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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “dropdown text”

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 “dropdown text”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 3 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.

D

Ranked above its merit

Display Product Variations Dropdown on Shop Page shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #7 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 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 Country State City Dropdown CF7 5K+ · 4.9★ (30) wp.org #1 2 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Image Alt Text 10K+ · 5.0★ (56) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #9 ↑8 5 too low 5 DTX – Dynamic Text Extension for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.7★ (99) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Navigation menu as Dropdown Widget 2K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #17 ↓5 10 too low 8 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce 300K+ · 4.8★ (926) wp.org #11 ↑9 3 too low 9 Ultra Addons for Contact Form 7 60K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too low 10 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #20 ↓2 10 too low 11 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #15 ↓2 4 too low 12 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #21 ↑2 9 too low 13 AI Alt Text Generator 2K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #5 8 too high 14 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #22 ↓1 8 too low 15 Alt Text AI – Automatically generate image alt text for SEO and accessibility 20K+ · 4.7★ (35) wp.org #12 ↓2 3 too high 16 JVM Rich Text Icons 3K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #7 9 too high 17 Media Library Assistant 70K+ · 4.8★ (202) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color, Image & Size Swatches 200K+ · 4.6★ (51) wp.org #18 ↓2 19 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #19 20 T Taxonomy Dropdown Widget 1K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #8 12 too high 21 Quran multilanguage Text & Audio 400+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #16 ↓2 5 too high 22 Text Replace – Find and Replace WordPress Strings 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓2 9 too high 23 AI Image Alt Text Generator – Imagerr AI 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #23 ↓1 24 D Display Product Variations Dropdown on Shop Page 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #10 ↓1 14 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.