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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “change mail sender”

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 “change mail sender”, 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

Change Default Email Sender Name shows at wp.org #5 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 90+ 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

Post SMTP – Complete Email Deliverability and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App places #3 on merit, 4.7★ from 525 reviews, but shows at wp.org #8. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 600K+ · 4.8★ (405) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 WP Change Email Sender 10K+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Post SMTP – Complete Email Deliverability and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (525) wp.org #8 5 too low 4 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1432) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Change Mail Sender 20K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1204) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 VS Contact Form 7K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too low 9 Change Sender Email – From Name and From Address 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Meow Mailer – Free SMTP, Everything Included 700+ · 4.9★ (17) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 WPVulnerability 10K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too low 12 Back In Stock Notifier for WooCommerce | WooCommerce Waitlist Pro 20K+ · 4.7★ (122) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too low 13 Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 Elastic Email Sender 10K+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #6 ↓1 8 too high 15 WPMasterToolKit (WPMTK) – All in one plugin 5K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #19 ↑2 4 too low 16 Mailgun for WordPress 80K+ · 3.8★ (49) wp.org #24 ↓1 8 too low 17 Send Emails with Mandrill 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too low 18 GD Mail Queue 700+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Post Status Notifier Lite 700+ · 3.9★ (17) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 Change Default Email Sender Name 90+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 ↑1 15 too high 21 SendForce Mail SMTP Relay – SMTP and Email API 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 ↑2 7 too high 22 Email Deliverability – SMTP Replacement, Email API Deliverability & Email Log 200K+ · 2.3★ (16) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Emerge Mail 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓4 8 too high 24 Bentostudio Mail 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑2 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.