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

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 rss”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

RSS Control shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 300+ 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

Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 491 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #1 2 RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator 40K+ · 4.6★ (361) wp.org #2 3 Super RSS Reader – Add attractive RSS Feed Widget 9K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #3 4 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #5 6 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3004) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too low 8 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 RSS Includes Pages 10K+ · 3.9★ (17) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #18 ↑2 8 too low 11 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #19 ↑4 8 too low 12 Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (491) wp.org #21 9 too low 13 RSS for Yandex Turbo 20K+ · 4.6★ (145) wp.org #17 ↓2 4 too low 14 XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ · 4.8★ (2233) wp.org #22 ↓8 8 too low 15 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #15 16 WP All Export – Drag & Drop Export to Any Custom CSV, XML & Excel 100K+ · 4.5★ (415) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #14 ↑3 3 too high 18 RSS Feed Widget 2K+ · 3.9★ (26) wp.org #8 ↑3 10 too high 19 Import XML and RSS Feeds 2K+ · 3.8★ (24) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 RSS Enhancements for The Events Calendar 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 Simple Custom Content 100+ · 4.8★ (6) wp.org #24 ↓2 3 too low 22 RSS Chimp – Add Featured Images to WP RSS Feeds (Mailchimp, Google News, Feedly) 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 11 too high 23 RSS Control 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↑4 14 too high 24 RSS Retriever Lite 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓6 12 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.