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

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 studio”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 17 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

Before After Image Compare — Gutenberg & Elementor shows at wp.org #4 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 284 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Black Studio TinyMCE Widget 200K+ · 4.8★ (191) wp.org #1 2 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too low 4 Easy Appointments 10K+ · 4.3★ (131) wp.org #8 ↑2 4 too low 5 Advanced Product Fields (Product Addons) for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.8★ (284) wp.org #12 7 too low 6 Event Organiser 20K+ · 4.6★ (140) wp.org #10 ↑6 4 too low 7 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 WCFM Marketplace – Multivendor Marketplace for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.6★ (449) wp.org #15 7 too low 9 WCFM – Frontend Manager for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.5★ (286) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Video Popup – Youtube, Vimeo, Gutenberg, Shortcode, Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #2 8 too high 11 MyRewards 2K+ · 4.7★ (58) wp.org #11 12 Automatic Translator with Google Translate 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #5 ↑1 7 too high 13 EU/UK VAT Validation Manager for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.8★ (39) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Tracking and Consent Manager – WP Full Picture 3K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 Min Max Step Quantity Limits Manager for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.9★ (51) wp.org #23 ↓1 8 too low 16 Team Members Showcase 4K+ · 4.9★ (21) wp.org #22 ↓1 6 too low 17 Before After Image Compare — Gutenberg & Elementor 200+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #4 ↑1 13 too high 18 Cowboy MCP – Free MCP Server with Undo for Claude & ChatGPT 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #24 ↓1 6 too low 19 Rooted Dev Studio Security Toolkit — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↑1 12 too high 20 Zelvigo Dev Studio Lite – WordPress CPT & Taxonomy Generator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 PurePen AI – AI Content Generator with Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini & More 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too high 22 Orbem Studio — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓2 1 too high 23 AICOM – AI Commander 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too high 24 PeproDev Branches Map (Mapify) 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 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.