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← Rankings

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

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 player”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 4 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

Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation shows at wp.org #14 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

EmbedPress places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 307 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Presto Player 100K+ · 4.8★ (346) wp.org #1 2 Custom Fonts – Host Your Fonts Locally 400K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #2 3 Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion 10K+ · 4.8★ (113) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Easy Video Player 20K+ · 4.2★ (57) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #6 ↑2 1 too low 6 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too high 7 Music Player for Elementor – Audio Player & Podcast Player 10K+ · 4.7★ (123) wp.org #7 ↓2 8 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #8 ↓2 9 Music Player for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #19 9 too low 11 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 FluentPlayer – Video Player With Forms & Lead Capture 2K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 AudioIgniter Music Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #21 ↑1 8 too low 14 Video Player Block – play videos beautifully on any device 2K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Super Video player – Fully Customizable Video Player with Playlist 2K+ · 4.2★ (30) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 Video Player for YouTube – Embed Videos Your Visitors Will Love to Watch 1K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Audio Player Block – Advanced Block for Embedding Audio Files 2K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #17 18 Podlove Web Player 4K+ · 3.7★ (14) wp.org #12 6 too high 19 JW Player for WordPress 1K+ · 3.8★ (29) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Bradmax Player 1K+ · 4.3★ (11) wp.org #20 ↑1 21 Lean Player – Video and Audio Player with Playlist for WordPress, Elementor and Gutenberg 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 8 too high 23 Custom iFrame – Embed PDFs, Videos, and External Content in WordPress (Elementor & Gutenberg) 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 FV Player 8 1K+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #18 6 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.