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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “db”

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 “db”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Contact Form to DB by BestWebSoft – Messages Database Plugin For WordPress shows at wp.org #8 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 12 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 816 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Database Addon for Contact Form 7 – CFDB7 600K+ · 5.0★ (1875) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229) wp.org #3 ↑3 1 too low 3 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Contact Form DB Divi 4K+ · 3.9★ (9) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Brozzme DB Prefix & Tools Addons 9K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #5 ↓2 6 Better Search Replace 1M+ · 4.3★ (546) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too low 7 SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (816) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 Tablesome Table – Contact Form DB – WPForms, CF7, Gravity, Forminator, Fluent 7K+ · 4.8★ (89) wp.org #9 ↑2 1 too low 9 WP-DBManager 50K+ · 4.4★ (95) wp.org #10 ↑3 1 too low 10 FormsDB – Save Elementor Forms to Google Sheets & Post Type 20K+ · 4.6★ (19) wp.org #6 ↑1 4 too high 11 FluentSnippets – High-Performance Code Snippets, Header & Footer Code, Custom CSS & PHP Code Manager 50K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #11 ↑1 12 Matomo Analytics – Powerful, Privacy-First Insights for WordPress 100K+ · 4.6★ (178) wp.org #15 ↑1 3 too low 13 Index WP MySQL For Speed 50K+ · 4.8★ (99) wp.org #17 ↑6 4 too low 14 Form Vibes – Save Contact Form 7 & Elementor Form Entries to Database 10K+ · 4.9★ (132) wp.org #19 ↓2 5 too low 15 Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions 60K+ · 4.7★ (181) wp.org #21 ↓1 6 too low 16 Database Backup for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (66) wp.org #16 ↓2 17 Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule 10K+ · 4.0★ (128) wp.org #18 ↑3 1 too low 18 Contact Form to DB by BestWebSoft – Messages Database Plugin For WordPress 1K+ · 4.2★ (12) wp.org #8 ↑2 10 too high 19 Pz-LinkCard 20K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #13 ↓8 6 too high 20 Z zipaddr-jp 50K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 ↑1 6 too high 21 Opti-Behavior – Self-Hosted Heatmaps, Funnels, A/B Testing & Smart Insights 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 ByteFyre DB Replace 50+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓4 23 WP Contact Form 7 DB Handler 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓4 24 P Page Optimize 200K+ · 3.0★ (5) wp.org #24 ↓2

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.