Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 view”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 3K+ 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

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1236) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Post View Count 4K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Admin Menu Tree Page View 10K+ · 4.6★ (48) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #17 ↑1 9 too low 9 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #22 ↓2 12 too low 11 Grid/List View for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.4★ (50) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #19 7 too low 13 Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 B bbP topic count 300+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 Statify 100K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #21 ↑1 5 too low 17 WP-PostViews 90K+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #20 ↑1 3 too low 18 GravityWP – Count 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Init View Count – AI-Powered, Trending, REST API 80+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 Wp Post Views – WordPress Post views counter 4K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #14 6 too high 21 Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing 300+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #13 8 too high 22 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Direct Checkout – Quick View – Buy Now For WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 8 too high 24 Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 14 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.