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

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 sidebar”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

SMK Sidebar Generator shows at wp.org #7 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

MaxButtons – Create buttons places #4 on merit, 4.9★ from 1093 reviews, but shows at wp.org #8. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Create 6K+ · 4.3★ (25) wp.org #1 2 Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager 100K+ · 4.7★ (1028) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Lightweight Sidebar Manager 80K+ · 4.2★ (21) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 MaxButtons – Create buttons 70K+ · 4.9★ (1093) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Create Block Theme 20K+ · 4.8★ (38) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #6 7 WP Sticky Sidebar – Floating Sidebar On Scroll for Any Theme 10K+ · 4.9★ (153) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Ocean Custom Sidebar 20K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 Popup Builder – Create highly converting, mobile friendly marketing popups. 200K+ · 4.7★ (2215) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Content Aware Sidebars – Fastest Widget Area Plugin 30K+ · 4.9★ (724) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Brave – Create Popup, Optins, Lead Generation, Survey, Sticky Elements & Interactive Content 20K+ · 4.8★ (209) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Genesis Simple Sidebars 10K+ · 4.4★ (27) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #17 18 Ultimate Floating Widgets – Make popup sidebars 3K+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Login Widget With Shortcode 5K+ · 3.8★ (29) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 SMK Sidebar Generator 10K+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #7 13 too high 21 WPB Accordion Menu – Collapsible Vertical Sidebar Responsive Mobile Menu – WooCommerce Category Accordion 10K+ · 4.4★ (54) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Linguator – AI Auto Translate & Create Multilingual Sites 3K+ · 4.6★ (20) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 All-in-One Sticky Anything – Click to Call, Fixed Widget, Sticky Header, Menu & Sidebar 1K+ · 4.9★ (15) wp.org #23 24 WP CTA – Call Now Button, Sticky Button & Call to Action Builder 2K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #22 2 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.