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

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 “cloudfront”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 2 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

Static Porter shows at wp.org #6 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 100+ 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

WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection places #8 on merit, 4.6★ from 213 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 Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization 200K+ · 4.7★ (640) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #2 3 Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 C3 Cloudfront Cache Controller 3K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster 100K+ · 4.9★ (1564) wp.org #10 ↓5 5 too low 6 Geolocation IP Detection 20K+ · 4.7★ (59) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too low 7 WPAdmin AWS CDN 400+ · 4.7★ (53) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection 10K+ · 4.6★ (213) wp.org #16 8 too low 9 a3 Lazy Load 80K+ · 4.3★ (148) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too low 10 Ecwid by Lightspeed Ecommerce Shopping Cart 20K+ · 4.5★ (228) wp.org #12 ↓2 2 too low 11 SiteNarrator Text-to-Speech Widget 800+ · 4.1★ (9) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too low 13 Offload Media – Cloud Storage 1K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 FV Flowplayer Video Player 10K+ · 4.4★ (90) wp.org #20 ↓2 6 too low 15 Sync media with AWS S3 CloudFront 20+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Content No Cache | Serve uncached partial content even when you add it to a page that is fully cached. 200+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #24 ↓2 8 too low 17 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too high 18 Buying Buddy IDX CRM – Real Estate MLS Plugin 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #23 ↓2 5 too low 19 Static Porter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑6 13 too high 20 Easy IP Blocker 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↓1 9 too high 21 AMIMOTO Plugin Dashboard 800+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓2 2 too high 22 Gumlet Video 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓2 1 too high 23 IP Locator 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24 FV Player 8 1K+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓3 6 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.