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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “development mode”

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 “development mode”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Speedx – Maintenance Mode shows at wp.org #10 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 200+ 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

Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 8869 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #1 2 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #3 ↑3 1 too low 3 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 Maintenance Mode 8K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Spectra Legacy – Gutenberg Blocks 1M+ · 4.7★ (1872) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 SVG Support 1M+ · 4.8★ (356) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #14 ↑1 7 too low 8 Theme Switcha – Easily Switch Themes for Development and Testing 7K+ · 4.4★ (63) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too high 9 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #16 ↓2 7 too low 10 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too low 12 Maintenance Redirect 10K+ · 4.9★ (24) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 Maintenance mode for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #4 ↓1 9 too high 14 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #24 ↓2 10 too low 15 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 Yoast Test Helper 50K+ · 4.9★ (12) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #13 5 too high 19 Vigilant – 100% Free Security Suite: Firewall, 2FA, Login, Headers, Scanner… 3K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Speedx – Maintenance Mode 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 10 too high 21 Amitry Maintenance Mode & Coming Soon 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Browser Theme Color – Address Bar Color & Dark Mode 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 Developer Debug Mode 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↑1 24 DarkAdmin – Dark Mode for Adminpanel 90+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #21 3 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.