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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “deactivate plugin”

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 “deactivate plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Plugin Memory Usage shows at wp.org #15 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 600+ 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

WP-Members Membership Plugin places #11 on merit, 4.6★ from 272 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Freesoul Deactivate Plugins – Disable plugins on individual WordPress pages 8K+ · 4.8★ (104) wp.org #1 2 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #3 4 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #5 6 WP Plugin Manager – Deactivate plugins per page 3K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 Plugin Organizer 10K+ · 4.7★ (227) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 Plugin Load Filter 7K+ · 4.8★ (52) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 WP-Members Membership Plugin 50K+ · 4.6★ (272) wp.org #19 8 too low 12 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #16 ↓2 4 too low 13 Contact Form by BestWebSoft – Advanced WP Contact Form Builder for WordPress 30K+ · 4.0★ (292) wp.org #21 ↓1 8 too low 14 Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 Plugin Detective – Troubleshooting Conflicts 5K+ · 4.0★ (49) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 Plugin Groups 1K+ · 4.3★ (31) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 Better Plugin Compatibility Control 4K+ · 4.3★ (19) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 The Hack Repair Guy’s Plugin Archiver 300+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too high 19 WPCore Plugin Manager 9K+ · 4.8★ (32) wp.org #22 3 too low 20 WP Plugin Info Card – Showcase Beautiful Plugin, Theme, and GitHub Cards Anywhere 400+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #24 ↓2 4 too low 21 IndexNow Plugin 100K+ · 3.2★ (47) wp.org #23 2 too low 22 Fatal Plugin Auto Deactivator – Never let a plugin break your site 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Plugin Memory Usage 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑1 8 too high 24 SMNTCS Deactivate Image Compression 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑1 4 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.