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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “colour box”

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 “colour box”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Doozly Affiliate Box for Amazon shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 20+ 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

Max Mega Menu places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 882 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Age Gate 40K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Contact Form by Supsystic – Drag & Drop Form Builder with Templates & Form Statistics 6K+ · 4.7★ (92) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 FancyBox for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (92) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Responsive Menu – Mobile Menu & Hamburger Menu Builder 70K+ · 4.5★ (574) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 Service Box 400+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #15 ↑8 8 too low 8 Category AJAX Filter – Posts, Custom Post Types & Product Filter 6K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #16 ↓1 8 too low 9 Document Embedder – let visitors read files without downloading 9K+ · 4.9★ (120) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 M Mammoth .docx converter 20K+ · 4.8★ (62) wp.org #14 4 too low 11 Colorlib 404 Customizer 5K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 WP-PostRatings 20K+ · 4.4★ (178) wp.org #18 ↓1 6 too low 13 GDPR Cookie Compliance – Cookie Banner, Cookie Consent, Cookie Notice for CCPA, EU Cookie Law 300K+ · 4.6★ (205) wp.org #23 ↓1 10 too low 14 Exclusive Addons for Elementor 50K+ · 4.7★ (47) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too low 15 Subscriptions for WooCommerce with Stripe Recurring Payments 1K+ · 4.9★ (25) wp.org #11 ↑2 4 too high 16 Options for Twenty Seventeen 8K+ · 4.8★ (57) wp.org #21 ↓2 5 too low 17 Divi Torque Lite 50K+ · 4.7★ (116) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #13 ↓1 5 too high 19 Booking.com Official Search Box 2K+ · 2.4★ (8) wp.org #4 15 too high 20 Easy Accordion Block – Accordion, FAQ & Collapsible Content for the Block Editor 7K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 too low 21 bSlider – Build Sliders That Bring Your Content to Life 5K+ · 4.0★ (11) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too high 22 BundleBoss – Product Bundles, Mix and Match & Build a Box for WooCommerce 90+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 14 too high 23 Doozly Affiliate Box for Amazon 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 16 too high 24 Accessible Carousel & Slider – WCAG AA Compliant Slideshow 500+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24

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.