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← Rankings

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

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 “dominant”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 2 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

Image Placeholders shows at wp.org #1 but places #9 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 60K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Performance Lab places #8 on merit, 4.3★ from 51 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 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (995) wp.org #3 ↓1 2 too low 2 Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 My Private Site – Make Your Whole Site Private, Force Login & Block Registration Spam 10K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Stripe Payment Forms by WP Simple Pay – Accept Credit Card Payments + Subscriptions with Stripe 8K+ · 4.4★ (117) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Poll Maker by AYS – Versus Polls, Anonymous Polls, Image Polls 6K+ · 4.4★ (91) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Video Background Block – Add Stunning Video Backgrounds to Any Section 2K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Rapls AI Chatbot – Self-Hosted RAG & MCP Server 90+ · 4.9★ (9) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Performance Lab 100K+ · 4.3★ (51) wp.org #17 9 too low 9 Image Placeholders 60K+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #1 8 too high 10 Dominant Color 200+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 PuzzleMe – Interactive Puzzles for WordPress – Easily publish crosswords, quizzes, word searches and more 1K+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 Dominant Publisher — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 Trimardeau SEO Log : SEO & GEO Bot Analytics 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 1 too low 14 SmoothPreview — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 1 too low 15 LolaCore for Forms 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 WebKew Image Dominant Color Generator 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 4 too high 17 Apex IDX 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 RelayCard — Inline Related Post Cards — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 19 Image to Design Tokens — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 Kybern UI Login — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑1 21 M ModelGain Queue Health for Action Scheduler — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 22 M MADigital COD Manager for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 Iridys Palette Extender — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 R Revenue Diagnosis for WooCommerce – Daily Store Analytics by Matriq — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24

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.