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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “donate link”

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 “donate link”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Link Invoice Payment for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 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

Charitable – Donation & Fundraising Platform (Donation Forms, Recurring Donations & Fundraising Campaigns) places #5 on merit, 4.9★ from 219 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 Broken Link Notifier 1K+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #2 3 Zeffy Donate Button 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 WhyDonate – FREE Donate button – Crowdfunding – Fundraising 700+ · 4.8★ (43) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 Charitable – Donation & Fundraising Platform (Donation Forms, Recurring Donations & Fundraising Campaigns) 10K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #10 ↑2 5 too low 6 Page scroll to id 100K+ · 4.9★ (225) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too low 7 PDF Invoices Italian Add-on for WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #4 ↑1 3 too high 8 Art WooCommerce Order One Click 4K+ · 5.0★ (36) wp.org #8 9 Comet Cache 20K+ · 4.4★ (108) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 I iframe 60K+ · 4.4★ (56) wp.org #14 ↑1 4 too low 11 Buy one click for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 Connect Matomo – Analytics Dashboard for WordPress 60K+ · 4.5★ (95) wp.org #17 ↑2 5 too low 13 Say What? 40K+ · 4.3★ (92) wp.org #19 ↑2 6 too low 14 P Page-list 30K+ · 4.7★ (89) wp.org #23 ↑1 9 too low 15 Donation Platform for WooCommerce: Fundraising & Donation Management 7K+ · 4.9★ (99) wp.org #24 ↓4 9 too low 16 Donorbox – Free Recurring Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 8K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #16 ↑1 17 WP Original Media Path 5K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #22 ↑1 5 too low 18 Accept Donations with PayPal & Stripe 10K+ · 3.8★ (23) wp.org #20 ↓6 2 too low 19 Simple GDPR Cookie Compliance 6K+ · 4.9★ (14) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too low 20 Donation Thermometer 2K+ · 4.4★ (12) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 VS Link Manager 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #6 15 too high 22 Donate by BestWebSoft – Donations Acception Extention for WordPress 100+ · 3.7★ (7) wp.org #18 4 too high 23 Link Invoice Payment for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 16 too high 24 Ko-fi Button 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↓1 12 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.