Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 settings”, 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

Simply Disable Comments shows at wp.org #15 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 8K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Disable Admin Notices – Hide Dashboard Notifications 100K+ · 4.7★ (367) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Disable Emails 30K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Disable All WordPress Updates 20K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Disable Blog 20K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too high 8 Disable Media Sizes 10K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #8 9 Widget Disable 10K+ · 4.8★ (24) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 Disable Everything 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 Disable Media Pages 10K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Disable WP Notification 10K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Disable WP Sitemaps 10K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 Disable Generate Thumbnails 6K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too low 15 Disable XML-RPC-API 100K+ · 4.2★ (43) wp.org #21 ↑1 6 too low 16 Disable Lazy Load 9K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too low 17 Disable Feeds WP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 Disable WordPress Update Notifications and auto-update Email Notifications 10K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Disable Application Passwords 3K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #20 ↑1 1 too low 20 Easy PHP Settings 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 D Disable Author Archives 10K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too high 22 Disable WooCommerce Reviews 2K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #22 ↑2 23 Simply Disable Comments 8K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 ↑1 8 too high 24 Disable User Login 6K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #23 1 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.