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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “editor buttons”

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 “editor buttons”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 of the top 20. 6 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

Snow Monkey Editor shows at wp.org #12 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

MaxButtons – Create buttons places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 1093 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 Classic Editor 8M+ · 4.9★ (1251) wp.org #1 2 User Role Editor 700K+ · 4.5★ (288) wp.org #2 3 Checkout Field Editor (Checkout Manager) for WooCommerce 400K+ · 4.9★ (1056) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too high 5 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 Advanced Editor Tools 1M+ · 4.5★ (354) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 Simple Share Buttons Adder 40K+ · 4.3★ (627) wp.org #10 ↓1 2 too low 9 BEAR – Bulk Editor for WooCommerce Professional. AI assistant on board (MCP Server) 30K+ · 4.7★ (228) wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too high 10 Htaccess File Editor – Safely Edit Htaccess File 40K+ · 5.0★ (102) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone 20K+ · 4.8★ (194) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 MaxButtons – Create buttons 70K+ · 4.9★ (1093) wp.org #21 ↑1 9 too low 13 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #23 ↑1 10 too low 14 HTML Editor Syntax Highlighter 60K+ · 4.4★ (110) wp.org #14 15 AddToAny Share Buttons 300K+ · 4.7★ (1114) wp.org #15 16 WP Editor 20K+ · 4.5★ (95) wp.org #16 17 Checkout Field Editor for WooCommerce – Checkout Manager 20K+ · 4.9★ (165) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Otter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder for Gutenberg Editor & FSE 300K+ · 4.7★ (251) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 Better Block Editor (BBE) 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #20 ↑1 21 Snow Monkey Editor 30K+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Classic Editor and Classic Widgets 20K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 WPC Variations Radio Buttons for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.4★ (21) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 ShareThis Share Buttons 10K+ · 3.5★ (26) wp.org #18 ↑1 6 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.