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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “connect widget shortcode”

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 “connect widget shortcode”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Connect Polylang for Elementor shows at wp.org #7 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 100K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 51 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #1 2 Rich Showcase for Google Reviews 100K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #2 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #3 4 WPZOOM Connect: Social Icons Widget & Block, Share Buttons & Click to Chat 90K+ · 4.9★ (144) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Widgets for Social Photo Feed 10K+ · 4.7★ (28) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Nextend Social Login and Register 200K+ · 4.9★ (446) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 WPZOOM Social Feed Widget & Block 50K+ · 4.3★ (51) wp.org #5 5 too high 11 Timeline Widget For Elementor (Elementor Timeline, Vertical & Horizontal Timeline) 70K+ · 4.8★ (248) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Connect Polylang for Elementor 100K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #7 8 too high 16 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 The Post Grid – Shortcode, Gutenberg Blocks and Elementor Addon for Post Grid 100K+ · 4.8★ (265) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Reviews Widgets for Google, TripAdvisor, Yelp & Recommendations 10K+ · 4.9★ (326) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Cryptocurrency Widgets – Price Ticker & Coins List 6K+ · 4.8★ (191) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 Social Slider Feed – Social Media Feed & Gallery Widgets 10K+ · 3.9★ (127) wp.org #21 22 Connect Matomo – Analytics Dashboard for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (95) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 MachForm Shortcode 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Taggbox: Social Media Feed Widget 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) 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.