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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “disable admin notifications”

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

Hide WP Admin Notifications shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 3K+ 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

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 5209 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #1 2 Disable Admin Notices – Hide Dashboard Notifications 100K+ · 4.7★ (367) wp.org #2 3 OneSignal – Web Push Notifications 60K+ · 4.3★ (360) wp.org #5 ↑1 2 too low 4 Disable WP Notification 10K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Disable All WordPress Updates 20K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 Disable WordPress Update Notifications and auto-update Email Notifications 10K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #22 ↓6 15 too low 8 Disable Emails 30K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Disable Bloat for WordPress & WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.8★ (100) wp.org #15 ↑2 6 too low 10 Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too low 11 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too high 12 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #24 12 too low 13 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #17 ↓3 4 too low 14 Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1033) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 Disable Everything 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 8 too high 16 PiWeb Live sales notification for WooCommerce 40K+ · 4.1★ (29) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Web Push Notifications – Webpushr 10K+ · 4.7★ (63) wp.org #16 ↑2 1 too high 18 WP Custom Admin Interface 30K+ · 4.7★ (160) wp.org #23 ↓1 5 too low 19 Disable XML-RPC-API 100K+ · 4.2★ (43) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Disable User Password Reset Admin Notifications 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #11 ↓1 9 too high 21 Disable Updates for WordPress Core, Plugins and Themes 9K+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Disable User Login 6K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too high 23 Hide WP Admin Notifications 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓1 17 too high 24 Unnotifier — disable admin notices individually 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↑2 5 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.