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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “delete thumbnails”

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 “delete thumbnails”, 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

Delete Unscaled Images shows at wp.org #5 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

LiteSpeed Cache places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 2778 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Recent Posts Widget With Thumbnails 100K+ · 4.8★ (215) wp.org #1 2 Force Regenerate Thumbnails 200K+ · 4.7★ (186) wp.org #2 3 Regenerate Thumbnails 1M+ · 4.6★ (396) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Perfect Images: Regenerate Thumbnails, Image Sizes, WebP & AVIF 60K+ · 4.8★ (279) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library 90K+ · 4.6★ (779) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced 60K+ · 3.2★ (59) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 A AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild 30K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #9 10 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1492) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #18 7 too low 12 ThumbPress – Compress Images, Manage Thumbnails, Detect Image Issues, WebP/AVIF, Lazy Loading, Hotlinking & More 20K+ · 3.7★ (117) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #23 ↓1 10 too low 14 Kama Thumbnail 8K+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Enable Media Replace 600K+ · 4.4★ (302) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Delete Unscaled Images 900+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #5 11 too high 17 Media Hygiene: Remove or Delete Unused Images and More! 4K+ · 4.2★ (41) wp.org #15 2 too high 18 FileOrganizer – WordPress File Manager 200K+ · 4.8★ (49) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 too low 19 Generate Images (AI) – Magic Post Thumbnail 5K+ · 4.3★ (25) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Square Thumbnails 700+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #24 ↓1 4 too low 21 Thumbnail Slider With Lightbox 700+ · 3.8★ (11) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Video Gallery 600+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 Thumbnail Manager 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 9 too high 24 Thumbnail Manager 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.