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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “easy navigation”

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 “easy navigation”, we agree with wp.org 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

Easy Slider shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 1K+ 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

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 5209 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 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #1 2 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #2 3 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #3 4 Firelight Lightbox 200K+ · 4.8★ (361) wp.org #4 5 Easy Accordion – AI-Powered FAQ & Accordion Blocks, Product FAQ 70K+ · 4.9★ (358) wp.org #5 6 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too low 7 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820) wp.org #13 6 too low 8 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #11 ↓4 3 too low 9 Easy Footnotes 8K+ · 4.8★ (33) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 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 #17 ↓1 7 too low 11 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #15 4 too low 12 Pricing Table WordPress Plugin – Easy Pricing Tables 10K+ · 4.3★ (133) wp.org #14 2 too low 13 Accessibility Widget by OneTap – Easy One-Click Accessibility Toolbar 60K+ · 4.9★ (80) wp.org #16 ↑1 3 too low 14 WPFront Scroll Top 200K+ · 4.9★ (142) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Navigation menu as Dropdown Widget 2K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #7 ↑1 8 too high 16 WP Sitemap Page 200K+ · 4.8★ (205) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Easy Optimizer – PageSpeed, Cache & Core Web Vitals (Unused CSS, Delay JS, Lazy Load) 1K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #9 8 too high 18 FileOrganizer – WordPress File Manager 200K+ · 4.8★ (49) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Easy Tabs Block – Smart, Lightweight & Responsive Tabs for the Block Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #10 ↑1 9 too high 20 Easy Accordion Block – Accordion, FAQ & Collapsible Content for the Block Editor 7K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #19 1 too high 21 HT Easy GA4 – Google Analytics WordPress Plugin 6K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Easy Slider 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 10 too high 23 Better Section Navigation 600+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 Navigation JHAC 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↑1 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.