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← Rankings

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

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 icon”, we agree with wp.org 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 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

Custom Icons for Elementor and WPBakery shows at wp.org #4 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 10K+ 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

ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 2051 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 The Icon Block 40K+ · 5.0★ (29) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Simple Custom CSS and JS 600K+ · 4.4★ (104) wp.org #3 ↑2 4 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Custom Post Type UI 1M+ · 4.6★ (276) wp.org #5 ↑5 6 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Menu Icons by Themeisle – Add Icons to Navigation Menus 100K+ · 4.9★ (851) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Custom Sidebars – Dynamic Sidebar Classic Widget Area Manager 100K+ · 4.7★ (1028) wp.org #15 ↑1 7 too low 9 Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty 300K+ · 5.0★ (1244) wp.org #17 ↑2 8 too low 10 ECS – Ele Custom Skin for Elementor 100K+ · 4.6★ (117) wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #20 ↑1 9 too low 12 Custom Fonts – Host Your Fonts Locally 400K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too high 13 Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #13 ↑5 14 Custom Taxonomy Order 50K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #18 ↑2 4 too low 15 Easy Google Maps by Supsystic – Custom Markers, Clustering & Map Themes 20K+ · 4.6★ (251) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 Advanced Custom Fields: Font Awesome Field 90K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 Icon Element – Icon Pack for Elementor Page Builder (6718 icons) 40K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #8 ↑1 10 too high 19 MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies 10K+ · 4.7★ (13) wp.org #16 ↑1 3 too high 20 Custom Order Status Manager for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.7★ (117) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Icon List Block – Add Icon-Based Lists with Custom Styles 4K+ · 3.7★ (6) wp.org #9 ↓1 12 too high 22 Custom Icons for Elementor and WPBakery 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 18 too high 23 Icon Separator 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↓4 4 too high 24 SVG Icon Block 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 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.