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

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 “classifier”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 0 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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

merit plugin wp.org
1 OpenPorte Spam Protection 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #1 2 Anti-Spam Protection – No API Key, GDPR Friendly 1K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #2 3 Polski for WooCommerce 60+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #3 4 No unsafe-inline 200+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 5 One-V LLM Serve 10+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 IA Content Classifier 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 AI Content Classifier — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Comments by FastComments – Live, Privacy-First Comment System 30+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #23 15 too low 9 CatCode Shipping with Ukrposhta for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 ZeriseTaxo — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 YomuForm — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 FormGate AI – Antispam — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13 Royal AI Firewall 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too high 14 Hajik Form Guard — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too high 15 DadsFam AntiSpam 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 Mivídeo Intent Finder SEO — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Cookie Consent Banner — PDPL, GDPR & Arabic RTL (Arqam360) — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 PublisherKits NewsDesk Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Vibr Email Rules — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Synth Antispam – AI Comment Spam Protection — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 BlogPilot by SuperApps — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 IATO MCP 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 Teleship Global Shipping 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 2 too high 24 MyBooking Reservation Engine 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.