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

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 blogging”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

AI Content Writer & Auto Blogging for WordPress shows at wp.org #5 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 30+ 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

Element Pack Addons for Elementor – MCP & AI-Ready Elementor Widgets, Elementor Templates, Elementor Addons places #3 on merit, 4.7★ from 284 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable Blog 20K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #1 2 Disable Feeds WP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #2 3 Element Pack Addons for Elementor – MCP & AI-Ready Elementor Widgets, Elementor Templates, Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.7★ (284) wp.org #10 ↑1 7 too low 4 Easy Footnotes 8K+ · 4.8★ (33) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too low 5 Zotpress 2K+ · 4.9★ (66) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 SEO WRITING – AI Writer for SEO & AI Search 20K+ · 4.9★ (120) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too low 7 Post Slider and Post Carousel with Post Vertical Scrolling Widget – A Responsive Post Slider 10K+ · 4.7★ (31) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 BotWriter – AI Writer & SEO Content Generator 1K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #4 ↓1 4 too high 9 Simple Disable XML-RPC 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #3 6 too high 10 User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537) wp.org #16 ↑6 6 too low 11 Blog Designer Pack – Blog, Post Grid, Post Slider, Post Carousel, Category Post, News 30K+ · 4.7★ (79) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too low 12 Restricted Site Access 10K+ · 4.8★ (62) wp.org #14 ↓1 2 too low 13 BuddyForms 800+ · 4.8★ (180) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 Debug Log Manager – Conveniently Monitor and Inspect Errors 10K+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 too low 15 wp-forecast 4K+ · 4.2★ (23) wp.org #15 16 Superb Addons: Blocks, Patterns, Pre-built Pages, Sliders, Popups, Free Forms, Animations & More 80K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow) 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 Pixel Gallery Addons for Elementor 4K+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19 AI Content Writer & Auto Blogging for WordPress 30+ · 4.0★ (1) wp.org #5 14 too high 20 Blogsqode – Blog Layouts and News Post Design 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 ↓1 3 too high 21 Live Copy Paste for Elementor – Cross Domain Copy Paste & Page Duplicator 6K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #9 ↓1 12 too high 22 Tasty Recipes Lite – WordPress Recipe Card Plugin with Built-In Recipe Schema 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↓3 10 too high 23 Quevedo 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓3 3 too high 24 Wonderful Secure Cleanup 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.