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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “dom”

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 “dom”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Submission DOM tracking for Contact Form 7 shows at wp.org #4 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 400+ 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

Visibility Logic for Elementor places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 58 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #1 2 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Dynamic Visibility for Elementor 50K+ · 4.6★ (89) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Embed Privacy 10K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Attributes for Blocks 4K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 WPSpeed – WordPress Speed, Cache & Performance Optimization (Core Web Vitals, PageSpeed 100) 2K+ · 4.9★ (40) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Highlight Search Terms 6K+ · 5.0★ (40) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Visibility Logic for Elementor 20K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 WebP Express 300K+ · 4.4★ (162) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Authorizer 6K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 Ajaxify Comments – Ajax and Lazy Loading Comments 3K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Alphabetic Pagination 400+ · 4.7★ (81) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 WPConsent – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for Privacy Compliance (GDPR / CCPA / EU Compliance Cookie Notice) 200K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Simple Revisions Delete 10K+ · 4.9★ (50) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Successful Redirection for Contact Form 10K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #7 8 too high 16 WP-ShowHide 9K+ · 4.2★ (43) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Lord of the Files: Enhanced Upload Security 1K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Dashboard Cleaner 400+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 Simple Tour Guide 200+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #20 21 Submission DOM tracking for Contact Form 7 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 17 too high 22 LLM Markdown – Markdown Endpoints for AI Agents 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 NETOPIA Payments Payment Gateway 10K+ · 3.0★ (9) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 HappyVR – Virtual Tour Builder & 360 Panorama Viewer 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 3 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.