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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “divi components”

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 “divi components”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

JHMG AI Editor for Divi 5 shows at wp.org #6 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 100+ 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.

Buried gem

Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library places #12 on merit, 4.6★ from 779 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.

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 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Squad Modules Lite – Free Divi 5 & Divi 4 Modules for Divi Builder 1K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #4 5 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8709) wp.org #5 6 Depicter — Popup & Slider Builder 70K+ · 4.6★ (236) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too low 8 Site Reviews 60K+ · 4.9★ (376) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 CartFlows – Funnel Builder & Checkout Plugin for WooCommerce 200K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Events Shortcodes For The Events Calendar 10K+ · 4.9★ (214) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too low 12 Media Cleaner: Delete Unused Images & Clean Your Media Library 90K+ · 4.6★ (779) wp.org #17 ↓3 5 too low 13 Tutor LMS – eLearning and online course solution 100K+ · 4.4★ (590) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too low 14 WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (322) wp.org #19 ↑1 5 too low 15 FileBird – WordPress Media Library Folders & File Manager 200K+ · 4.7★ (1125) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 NextMove Lite – Thank You Page for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (150) wp.org #18 ↑1 2 too low 17 Photo Gallery by Re Gallery: Responsive Image Gallery with AI SEO 700+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #10 ↑6 7 too high 18 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Product Bundle Builder for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 JHMG AI Editor for Divi 5 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #6 14 too high 21 Before + After Images for Divi 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #15 ↑2 6 too high 22 Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #11 ↑4 11 too high 23 L Lazy Load Fix for Divi 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑1 3 too high 24 Wiplink – An MCP and Design System for Divi 5 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 3 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (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.