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

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 visual editor”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Classic Visual Editor Options shows at wp.org #5 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. 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 Gallery by Visual Portfolio 60K+ · 4.8★ (340) wp.org #2 3 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Visual CSS Style Editor 30K+ · 4.1★ (90) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #11 ↑1 5 too low 7 Advanced Editor Tools 1M+ · 4.5★ (354) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 HTML Editor Syntax Highlighter 60K+ · 4.4★ (110) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #17 ↑6 8 too low 10 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 WP Editor 20K+ · 4.5★ (95) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too low 14 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #20 ↓2 6 too low 15 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 Block Visibility — Conditional Visibility Control for the Block Editor 40K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too low 17 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #10 7 too high 18 Classic Visual Editor Options 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #5 13 too high 19 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too high 20 Black Studio TinyMCE Widget 200K+ · 4.8★ (191) wp.org #24 ↓3 4 too low 21 Nexter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder & AI Website Builder 9K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #21 22 Mega Addons For WPBakery Page Builder 20K+ · 4.2★ (57) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too high 23 Admin Bar Editor – Toolbar Customization with User Role based access & Custom menus 3K+ · 4.4★ (24) wp.org #16 ↓1 7 too high 24 Visibility Controls for Editor Blocks 900+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 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.