wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “content membership”
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 membership”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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
Simple Membership Custom Messages shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 7K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission places #12 on merit, 4.1★ from 537 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (476)
wp.org #1 2 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445)
wp.org #2 3 
Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270)
wp.org #3 4 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281)
wp.org #4 5 
Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418)
wp.org #5 6 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833)
wp.org #6 7 
User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832)
wp.org #7 8 
Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333)
wp.org #9 1 too low 9 
Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575)
wp.org #12 3 too low 10 
WP-Members Membership Plugin 50K+ · 4.6★ (272)
wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too low 11 
Groups – Memberships and Access Control 10K+ · 4.8★ (382)
wp.org #16 ↑3 5 too low 12 User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #20 8 too low 13 
WCFM Membership – WooCommerce Memberships for Multivendor Marketplace 10K+ · 4.0★ (25)
wp.org #8 ↑3 5 too high 14 
Membership Plugin – Kadence Memberships 8K+ · 3.1★ (100)
wp.org #11 ↓3 3 too high 15 
s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234)
wp.org #23 8 too low 16 
Restrict User Access – Ultimate Membership & Content Protection 10K+ · 4.3★ (94)
wp.org #22 6 too low 17 
ProfilePress – Paid Membership, Online Courses (LMS), Ecommerce, User Registration & Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content 100K+ · 3.1★ (938)
wp.org #24 ↓3 7 too low 18 S Simple Membership After Login Redirection 10K+ · 4.8★ (15) thin reviews
wp.org #14 4 too high 19 
Membership For WooCommerce 800+ · 4.4★ (28)
wp.org #17 ↓4 2 too high 20 
Restrict – membership, site, content and user access restrictions for WordPress 2K+ · 4.2★ (25)
wp.org #21 ↑2 1 too low 21 S Simple Membership Custom Messages 7K+ · 5.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #10 11 too high 22 S Simple Membership Form Shortcode 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #15 ↑1 7 too high 23 S Simple Membership WP user Import 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too high 24 
SureMembers – Membership & Content Restriction Plugin 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too high Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.