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

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 reports”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 2 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

Embed Optimizer shows at wp.org #3 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 19 places. Its 50K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 2144 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 PowerBI Embed Reports 500+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #1 2 Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades 100K+ · 4.6★ (572) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Embed Privacy 10K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #10 ↑3 6 too low 5 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #11 ↑1 5 too low 7 DearFlip – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF embed, PDF viewer 200K+ · 4.9★ (194) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 PDF Embedder – PDF Viewer & Embed PDF Files for WordPress 300K+ · 4.7★ (529) wp.org #12 ↓5 4 too low 9 Video Gallery – YouTube Playlist, Channel Gallery by YotuWP 10K+ · 4.7★ (322) wp.org #15 ↑1 6 too low 10 Code Embed 10K+ · 4.4★ (45) wp.org #5 5 too high 11 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #19 ↓1 8 too low 12 HTML5 Video Player – embed fast, responsive videos with ease 20K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #16 ↑4 4 too low 13 EmbedPress 100K+ · 4.8★ (307) wp.org #18 ↓7 5 too low 14 WP Social Ninja – Embed Social Feeds, User Reviews & Chat Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Document Viewer – let visitors view files right in the browser 2K+ · 4.7★ (52) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 Ninjalytics: Sales Reports & Order Export for WooCommerce and EDD 6K+ · 4.4★ (57) wp.org #21 ↓2 5 too low 17 Online Forms — Customizable Payment, Contact, Quiz, Survey Form Builder – Jotform 20K+ · 3.2★ (29) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too high 18 Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #8 ↑2 10 too high 19 Embeds for YouTube 9K+ · 4.2★ (24) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Hydrogen Calendar Embeds 1K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #14 ↑1 6 too high 21 PDF Embed Block – share documents right inside your posts 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↑2 14 too high 22 Embed Optimizer 50K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #3 19 too high 23 YEP: Optimize YouTube Embeds 70+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 Flipbook PDF Viewer & Embedder 300+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #24 ↓2

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.