wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “custom sign”
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 sign”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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
Sign Customiser – Custom Sign Designer for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 20+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Smash Balloon Social Post Feed – Simple Social Feeds for WordPress places #6 on merit, 4.7★ from 1,511 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
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.
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1,440)
wp.org #1 2 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,146)
wp.org #2 3 
Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1,014)
wp.org #3 4 
Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5,043)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 
SAML Single Sign On – SSO Login 10K+ · 4.9★ (402)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 Smash Balloon Social Post Feed – Simple Social Feeds for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (1,511)
wp.org #13 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 7 
OAuth Single Sign On – SSO (OAuth Client) 6K+ · 4.9★ (327)
wp.org #10 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 8 
Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69)
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 
Sign-up Sheets 1K+ · 4.8★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 10 
ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2,052)
wp.org #12 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 11 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1,445)
wp.org #17 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 12 
RegistrationMagic – Custom Registration Forms, User Registration, Payment, and User Login 7K+ · 4.5★ (459)
wp.org #15 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 13 
MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress 1M+ · 4.8★ (1,498)
wp.org #16 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 14 
TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1,667)
wp.org #21 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 15 
Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 16 
WP All Export – Drag & Drop Export to Any Custom CSV, XML & Excel 100K+ · 4.5★ (415)
wp.org #23 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 17 
CodeKit – Custom Codes Editor 7K+ · 4.8★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 18 
Custom Contact Forms 6K+ · 3.5★ (171)
wp.org #14 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 19 
Volunteer Sign Up Sheets 1K+ · 4.9★ (42)
wp.org #19 ↓3 20 
Custom Order Status for WooCommerce 10K+ · 3.3★ (32)
wp.org #11 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 21 
Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) thin reviews
wp.org #18 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 22 Sign Customiser – Custom Sign Designer for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #8 ↑13 wp.org ranks it 14 places above merit 23 
Newsletter Sign-Up for CleverReach 2K+ · 3.3★ (15) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 24 
Custom Profile Picture – Replace Gravatar with Your Own Images 300+ · 4.0★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #24 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.