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← Rankings

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

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 “charting”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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

WPC Request a Quote for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #5 but places #9 on merit, a gap of 4 places. Its 70+ 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

Quads Ads Manager for Google AdSense places #1 on merit, 4.9★ from 1087 reviews, but shows at wp.org #6. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Quads Ads Manager for Google AdSense 20K+ · 4.9★ (1087) wp.org #6 5 too low 2 Football Pool 900+ · 4.9★ (83) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 Graphina – Charts and Graphs For Elementor 9K+ · 4.1★ (16) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 DesignSetGo 8K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Source Medium Tracker for Contact Form 7 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 ↓1 2 too high 6 SEO Fury – SEO & GEO: Schema, XML Sitemap, Redirects, 404 Monitor, llms.txt 20+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Pollify – Feedback Polls, Anonymous Polls, Up/down Voting, NPS Surveys, Export data 50+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 AI Chatbot, Live Chat & Lead Generation for WordPress 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 WPC Request a Quote for WooCommerce 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 Vunelix Financial Widgets – Cryptocurrency, Stock Ticker & Forex 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 SentraIP 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Softtara Resident Management Portal — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 13 ShahCalc – Visual Calculator Builder 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↑5 14 Aramex Logistics 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 15 Scaleflex VXP – DAM & Cloudimage 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 16 Tickets & Passes for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 Sangar Studio AI Chatbot — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 WPC Smart Points & Rewards for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Palette Data Analyzer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 Advanced Charts for Gutenberg Blocks Editor 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 Amortexa Mortgage Calculator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Contract Pilot — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 Spindle Market Research Hub — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 N Network Site Details — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.