wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “domain checking”

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 “domain checking”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 5 plugins are 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

Antispam for Elementor Forms shows at wp.org #17 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 1K+ 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

Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 783 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) heavy footprint wp.org #2 1 too low 2

WP24 Domain Check 4K+ · 4.3★ (32) wp.org #1 1 too high 3

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #5 1 too low 5

Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #9 3 too low 7

Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #3 ↑1 4 too high 8

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too low 9

Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1033) not PHP-current wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too high 10

Anti-Malware Security and Brute-Force Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (783) wp.org #14 4 too low 11

Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #13 2 too low 12

Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #12 13

Ads.txt Manager 100K+ · 4.7★ (15) thin reviews wp.org #7 ↓1 6 too high 14

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) not PHP-current wp.org #21 ↓3 7 too low 15

Search & Replace Everything – Quick and Easy Way to Find and Replace Text, Links 20K+ · 4.7★ (26) wp.org #15 ↑1 1 too high 17

Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #24 7 too low 18

CF7 Apps – Addons for Contact Form 7 (Honeypot, Database, Redirection, Webhook, etc.) 300K+ · 3.8★ (135) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #16 2 too high 19

Gravity Forms Zero Spam 100K+ · 4.3★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #20 ↑3 1 too low 20

Magic Login – Magic Link & Passwordless Authentication for WordPress – Login Without Password 3K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21

Link Manager – Analyze, Automate, and Monitor Links 1K+ · 4.4★ (10) thin reviews wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too high 22

QuickEmailVerification 200+ · 5.0★ (5) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #23 1 too low 23

Security.txt Manager 700+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #19 ↑2 4 too high 24

Antispam for Elementor Forms 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #17 7 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.