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

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 “delicious”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 5 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

Delisho – Recipe Widgets and Blocks 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 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Team Members – A WordPress Team Plugin with Gallery, Grid, Carousel, Slider, Table, List, and More places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 91 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Delicious – Recipe Plugin for Food Bloggers (formerly Delicious Recipes) 4K+ · 4.9★ (71) wp.org #1 2 WP Recipe Maker 50K+ · 5.0★ (356) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews 20K+ · 4.9★ (184) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too low 5 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too high 7 EleSpare – News, Magazine and Blog Addons for Elementor 10K+ · 4.9★ (44) wp.org #7 8 Dark Mode – Improve Accessibility with AI Powered Dark Theme 20K+ · 4.5★ (391) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 OAuth Single Sign On – SSO (OAuth Client) 6K+ · 4.9★ (327) wp.org #16 ↓3 7 too low 10 WP Fast Total Search – The Power of Indexed Search 1K+ · 4.4★ (28) wp.org #10 ↓2 11 Team Members – A WordPress Team Plugin with Gallery, Grid, Carousel, Slider, Table, List, and More 2K+ · 4.7★ (91) wp.org #23 ↓2 12 too low 12 Contact Coldform 200+ · 4.5★ (13) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too low 13 Solid Testimonials – Testimonial Slider, Video Testimonials & Customer Reviews 1K+ · 4.3★ (35) wp.org #20 ↓1 7 too low 14 Socicon 200+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Meks Smart Social Widget 10K+ · 4.6★ (10) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Restaurant Food Menu by WP Darko – Drag & Drop Restaurant Menu Builder for WordPress 400+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 ↑1 1 too high 17 TemplateSpare – 1000+ WordPress Starter Templates & Full Site Migration Tool | 1-Click Import/Export & No-Code Builder 10K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #12 5 too high 18 Delisho – Recipe Widgets and Blocks 1K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 ↑2 10 too high 19 SUBRE – Product Subscription for WooCommerce – Recurring Payments 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Clone / Duplicate Orders for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 Delicious Hosting Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too high 22 Delicious Digital Product Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↑2 1 too high 23 WP Cron Pixie 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 Smart Showcase for Google Reviews 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 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.