wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “disable plugins by post or page”
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 plugins by post or page”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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
Disable Comments shows at wp.org #11 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 100K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.8★ average from 25 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.
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7,522)
wp.org #1 2 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8,716)
wp.org #2 ↑5 3 
Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735)
wp.org #4 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 
Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281)
wp.org #3 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 5 
Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (518)
wp.org #5 6 
Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528)
wp.org #6 ↓2 7 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,231)
wp.org #8 ↑13 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 8 
Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296)
wp.org #7 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 
Plugin Organizer 10K+ · 4.7★ (227)
wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 10 
Freesoul Deactivate Plugins – Disable plugins on individual WordPress pages 8K+ · 4.8★ (104)
wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 11 
Rate My Post – Star Rating Plugin by FeedbackWP 20K+ · 4.7★ (159)
wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 
Schedule Post Changes With PublishPress Future: Unpublish, Delete, Change Status, Trash, Change Categories 100K+ · 4.5★ (173)
wp.org #14 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 13 
Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398)
wp.org #18 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 14 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1,281)
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 15 
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5,233)
wp.org #20 ↓6 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 16 
Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140)
wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 17 
Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (158)
wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 18 
Page scroll to id 100K+ · 4.9★ (225)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 19 
Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80)
wp.org #19 ↑1 20 
Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (188)
wp.org #23 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 21 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25)
wp.org #11 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 10 places above merit 22 
Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641)
wp.org #24 ↓9 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 23 
Disable Media Pages 9K+ · 5.0★ (17) thin reviews
wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 24 
Disable Everything 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews
wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 8 places 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.