Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 plugin edit”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Astra Bulk Edit shows at wp.org #6 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1267 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #1 2 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #2 3 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #4 ↑2 1 too low 4 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Disable All WordPress Updates 20K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #20 10 too low 11 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too low 12 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #12 13 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #11 2 too high 14 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 Plugin Organizer 10K+ · 4.7★ (227) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too high 16 Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 Bulk Edit Products for WooCommerce – WP Sheet Editor 10K+ · 4.9★ (228) wp.org #17 18 Sitemap by BestWebSoft – WordPress XML Site Map Page Generator Plugin 20K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #24 ↓1 6 too low 19 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #19 20 Disable Blog 20K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 Astra Bulk Edit 30K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #6 ↓1 15 too high 22 Disable Feeds WP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #15 7 too high 23 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #23 24 Disable User Login 6K+ · 5.0★ (6) 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.