Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “can”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

WC Cancel Order shows at wp.org #12 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 5K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.9★ average from 23 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 3221 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #1 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #2 3 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626) wp.org #4 ↑2 1 too high 6 Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (172) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too high 7 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 GenerateBlocks 200K+ · 4.9★ (122) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too high 11 Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.8★ (284) wp.org #11 ↑1 12 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #18 ↑3 6 too low 13 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #16 ↑1 3 too low 14 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #23 ↑1 8 too low 16 Contact Form 7 10M+ · 4.0★ (2186) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too high 17 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #21 ↓1 4 too low 18 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too high 19 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 VS Event List 8K+ · 4.9★ (82) wp.org #20 ↑2 21 WC Cancel Order 5K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #12 ↑2 9 too high 22 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Canvas 9K+ · 4.1★ (8) wp.org #19 ↑4 4 too high 24 VK Block Patterns 100K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↑1 9 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.