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

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 “emails”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 5 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.

D

Ranked above its merit

Disable Plugin Autoupdate Emails shows at wp.org #12 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 3221 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 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #1 2 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 #2 3 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #3 ↑3 4 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #8 ↑2 4 too low 5 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #7 ↓3 2 too low 6 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626) wp.org #5 ↑3 1 too high 7 Disable Emails 30K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #4 ↓1 3 too high 8 FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (250) wp.org #9 ↑6 1 too low 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #17 8 too low 10 Email Marketing for WooCommerce by Omnisend 40K+ · 4.9★ (169) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (85) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too low 12 Log Emails 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #6 ↓1 6 too high 13 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #21 6 too low 16 Send Emails with Mandrill 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #10 ↑7 6 too high 17 Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer 90K+ · 4.5★ (142) wp.org #24 ↓1 7 too low 18 Stop WP Emails Going to Spam 10K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #13 ↓1 5 too high 19 R Restrict Usernames Emails Characters 1K+ · 4.5★ (25) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too high 20 Additional Custom Emails & Recipients for WooCommerce 2K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #11 ↓4 9 too high 21 Stop Emails 5K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #19 ↓6 2 too high 22 D Disable Plugin Autoupdate Emails 6K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #12 ↓3 10 too high 23 Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #20 3 too high 24 Block Emails & Addresses for WooCommerce Checkout 700+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #22 2 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.