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

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

WP GIF Uploader – Animated GIF Upload and Thumbnails shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 1K+ 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

Perfect Images: Regenerate Thumbnails, Image Sizes, WebP & AVIF places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 279 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Image Regenerate & Select Crop 7K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #1 2 ShortPixel Image Optimizer – Optimize Images, Convert WebP & AVIF 300K+ · 4.5★ (830) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Image Aspect Ratio Crop Field for Advanced Custom Fields 20K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #3 4 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Crop-Thumbnails 40K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Manual Image Crop 7K+ · 4.1★ (56) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (491) wp.org #11 ↑4 4 too low 8 Divi Carousel Lite – Make Carousels for Divi 5 30K+ · 4.8★ (146) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too low 9 Perfect Images: Regenerate Thumbnails, Image Sizes, WebP & AVIF 60K+ · 4.8★ (279) wp.org #14 5 too low 10 Category Posts Block 40K+ · 4.5★ (79) wp.org #10 ↑1 11 Kama Thumbnail 8K+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles Grid 20K+ · 4.7★ (353) wp.org #15 ↓8 3 too low 13 A AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild 30K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #18 ↓10 5 too low 14 ShortPixel Adaptive Images – WebP, AVIF, CDN, Image Optimization 10K+ · 4.8★ (145) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Smart Image Resize for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.6★ (82) wp.org #21 ↓2 6 too low 16 Better image sizes 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #7 ↑13 9 too high 17 Disable Media Pages 10K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #19 ↓2 2 too low 18 ThumbPress – Compress Images, Manage Thumbnails, Detect Image Issues, WebP/AVIF, Lazy Loading, Hotlinking & More 20K+ · 3.7★ (117) wp.org #24 ↓9 6 too low 19 Responsive Thumbnail Slider 1K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 Same Category Posts 3K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 too low 21 Advanced User Avatar | Custom Profile Picture Uploader for WordPress, WooCommerce, and BuddyPress 300+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Image Ticker & Logo Slider – Continuous Auto-Scroll Carousel with Lightbox 1K+ · 3.6★ (9) wp.org #20 ↓2 2 too high 23 WP GIF Uploader – Animated GIF Upload and Thumbnails 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 14 too high 24 JS Crop 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓6 8 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.