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

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 fee”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 18 of the top 20. 5 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

Cart Additional Fee For WooCommerce shows at wp.org #4 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 19 places. Its 70+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 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 #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 874 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Custom Twitter Feeds – A Tweets Widget or X Feed Widget 100K+ · 4.8★ (401) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 Formidable Forms – Contact Form, Survey, Quiz, Payment, Calculator Form & Custom Form Builder 300K+ · 4.8★ (1387) wp.org #9 7 too low 3 PI Conditional cart fee / Extra charge rule for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832) wp.org #12 ↓6 8 too low 5 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #10 ↑2 5 too low 6 Custom Fee Woocommerce 400+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #19 ↑4 12 too low 8 Pay for Payment for WooCommerce – Payment Gateway Fees & Discounts 10K+ · 4.7★ (71) wp.org #11 ↑2 3 too low 9 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #21 ↓2 12 too low 10 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #18 8 too low 11 Custom Checkout Fields for WooCommerce 500+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 Custom Shipping Methods for WooCommerce – Create Weight based Shipping, Conditional Shipping, Table Rate Shipping and much more 3K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #8 ↑2 4 too high 13 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Extra Fees for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.3★ (42) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 Advanced Free Shipping for WooCommerce 40K+ · 4.8★ (122) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #20 ↓3 4 too low 17 Simple Discount Rules for Woocommerce 4K+ · 4.6★ (73) wp.org #13 ↓5 4 too high 18 Conditional Fees for WooCommerce Lite 400+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #2 16 too high 19 Payment Gateway Based Fees and Discounts for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #17 ↓8 3 too high 21 Smart COD for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.6★ (52) wp.org #24 ↓9 3 too low 22 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #16 ↑4 6 too high 23 Cart Additional Fee For WooCommerce 70+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #4 ↑1 19 too high 24 Custom Code 100+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #15 9 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.