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

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 “copied”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts shows at wp.org #4 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 5K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 7 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 #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1039 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. 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★ (1139) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Duplicate Post 300K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #3 4 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (199) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Simple Share Buttons Adder 40K+ · 4.3★ (627) wp.org #7 ↓2 2 too low 6 Simple Divi Shortcode 10K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too high 7 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #9 ↑3 2 too low 8 WP Coupons and Deals – WordPress Coupon Plugin 1K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too low 9 Bogo 10K+ · 4.5★ (48) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too low 10 Shield Security – Smart Bot Blocking, Brute-Force Login Protection & File Scanning 30K+ · 4.8★ (1039) wp.org #24 ↓2 14 too low 11 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #8 ↑2 3 too high 12 Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts 5K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #4 ↑2 8 too high 13 Kaya QR Code Generator 10K+ · 4.4★ (38) wp.org #13 ↑6 14 Duplicate PP 10K+ · 4.4★ (19) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Clone Posts 10K+ · 4.3★ (22) wp.org #14 ↓6 1 too high 16 Kama SpamBlock 4K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too low 17 flowpaper 10K+ · 3.4★ (38) wp.org #15 ↓2 2 too high 18 Noted! 1K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #21 ↓6 3 too low 19 InstaWP Connect – 1-click WP Staging & Migration 40K+ · 4.5★ (12) wp.org #16 ↓2 3 too high 20 Maintenance Switch 800+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #20 ↓3 21 Fast Page & Post Duplicator 50K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #23 ↓5 2 too low 22 Send Emails with Mandrill 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #22 23 Expire User Passwords 3K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Image Protection 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑3 7 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.