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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “custom design”

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 “custom design”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

BBH Custom Schema – Add Custom JSON-LD to Your Website shows at wp.org #15 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 900+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #1 2 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #2 3 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #3 4 Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager 100K+ · 4.7★ (1028) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Custom Fonts – Host Your Fonts Locally 400K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 Product Addons for Woocommerce – Product Options with Custom Fields 30K+ · 4.9★ (474) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too high 9 Custom Taxonomy Order 50K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #9 10 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #12 ↑5 2 too low 11 Admin Custom Login 10K+ · 4.6★ (388) wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too low 12 Skyboot Custom Icons for Elementor – Elementor Icons library – 14300+ Icons 200K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #8 ↓3 4 too high 13 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #20 ↑1 7 too low 14 Genesis Custom Blocks 10K+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 Custom Login 10K+ · 3.6★ (97) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 Custom Field Template 30K+ · 4.0★ (24) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too high 18 WP Custom Admin Interface 30K+ · 4.7★ (160) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 too low 19 SMNTCS Custom Logo Link 2K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #19 ↓5 20 Custom HTML Block Extension 7K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 Teydea Login Customizer – Custom Login Page, Branding & Styling 10K+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #24 ↓5 3 too low 22 Modular Custom CSS 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 BBH Custom Schema – Add Custom JSON-LD to Your Website 900+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 8 too high 24 Custom Icons for Elementor and WPBakery 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 7 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.