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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “co editing”

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 “co editing”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

LearnPress – Prerequisites Courses shows at wp.org #12 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 5K+ 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

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 4132 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 wp.org
1 Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors 20K+ · 4.9★ (114) wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too low 2 Co-Authors Plus 20K+ · 3.5★ (77) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too low 7 Username Changer 40K+ · 4.3★ (77) wp.org #7 ↓2 8 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #14 ↓3 6 too low 9 LearnPress – WordPress LMS Plugin for Create and Sell Online Courses 70K+ · 4.3★ (597) wp.org #15 ↓3 6 too low 10 WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars 10K+ · 4.2★ (22) wp.org #6 ↓2 4 too high 11 Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 SchedulePress – Auto Post & Publish, Auto Social Share, Schedule Posts with Editorial Calendar & Missed Schedule Post Publisher 10K+ · 4.6★ (201) wp.org #16 ↓3 4 too low 13 GEO Plugin by Squirrly SEO 30K+ · 4.6★ (683) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 MasterStudy LMS WordPress Plugin – for Online Courses and Education 10K+ · 4.5★ (487) wp.org #24 ↓1 10 too low 15 MaxiBlocks Builder | 17,000+ Design Assets, Patterns, Icons & Starter Sites 600+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #11 ↓5 4 too high 16 Sensei LMS – Online Courses, Quizzes, & Learning 9K+ · 3.5★ (40) wp.org #9 ↓1 7 too high 17 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #20 ↓5 3 too low 18 DELUCKS SEO 300+ · 4.9★ (17) wp.org #18 ↓2 19 Cryptocurrency Price Widget 200+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #10 ↓3 9 too high 20 Taskbuilder – Project Management & Task Management Tool With Kanban Board 700+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓3 3 too high 21 Geo Redirect 1K+ · 4.3★ (11) wp.org #21 ↓3 22 Editoria11y Accessibility Checker 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too high 23 Multicollab: Content Team Collaboration and Editorial Workflow 300+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #23 ↓2 24 LearnPress – Prerequisites Courses 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓3 12 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.