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

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 restriction”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 5 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

SureMembers – Membership & Content Restriction Plugin shows at wp.org #8 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #1 2 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #2 3 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #3 4 User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #7 ↓2 2 too low 6 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too low 7 User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too high 8 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #6 ↓2 3 too high 10 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #23 ↓3 13 too low 11 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #19 ↓3 8 too low 12 WP-Members Membership Plugin 50K+ · 4.6★ (272) wp.org #18 ↑4 6 too low 13 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #9 ↓1 4 too high 14 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #24 ↓1 10 too low 15 Login IP & Country Restriction 8K+ · 4.6★ (52) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too high 16 Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction 1K+ · 4.2★ (222) wp.org #15 ↓2 1 too high 17 Page and Post Restriction 1K+ · 4.3★ (16) wp.org #13 ↓4 4 too high 18 Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content 10K+ · 4.2★ (60) wp.org #14 ↓4 4 too high 19 Restrict – membership, site, content and user access restrictions for WordPress 2K+ · 4.2★ (25) wp.org #17 ↓3 2 too high 20 Restrict User Access – Ultimate Membership & Content Protection 10K+ · 4.3★ (94) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 too low 21 Subscriptions for WooCommerce Recurring Payments with Membership Content Restriction 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too high 22 WP User Profile Restriction 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #20 ↓2 2 too high 23 SureMembers – Membership & Content Restriction Plugin 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #8 ↓1 15 too high 24 All-in-One Content Restriction – Conditional Content Visibility & Access Control for WordPress 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓4 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.