wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “editing pages”
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 “editing pages”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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
CC Child Pages shows at wp.org #10 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 9K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.9★ average from 49 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322)
wp.org #1 2 
Simple Comment Editing 2K+ · 4.8★ (55)
wp.org #2 3 
Nested Pages 90K+ · 4.7★ (126)
wp.org #3 4 
Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1,005)
wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 I Insert Pages 30K+ · 4.8★ (71)
wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 6 
Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5,043)
wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 
Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1,527)
wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 8 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27,820)
wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 9 
Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1,014)
wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 10 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (334)
wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 11 
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7,522)
wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 12 
Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4,699)
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 13 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2,617)
wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 14 
Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510)
wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 15 
TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1,668)
wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 16 CC Child Pages 9K+ · 4.9★ (49)
wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 17 
Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394)
wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 18 
Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107)
wp.org #20 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 19 
Gutenverse – WordPress Blocks, Page Builder & Site Editor 20K+ · 4.9★ (190)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 20 
Otter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder for Gutenberg Editor & FSE 300K+ · 4.7★ (251)
wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 21 
Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187)
wp.org #21 22 
Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer 400K+ · 4.5★ (81)
wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 23 
Legal Pages – Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, GDPR, CCPA, and Cookie Notice Generator 8K+ · 4.3★ (29)
wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 24 B BU Section Editing 50+ · 5.0★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.