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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “embed instagram”

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 “embed instagram”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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 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

Juicer.io: Effortlessly embed, curate, and aggregate social media feeds into your website shows at wp.org #10 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 8K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 29 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 2528 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #1 2 Spotlight Social Photo Feed 60K+ · 4.7★ (171) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too low 3 WPZOOM Social Feed Widget & Block 50K+ · 4.3★ (51) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 WP Social Ninja – Embed Social Feeds, User Reviews & Chat Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too low 5 Embed Privacy 10K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #6 ↓2 7 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1668) wp.org #9 ↑4 1 too low 9 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #18 8 too low 11 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #19 ↑5 7 too low 13 Envira Gallery – Image Photo Gallery, Albums, Video Gallery, Slideshows & More 100K+ · 4.7★ (1596) wp.org #23 ↓3 10 too low 14 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 Nexter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder & AI Website Builder 9K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #16 ↑3 17 Widgets for Social Photo Feed 10K+ · 4.7★ (28) wp.org #13 ↑2 4 too high 18 Juicer.io: Effortlessly embed, curate, and aggregate social media feeds into your website 8K+ · 4.2★ (29) wp.org #10 ↓1 8 too high 19 Inavii Social Feed – Live Social Proof Gallery 9K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #11 ↓1 8 too high 20 Flow-Flow Social Streams 7K+ · 3.3★ (100) wp.org #14 ↓2 6 too high 21 Intagrate Lite 4K+ · 4.1★ (27) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 Combine Social Photos | Still BE 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 My Social Feeds – bring your social content into WordPress 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↑2 3 too high 24 Flockler – Social Media Embeds for WordPress 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.