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← Rankings

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

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 “community”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 5 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

SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard shows at wp.org #14 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 23 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #1 2 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #2 3 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375) wp.org #5 6 FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses 8K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #12 ↑4 3 too low 10 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #8 ↑12 2 too high 11 ProfileGrid – User Profiles, Groups and Communities 5K+ · 4.6★ (236) wp.org #9 ↓2 2 too high 12 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #15 ↑2 2 too low 14 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #19 ↑3 5 too low 15 Popup Maker – Boost Sales, Conversions, Optins, Subscribers with the Ultimate WP Popup Builder 600K+ · 4.9★ (4514) wp.org #24 ↓2 9 too low 16 Youzify – BuddyPress Community, User Profile, Social Network & Membership Plugin for WordPress 5K+ · 4.8★ (194) wp.org #18 ↓4 2 too low 17 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 WP Job Manager 70K+ · 4.4★ (237) wp.org #20 ↓8 2 too low 19 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #21 2 too low 20 Forumax – AI Powered Advanced Community Forum Plugin 500+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #13 ↓3 7 too high 21 Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) wp.org #22 ↓4 1 too low 22 SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard 1K+ · 4.3★ (23) wp.org #14 ↓2 8 too high 23 ZenCommunity – Community, Forum, Social Network, Chat & Support Tickets 20+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 VerifyPass Community ID 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑2 8 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.