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← Rankings

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

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 “edited”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 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

Virtual Robots.txt shows at wp.org #6 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 40K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 616 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #1 2 Classic Editor 8M+ · 4.9★ (1251) wp.org #2 3 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Nginx Helper 200K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Header Footer Code Manager 600K+ · 4.9★ (309) wp.org #5 6 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1492) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9 Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 Colorlib 404 Customizer 5K+ · 4.7★ (51) wp.org #9 ↑3 1 too high 11 W WP Customer Reviews 20K+ · 4.3★ (528) wp.org #18 ↓1 7 too low 12 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #21 9 too low 13 WP Accessibility Helper (WAH) 10K+ · 4.7★ (57) wp.org #13 ↓3 14 Content Blocks (Custom Post Widget) 10K+ · 4.9★ (80) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 Virtual Robots.txt 40K+ · 4.3★ (10) wp.org #6 ↑2 10 too high 17 WP-Sweep 100K+ · 4.7★ (138) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 WP REST Cache 10K+ · 4.9★ (42) wp.org #14 ↑7 4 too high 19 Product Video Gallery for Woocommerce 10K+ · 4.6★ (97) wp.org #17 ↓2 2 too high 20 Admin Dashboard Last Edits 900+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #10 ↑1 10 too high 21 Bulky – Bulk Edit Products for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.6★ (53) wp.org #20 ↑2 1 too high 22 GutenBee – Gutenberg Blocks 6K+ · 4.9★ (18) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Disable Gutenberg Autosave 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24 Gravatar Enhanced – Avatars, Profiles, and Privacy 100K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓1 9 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.