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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “computation engine”

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 “computation engine”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

PDF Flipbook, WPBakery Addon – Unreal FlipBook shows at wp.org #8 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 3D FlipBook – PDF Embedder, PDF Flipbook Viewer, Flipbook Image Gallery 70K+ · 4.8★ (182) wp.org #1 2 wpForo Forum 20K+ · 4.7★ (390) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Link Checker 4K+ · 3.2★ (30) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Sitemap Generator 3K+ · 3.7★ (23) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 ByTheWeb AI – AI Visibility Assistant 20+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Fleet Agent Site Manager – Securely Connects Your Sites to a WPMgr Dashboard 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 8 SyncRanker – SEO Suite & AI Content Bridge — · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 7 too low 9 {eac}ObjectCache – a persistent object cache using SQLite & APCu to cache WordPress objects. 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 Smart Showcase for Google Reviews 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 VizzEx — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 WriteText.ai 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 ReportedIP Hive: Firewall, Brute Force Protection, 2FA and Anti-Spam 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 PDF Flipbook, WPBakery Addon – Unreal FlipBook 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 LLMs.txt Generator & AI Visibility by aiready.tools 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Site-Check Accessibility — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 17 VedIntel Astro Widgets — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 18 Cardea – Proof-of-Work Comment Spam Protection — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 19 Agentic Admin — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 TradeSchool Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 RIACO Smart Quantity Discount for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 CodeWP Shield Monitor 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 WPC Smart Recommendations for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 PDFWorld Document Tools — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 2 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.