Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “ckeditor”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 4 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

HR Management Lite shows at wp.org #14 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Newsletters places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 246 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 File Manager Pro – Filester 100K+ · 4.9★ (155) wp.org #1 2 PeachPay — Payments & Express Checkout for WooCommerce (supports Stripe, PayPal, Square, Authorize.net, NMI) 300+ · 4.2★ (33) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Editoria11y Accessibility Checker 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 M Mammoth .docx converter 20K+ · 4.8★ (62) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too low 5 Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction 1K+ · 4.2★ (222) wp.org #10 ↓1 5 too low 6 Interactive Content – H5P 40K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Custom Post Types and Custom Fields creator – WCK 10K+ · 4.7★ (97) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 YayPricing – WooCommerce Dynamic Pricing & Discounts 3K+ · 5.0★ (72) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too low 9 Foliopress WYSIWYG 200+ · 4.0★ (8) wp.org #3 6 too high 10 Newsletters 2K+ · 4.7★ (246) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too low 11 Popular Brand Icons – Simple Icons 3K+ · 4.7★ (10) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too low 12 Post Status Notifier Lite 700+ · 3.9★ (17) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 Homlity Real Estate 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 ↓1 8 too high 14 AWS Cookies Popup 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 ↓1 6 too high 15 Grid Landing Page Editor 60+ · 3.8★ (4) wp.org #11 ↓1 4 too high 16 P Photo Express for Google 60+ · 4.4★ (20) wp.org #21 ↓1 5 too low 17 Smackcoders – Email Template Builder for WooCommerce 10+ · 2.3★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 JEO Maps 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 C CKEditor For WordPress 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 S SyntaxHighlighter CKEditor Button 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 B bpCKEditor 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 P PHP Liquid — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 HR Management Lite 200+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #14 ↓1 9 too high 24 W WP SyntaxHighlighter 300+ · 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.