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← Rankings

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

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 “dev”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 2 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

LAPDI Easy Dev Framework shows at wp.org #7 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 100+ 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

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #12 on merit, 5.0★ from 423 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 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #1 2 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #2 3 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Defender Security – Malware Scanner, Login Security & Firewall 80K+ · 4.8★ (334) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 Hummingbird Performance – Cache & Page Speed Optimization for Core Web Vitals | Critical CSS | Minify CSS | Defer CSS Javascript | CDN 70K+ · 4.7★ (1488) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too low 7 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #4 ↓1 3 too high 8 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #10 ↓2 2 too low 9 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #12 ↑2 3 too low 10 SmartCrawl SEO checker, analyzer & optimizer 10K+ · 4.8★ (171) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #14 ↓2 3 too low 12 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #23 11 too low 13 OMGF | GDPR/DSGVO Compliant, Faster Google Fonts. Easy. 300K+ · 4.7★ (213) wp.org #21 ↑1 8 too low 14 Branda – White Label & Branding, Free Login Page Customizer 10K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Beehive Analytics – Google Analytics Dashboard 20K+ · 4.5★ (13) wp.org #9 ↑1 6 too high 16 Waymark 900+ · 5.0★ (54) wp.org #20 ↑3 4 too low 17 PeproDev Ultimate Invoice 5K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #17 ↓1 18 PeproDev Receipt Uploader for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 Age Gate Lite 2K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Automatic Translator with Google Translate 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Developer Debug Tools 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too low 22 LAPDI Easy Dev Framework 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↓1 15 too high 23 Aruba HiSpeed Cache 100K+ · 3.0★ (10) wp.org #16 ↑8 7 too high 24 一介資男(Mxp.TW) 開發工具箱 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑2 9 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.