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

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 up”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 2 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

Wallet Up – Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, Zelle & QR Code Payments shows at wp.org #3 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 200+ 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

Customer Reviews for WooCommerce places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1539 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 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster 100K+ · 4.9★ (1564) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance 100K+ · 4.9★ (1962) wp.org #10 ↓3 6 too low 5 Coupon X – Discount Popups, Promo Codes Pop Ups for WooCommerce & Announcement Popups 1K+ · 4.9★ (52) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #6 ↑11 7 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #13 ↓2 6 too low 8 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #14 ↓2 6 too low 9 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #9 ↑4 10 Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539) wp.org #23 ↓1 13 too low 11 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 Imagify Image Optimization: Optimize Images | Compress & Convert to WebP/AVIF 900K+ · 4.3★ (1656) wp.org #20 8 too low 13 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too low 14 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 GravityWP – Count 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #12 ↓3 3 too high 16 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #24 ↓5 8 too low 17 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #8 9 too high 18 Fix Category Count 100+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #11 ↓1 7 too high 19 WP Counter Up – Animated Number Counter & Milestone Showcase 1K+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #7 ↓2 12 too high 20 Wallet Up – Cash App, Venmo, PayPal, Zelle & QR Code Payments 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 ↑3 17 too high 21 Update Comment Count 30+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 ↓3 3 too high 22 Init View Count – AI-Powered, Trending, REST API 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 Post Count Tracker 30+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Review Stars Count For WooCommerce 50+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #21 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.