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

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 “charset”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

PRyC WP: TinyMCE more buttons shows at wp.org #6 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ 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.

Buried gem

Appointment Booking Calendar places #12 on merit, 4.2★ from 92 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 Prime Mover – Backup and Migration 10K+ · 5.0★ (141) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too low 2 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Import and export users and customers 70K+ · 4.7★ (259) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Z zipaddr-jp 50K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 ↑1 3 too high 5 Appointment Hour Booking – Booking Calendar 10K+ · 4.9★ (524) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Meta Tag Manager 70K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Simple 301 Redirects by BetterLinks – Easy Redirect Manager 100K+ · 3.8★ (162) wp.org #11 ↓1 3 too low 9 WP Time Slots Booking Form 1K+ · 5.0★ (41) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too low 10 Head Meta Data 10K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 D Database Collation Fix 1K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 Appointment Booking Calendar 1K+ · 4.2★ (92) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too low 13 xSpeed Cache: AI-Powered Performance Hub with MCP, Caching & CDN 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #15 2 too low 14 Server Info – System Health & Diagnostics Suite 3K+ · 3.8★ (12) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 Booking Calendar Contact Form 500+ · 3.6★ (32) wp.org #16 ↓2 1 too low 16 Better Payment – Instant Payments, Donations, Fundraising with Subscriptions & More 5K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #20 ↑1 4 too low 17 PRyC WP: TinyMCE more buttons 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 11 too high 18 LightMoving UTF8MB4 Converter 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓2 1 too low 19 Mescio for Agents 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 Server Info for Debugging 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Display Server Info 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↓2 3 too high 22 Y yuban-jp 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 InfoMon – System Info & Server Monitor 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too high 24 Mephivio Robots LLMs 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 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.