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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “category tab”

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 “category tab”, 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

YITH WooCommerce Tab Manager shows at wp.org #8 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 16 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 1680 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 No Category Base (WPML) 100K+ · 4.5★ (34) wp.org #1 2 Category AJAX Filter – Posts, Custom Post Types & Product Filter 6K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #2 3 Category Posts Block 40K+ · 4.5★ (79) wp.org #3 4 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce & WordPress Tabs Builder – Smart Tabs 10K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #5 6 Product Category Slider & Grid for WooCommerce – Reno Product Category 9K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #10 ↑1 3 too low 8 Product Tabs for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (69) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Custom Product tabs for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #9 10 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 Tabbed Category Product Listing for Woocommerce 1K+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 A Allow HTML in Category Descriptions 8K+ · 5.0★ (41) wp.org #14 15 PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 WPB Accordion Menu – Collapsible Vertical Sidebar Responsive Mobile Menu – WooCommerce Category Accordion 10K+ · 4.4★ (54) wp.org #16 17 Media Library Categories 20K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 WPB Custom Tab Manager for WooCommerce – Add, Edit & Reorder Tabs 500+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #13 5 too high 19 YITH WooCommerce Tab Manager 3K+ · 3.0★ (16) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 Product Category Showcase for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 8 too high 21 WPB Category Slider for WooCommerce – Responsive Product Category Carousel & Enhanced UX 700+ · 4.1★ (9) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Advanced Category and Custom Taxonomy Image 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Product Category 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 8 too high 24 Tabs Plugin: Responsive Elementor Tabs Widget 50+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #22 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.