Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “counts”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Visitor Count by MrStar shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 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

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #5 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. 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 #1 2 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1237) wp.org #6 ↑6 4 too low 3 Post View Count 4K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #11 ↓1 6 too low 6 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #13 ↑6 4 too low 10 Total Sales Counts for WooCommerce 700+ · 4.8★ (11) wp.org #4 6 too high 11 WebberZone Top 10 — Popular Posts 10K+ · 4.6★ (102) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too low 13 B bbP topic count 300+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #24 ↓3 10 too low 15 Simple Download Counter 2K+ · 4.9★ (19) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 Docket Cache – Object Cache Accelerator 20K+ · 4.9★ (50) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 WP-PostViews 90K+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #23 ↑1 6 too low 18 GravityWP – Count 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too high 20 Page Visits Counter – Lite 5K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓1 8 too high 21 Fix Category Count 100+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #20 ↑2 1 too high 22 Visitor Count by MrStar 400+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #8 ↓1 14 too high 23 Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing 300+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #21 ↑2 2 too high 24 Show Product Sales Count for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 6 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.