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

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 “consumption”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Plugin Memory Usage shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 600+ 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

WP Server Health Stats places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 110 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 Disk Usage Sunburst 9K+ · 4.8★ (36) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 WebP Express 300K+ · 4.4★ (162) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #3 ↓2 1 too high 5 APCu Manager 10K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 Bulk Edit Posts and Products in Spreadsheet 7K+ · 4.8★ (217) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Loading Page with Loading Screen 10K+ · 4.6★ (124) wp.org #10 ↑2 3 too low 8 Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule 10K+ · 4.0★ (128) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too low 9 Cost Calculator Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (393) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too low 10 WP-Memory-Usage 10K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too high 11 WP Server Health Stats 9K+ · 4.8★ (110) wp.org #22 ↓1 11 too low 12 EU VAT Assistant for WooCommerce 5K+ · 5.0★ (37) wp.org #19 ↓1 7 too low 13 WP Compress – Instant Performance & Speed Optimization 9K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 Backup Bolt – Lightweight Backup, Fast WordPress Backup to ZIP 800+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #12 ↓7 2 too high 15 AI Copilot – ChatGPT Chatbot & AI Engine for Post Automation 1K+ · 4.2★ (6) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 too high 16 WP Calorie Calculator 900+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Trinity Audio – Text to Speech AI audio player to convert content into audio 2K+ · 4.0★ (25) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too high 18 Shelf Planner Inventory Management for WooCommerce 100+ · 4.7★ (16) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 SheetDB – get your Google Spreadsheet data 600+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 phpinfo() WP – Site Health, PHP Compatibility & Server Audit 3K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 Plugin Memory Usage 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑1 15 too high 22 M Markdown for AI Agents 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 8 too high 23 Email No Bot – Prevent bots from detecting emails 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↓2 5 too high 24 Icons Font Loader – use web icons anywhere on your site, fast 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 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.