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

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 scroll bars”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 4 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Progress Bars shows at wp.org #15 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 500+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Page scroll to id 100K+ · 4.9★ (225) wp.org #1 2 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 My Sticky Bar – Floating Notification Bar & Sticky Header (formerly myStickymenu) 100K+ · 4.9★ (1199) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #5 ↑3 6 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #6 ↓2 7 Sticky Menu & Sticky Header 90K+ · 4.7★ (763) wp.org #9 ↓4 2 too low 8 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #8 ↓2 9 WPFront Notification Bar 40K+ · 4.5★ (131) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Ajax Load More – Infinite Scroll, Load More, & Lazy Load 30K+ · 4.8★ (287) wp.org #13 ↓3 3 too low 11 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #11 ↑6 12 jQuery Smooth Scroll 10K+ · 4.5★ (47) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 Depicter — Popup & Slider Builder 70K+ · 4.6★ (236) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too high 14 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #23 9 too low 15 Notibar – Notification Bar for WordPress 8K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #17 ↓2 2 too low 16 Mobile Contact Bar 9K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #16 ↓2 17 Announcer – Sticky Message Banner & Notification Bar 10K+ · 4.8★ (40) wp.org #22 ↓1 5 too low 18 Custom HTML Block Extension 7K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #14 ↓2 4 too high 19 EU Cookies Bar for WordPress 9K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #20 ↓1 1 too low 20 Read Meter – Reading Time & Progress Bar 10K+ · 4.5★ (19) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 Easy Notification Bar 9K+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #21 ↓1 22 Custom Site Logo 1K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #18 ↓2 4 too high 23 Additional Custom Emails & Recipients for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #24 ↓1 1 too low 24 Progress Bars 500+ · 3.3★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓4 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.