Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “create menus”

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 “create menus”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Simplify Admin Menus shows at wp.org #14 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 80+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 874 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 User Menus – Nav Menu Visibility 80K+ · 5.0★ (1281) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 C Conditional Menus 60K+ · 4.4★ (71) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #3 4 Menu Icons by Themeisle – Add Icons to Navigation Menus 100K+ · 4.9★ (851) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 Buttonizer – Floating Menus, Sticky Buttons, & Popup Builder 70K+ · 4.5★ (151) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #18 7 too low 12 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3004) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 Genesis Simple Menus 2K+ · 4.8★ (11) wp.org #4 9 too high 14 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #20 ↓2 6 too low 15 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #19 ↓2 4 too low 16 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #22 ↓1 6 too low 17 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #21 ↑2 4 too low 18 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #23 ↓4 5 too low 19 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #11 ↑9 8 too high 20 Admin Bar Editor – Toolbar Customization with User Role based access & Custom menus 3K+ · 4.4★ (24) wp.org #13 ↓2 7 too high 21 Modal Window – create popup modal window 10K+ · 3.8★ (36) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too high 22 Popup Box – Easily Create WordPress Popups 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too high 23 Hover Effects – easily create any hover effect 7K+ · 4.8★ (17) wp.org #24 ↓2 1 too low 24 Simplify Admin Menus 80+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 ↓2 10 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.