Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “display urdu time”

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 “display urdu time”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Clicks Manual Payment Gateways for Pakistan shows at wp.org #3 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

LoginPress | wp-login Custom Login Page Customizer places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1077 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 User Submitted Posts – Enable Users to Submit Posts from the Front End 10K+ · 4.8★ (913) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Books Gallery – Book Showcase, Library & Affiliate Plugin 2K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Floating Chat Buttons – Click to Call or Chat, Email 1K+ · 4.9★ (54) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Export All URLs 50K+ · 4.6★ (94) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Simple Job Board 10K+ · 4.7★ (133) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (93) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 GSpeech TTS – WordPress Text To Speech Plugin 3K+ · 4.8★ (178) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 LoginPress | wp-login Custom Login Page Customizer 200K+ · 4.8★ (1077) wp.org #19 9 too low 11 Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator 100K+ · 4.7★ (620) wp.org #18 7 too low 12 ConveyThis AI Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.4★ (145) wp.org #17 5 too low 13 Accessibility Widget by OneTap – Easy One-Click Accessibility Toolbar 60K+ · 4.9★ (80) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Real Accessibility: Accessibility Widget & Toolbar 1K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #10 4 too high 15 WebinarIgnition – AI & MCP Webinar Builder on Your WordPress: Live, Automated & Evergreen, WooCommerce Upsells Inside 70+ · 4.5★ (51) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Trinity Audio – Text to Speech AI audio player to convert content into audio 2K+ · 4.0★ (25) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 SureDash – Community, Courses & Member Dashboard 1K+ · 4.3★ (23) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 TimeSaverBot – Multilingual AI Chatbot for WooCommerce & Live Chat 100+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 LiveLang – Smart Multilingual Visual Translator 30+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 Clicks Manual Payment Gateways for Pakistan 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 ↑1 17 too high 21 Customize My Account for WooCommerce – Custom Tabs, Login, Registration, 2FA & Design 900+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 StaticDelivr: Free CDN, Image Optimization & Speed 50+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 Vartable for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 10 too high 24 Automatic Multilingual AI Translation by Autoglot 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 2 too high

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.