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

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 return”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Flexible Refund for WooCommerce – EU One Click Return shows at wp.org #9 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 2144 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★ (592) wp.org #1 2 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #7 ↑1 2 too low 6 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8709) wp.org #12 6 too low 7 Withdrawal Button – Easy Return 400+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #17 ↑5 9 too low 9 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 #18 ↓1 9 too low 10 Events Made Easy 1K+ · 4.6★ (111) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too low 11 Return Refund and Exchange For WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.7★ (124) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Easy Footnotes 8K+ · 4.8★ (33) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too high 13 Business Directory Plugin – Easy Listing & Member Directories for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (504) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 FluentSnippets – High-Performance Code Snippets, Header & Footer Code, Custom CSS & PHP Code Manager 50K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 BuddyPilot Withdrawal – Easy Returns for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Easy SVG Support 40K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #8 ↑7 8 too high 17 Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #22 ↓4 5 too low 18 Easy Optimizer – PageSpeed, Cache & Core Web Vitals (Unused CSS, Delay JS, Lazy Load) 1K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Easy Accept Payments via PayPal 6K+ · 4.5★ (34) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Easy PayPal Events & Tickets 1K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #21 1 too low 21 Flexible Refund for WooCommerce – EU One Click Return 2K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↓2 12 too high 22 Easy Invoice – Invoice Generator, PDF Quotes & Payments 600+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 too low 23 Trusted Shops Easy Integration for WooCommerce 6K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↑1 8 too high 24 Easy Age Verify 1K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #19 5 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.