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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “demand planning”

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 “demand planning”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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

Roadmap and Feedback Plugin for WordPress – SimpleBoards shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 40+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Simple Local Avatars 100K+ · 4.6★ (89) wp.org #1 2 EventON – Events Calendar 6K+ · 4.1★ (44) wp.org #2 3 Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule 10K+ · 4.0★ (128) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 Shipday Local Delivery for WooCommerce 700+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Shelf Planner Inventory Management for WooCommerce 100+ · 4.7★ (16) wp.org #9 ↓1 4 too low 6 Timetics – Appointment Booking Calendar & Scheduling 2K+ · 4.6★ (36) wp.org #15 9 too low 7 connectDaily Events Calendar Plugin 90+ · 4.4★ (17) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 PreOrders for WooCommerce – PreCart 70+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 AI Content Wizard Lite — SEO Content & Planner for OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek & Gemini 10+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #24 15 too low 10 Opace AI Scribe: SEO Content Creator & Humanizer for OpenAI, Anthropic & Gemini 100+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 The School Management – Education & Learning ERP 700+ · 4.5★ (15) wp.org #17 6 too low 12 WP Before After Image Slider – Interactive Image and Video Comparison Plugin for WordPress 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 7 too high 13 KnowledgeBase with AI ChatBot HelpDesk – KBx 30+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #23 ↓1 10 too low 14 AEO God Mode – AI Search Visibility 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 15 SurveyX Builder – Survey, Poll, Quiz & Feedback Form 2K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 Host Domination Booking Engine: Calendar Sync & Reservation System 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 Assistini – WP AI Text Writer, Content Generator, Auto Image Generator and SEO Optimizer with ChatGPT 70+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 Roadmap and Feedback Plugin for WordPress – SimpleBoards 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 11 too high 19 B Beltoft In-Stock Notifier for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↑1 11 too high 20 Content Forge – AI & non-AI content generator, scheduled AI posts, dummy data for your site 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 10 too high 21 Modules Insight 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Verve AI – Inventory Forecasting for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓2 1 too high 23 Dynamic Post – AI Content – White Paper – Peer Review – Tax & Accounting Sites 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 UltimaTour Operator 40+ · 5.0★ (1) 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.