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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “comments shield”

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 “comments shield”, we and wp.org disagree 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

BaseCloud Shield shows at wp.org #5 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 9 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

Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection places #6 on merit, 4.6★ from 3992 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 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Web-Art Login Shield with reCAPTCHA 100+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Comments – GraphComment | AI-Moderated Comment System 400+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #12 ↑3 7 too low 6 Kadence Security – Password, Two Factor Authentication, and Brute Force Protection 700K+ · 4.6★ (3992) wp.org #16 10 too low 7 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 SilentShield – Captcha & Anti-Spam for WordPress (CF7, WPForms, Elementor, WooCommerce) 10K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too high 9 Comments Shield – Disable Comments & Stop Spam, Bulk Delete & Remove Comments 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 8 too high 10 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too low 11 Local Business Schema Lite 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #19 ↑2 8 too low 12 Login Delay Shield 70+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 BaseCloud Shield 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 9 too high 15 VulnTitan – Malware Scanner, Vulnerability Scanner & Security 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓2 16 Rabbit Builds Anti-Spam Comment Shield 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↓1 8 too high 17 Quarivo Comment Shield 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 CodeWP Shield Monitor 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Nahnu Login Shield 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Init Void Shield – Zero-DB, Honeypot, Anti-Spam 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑4 21 AntiSpam Shield by LukaCodes 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑1 22 Cybexsoft Shield — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 MantaWeb Consent Shield – Cookie Consent Banner & Real Cookie Blocker (GDPR, CCPA, Tikun 13) 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24 SolverGuard Spam Shield — Anti-Spam, Bot & Login Protection 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓4 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.