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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “content boxes”

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 “content boxes”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Essential Content Types shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 20K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 2144 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Shortcodes Ultimate – Content Elements 400K+ · 4.9★ (5925) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Cool Flipbox – Shortcode & Gutenberg Block 5K+ · 4.8★ (103) wp.org #3 4 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #4 5 Flipbox – Awesomes Flip Boxes Image Overlay 9K+ · 4.7★ (149) wp.org #5 6 Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #6 7 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Classic Editor 8M+ · 4.9★ (1251) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #15 ↑2 5 too low 11 Co-Authors, Multiple Authors and Guest Authors in an Author Box with PublishPress Authors 20K+ · 4.9★ (114) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #17 ↓4 5 too low 13 Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder (UABB) 20K+ · 5.0★ (332) wp.org #22 ↑1 9 too low 14 Better Click To Share – Shareable Quote Boxes for X (Twitter) 6K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too high 15 Structured Content (JSON-LD) #wpsc 30K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #10 5 too high 16 Brave – Create Popup, Optins, Lead Generation, Survey, Sticky Elements & Interactive Content 20K+ · 4.8★ (209) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Nav Menu Roles 70K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 User Role Editor 700K+ · 4.5★ (288) wp.org #19 ↑2 1 too low 19 Restrict – membership, site, content and user access restrictions for WordPress 2K+ · 4.2★ (25) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too high 20 AffiliateX – Amazon Affiliate Plugin, Product Boxes, Comparison Tables & Affiliate Link Tracking 9K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 Heroic Table of Contents 5K+ · 4.7★ (10) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Special Text Boxes 1K+ · 3.4★ (21) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Essential Content Types 20K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #7 16 too high 24 MBE eShip 1K+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #20 4 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.