sender 10K+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #15 ↑1 6 too high 22 CiviCRM Profile Sync 500+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 SKT Addons for Elementor 1K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 UltraAddons for Elementor 600+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.