Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “chrome”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

WP Post Page Clone shows at wp.org #9 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 70K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Portfolio Filter Gallery – Photo Gallery places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 348 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 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #1 2 LocoAI – Auto Translate for Loco Translate 70K+ · 4.9★ (642) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #3 ↑3 4 Favicon by RealFaviconGenerator 200K+ · 4.9★ (802) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 DearFlip – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF embed, PDF viewer 200K+ · 4.9★ (194) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too high 6 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Popups for Divi 100K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #11 ↑11 4 too low 8 Super Progressive Web Apps 40K+ · 4.6★ (225) wp.org #14 6 too low 9 Embed PDF Viewer 20K+ · 4.7★ (19) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Portfolio Filter Gallery – Photo Gallery 20K+ · 4.8★ (348) wp.org #21 ↓1 11 too low 11 OneSignal – Web Push Notifications 60K+ · 4.3★ (360) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Speculative Loading 70K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too high 13 View Transitions 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too low 14 Pdf Embed 10K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #8 ↑1 6 too high 15 Dinosaur Game 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 WP Post Page Clone 70K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #9 ↑1 7 too high 17 AutoPoly – AI Translation For Polylang 5K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too low 18 AI Translation For TranslatePress 10K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #20 ↓3 2 too low 19 Toolkit for Polylang – Translation Inspector & Duplicate Content 10K+ · 4.5★ (33) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #16 ↑3 4 too high 21 PDF Viewer Block for Gutenberg 10K+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 AliNext – AliExpress Dropshipping Plugin for WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.3★ (53) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 Wonder Video Embed 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 5 too high 24 Browser Theme Color – Address Bar Color & Dark Mode 2K+ · 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.