wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “disable admin email when user register”
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 “disable admin email when user register”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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
User Private Files – Secure File Sharing and Client Portal Plugin shows at wp.org #16 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 57 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423)
wp.org #1 2 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224)
wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 3 
Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281)
wp.org #2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 4 
User Registration & Membership – Free & Paid Memberships, Subscriptions, Content Restriction, User Profile, Custom User Registration & Login Builder 50K+ · 4.8★ (832)
wp.org #4 5 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1,281)
wp.org #5 6 
Nextend Social Login and Register 200K+ · 4.9★ (447)
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 
User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 8 
User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913)
wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 
Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1,033)
wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 10 
New User Approve 20K+ · 4.3★ (131)
wp.org #8 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 11 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #12 ↑4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 
Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398)
wp.org #15 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 13 
ProfilePress – Paid Membership, Online Courses (LMS), Ecommerce, User Registration & Login Form, User Profile & Restrict Content 100K+ · 3.1★ (938)
wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 14 
Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction 1K+ · 4.2★ (222)
wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 15 
Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,133)
wp.org #24 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 16 
Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (476)
wp.org #22 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 17 
Wp Social Login and Register Social Counter 70K+ · 4.6★ (67)
wp.org #14 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 18 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #20 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 19 
GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155)
wp.org #17 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 20 
Contact Form Email 8K+ · 4.3★ (102)
wp.org #19 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 21 
ACF Frontend Admin by DynamiApps 8K+ · 4.5★ (160)
wp.org #21 ↑1 22 User Private Files – Secure File Sharing and Client Portal Plugin 1K+ · 4.4★ (57)
wp.org #16 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 23 
WP Approve User 3K+ · 4.2★ (42)
wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 24 
Email OTP Authenticator – Login, Register & 2FA 100+ · 5.0★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.