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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “count it”

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

Visitor Count by MrStar shows at wp.org #3 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 186 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 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1237) wp.org #11 8 too low 4 Post View Count 4K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #4 5 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #15 10 too low 6 B bbP topic count 300+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Simple Download Monitor 20K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #21 11 too low 11 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #23 ↓1 12 too low 12 GravityWP – Count 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 WebberZone Top 10 — Popular Posts 10K+ · 4.6★ (102) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 Fix Category Count 100+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Visitor Count by MrStar 400+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #3 12 too high 16 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #7 9 too high 17 Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing 300+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #6 11 too high 18 Simple Download Counter 2K+ · 4.9★ (19) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 Total Sales Counts for WooCommerce 700+ · 4.8★ (11) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 Sales Count Manager for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 2 too high 21 Update Comment Count 30+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Page Visits Counter – Lite 5K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Init View Count – AI-Powered, Trending, REST API 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 7 too high 24 Post Count Tracker 30+ · 5.0★ (2) 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.