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

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 “colors”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Browser Theme Color – Address Bar Color & Dark Mode shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 2K+ 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

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 807 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Fourteen Colors 8K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #1 2 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color, Image & Size Swatches 200K+ · 4.6★ (51) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Block Editor Colors 3K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #9 ↑6 5 too low 5 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce 300K+ · 4.8★ (926) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too low 7 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #15 ↓3 8 too low 8 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #14 ↓6 6 too low 9 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #22 ↓3 13 too low 10 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #19 9 too low 11 T The Events Calendar: Category Colors 4K+ · 5.0★ (61) wp.org #11 ↓5 12 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 WP Content Copy Protection with Color Design 5K+ · 4.5★ (25) wp.org #10 ↓3 3 too high 14 WP Term Colors 700+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #4 10 too high 15 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #24 ↓7 9 too low 16 YITH Color and Label Variations for WooCommerce 9K+ · 3.6★ (22) wp.org #8 ↓3 8 too high 17 Default Admin Color Scheme 800+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓3 4 too high 18 Contextual Adminbar Color 500+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #16 ↓3 2 too high 19 Custom Highlight Color 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓1 7 too high 20 Smart Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color & Image Attribute Swatches 3K+ · 3.2★ (13) wp.org #20 ↓2 21 Browser Theme Color – Address Bar Color & Dark Mode 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 15 too high 22 SVG Editor: Upload & Change Colors 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Restore Old Admin Colors 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓3 6 too high 24 Section Builder with Backgrounds – Customize with Color, Gradient, Image and Parallax. 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 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.