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

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 “clutter”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 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

Easy Admin Menu Manager – Hide the dashboard clutter shows at wp.org #3 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 21 places. Its 40+ 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

Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons places #9 on merit, 4.7★ from 173 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Disable Admin Notices – Hide Dashboard Notifications 100K+ · 4.7★ (367) wp.org #1 2

Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #2 3

File Manager Pro – Filester 100K+ · 4.9★ (155) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #7 ↓3 3 too low 5

White Label CMS 200K+ · 4.7★ (114) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6

Brizy – Page Builder 60K+ · 4.7★ (972) not PHP-current wp.org #10 4 too low 7

Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #4 ↑3 3 too high 8

Simply Schedule Appointments 50K+ · 5.0★ (155) wp.org #12 4 too low 9

Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons 30K+ · 4.7★ (173) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too low 10

WP Comment Cleaner – Delete All Comments, Disable Comments, Bulk Delete & Remove Comments 20K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #11 1 too low 11

Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #16 ↓3 5 too low 12

Disable Comments & Delete All Comments 9K+ · 5.0★ (41) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too low 13

No Self Ping 10K+ · 4.5★ (14) thin reviews wp.org #8 5 too high 14

Disable WP Notification 10K+ · 4.3★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #9 5 too high 15

Post to Google My Business (Google Business Profile) 10K+ · 4.9★ (159) not PHP-current wp.org #23 ↑1 8 too low 16

Embed Any Document – Embed PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel Files 50K+ · 4.2★ (92) wp.org #21 ↑1 5 too low 17

Admin Notices Manager 10K+ · 4.9★ (21) thin reviews wp.org #18 1 too low 18

Product Tabs for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (69) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #17 1 too high 19

SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #24 5 too low 20

Block Manager 4K+ · 4.9★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #20 1 too high 22

Noted! 1K+ · 5.0★ (15) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↑1 23

Media Tracker – Track Unused, Duplicate & Used Media 1K+ · 4.2★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #15 ↑1 8 too high 24

Easy Admin Menu Manager – Hide the dashboard clutter 40+ · 5.0★ (1) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #3 21 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.