Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 theft”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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 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

CopyBlocker Pro – Content Protection shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 80+ 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

Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning places #6 on merit, 4.8★ from 1039 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Prevent Direct Access – Protect WordPress Files 10K+ · 4.6★ (297) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too low 4 WP Content Copy Protection with Color Design 5K+ · 4.5★ (25) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 No Right Click Images 20K+ · 4.7★ (52) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039) wp.org #18 ↑3 12 too low 7 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #4 ↑3 3 too high 8 Gallery by Visual Portfolio 50K+ · 4.8★ (340) wp.org #17 ↓1 9 too low 9 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 picu – Online Photo Proofing Gallery 2K+ · 4.7★ (55) wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 TrustedSite 10K+ · 4.2★ (26) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too low 12 Simple Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #5 ↓1 7 too high 13 ThumbPress – Compress Images, Manage Thumbnails, Detect Image Issues, WebP/AVIF, Lazy Loading, Hotlinking & More 20K+ · 3.7★ (117) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 Right Click Ban – Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 400+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #7 ↑1 7 too high 15 CopyProof Website 300+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #9 ↑1 6 too high 16 Serial Numbers – Ultimate License Manager for Selling, Licensing & Securely Delivering Digital Content with WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too high 18 Route ‑ Shipping Protection 500+ · 4.3★ (24) wp.org #21 ↑2 3 too low 19 D Disable Right Click 70+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20 eDarpan: Website Protection 200+ · 3.8★ (5) wp.org #14 ↑3 6 too high 21 CopyBlocker Pro – Content Protection 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↑1 11 too high 22 WoowGallery 1K+ · 3.7★ (6) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 too low 23 Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑3 8 too high 24 Selective Image Guard | A deterrent for unauthorized downloads and scraping 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑2 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.