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

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 modal login”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

CodeKit – Custom Codes Editor shows at wp.org #13 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 7K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 16 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5043) wp.org #1 2

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2146) wp.org #2 3

User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832) wp.org #6 ↑2 3 too low 4

AJAX Login and Registration modal popup + inline form 3K+ · 4.7★ (120) wp.org #4 5

Nextend Social Login and Register 200K+ · 4.9★ (447) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7

Osom Modal Login 400+ · 5.0★ (15) thin reviews wp.org #3 4 too high 8

RegistrationMagic – Custom Registration Forms, User Registration, Payment, and User Login 7K+ · 4.5★ (459) wp.org #8 ↓1 9

All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #9 ↑14 10

Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8870) wp.org #12 2 too low 11

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14388) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too low 12

Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3224) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too low 15

ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2052) wp.org #17 ↓2 2 too low 16

Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #18 ↑2 2 too low 17

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2409) wp.org #16 ↑1 1 too high 18

Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398) wp.org #23 ↓1 5 too low 19

Sky Login Redirect 2K+ · 4.7★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #10 ↓1 9 too high 20

Advanced Custom Fields: Extended 100K+ · 4.8★ (132) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 too low 21

Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #24 3 too low 22

Wp Social Login and Register Social Counter 70K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too high 23

CodeKit – Custom Codes Editor 7K+ · 4.8★ (16) thin reviews wp.org #13 10 too high 24

Login Me Now – Passwordless, Magic Link, OTP & Social Login for WordPress 500+ · 5.0★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #21 ↓5 3 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.