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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “enable disable”

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 “enable disable”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Disable User Login shows at wp.org #9 but places #19 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 #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #1 2 Enable Media Replace 600K+ · 4.4★ (302) wp.org #2 3 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #3 4 Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #4 5 Disable All WordPress Updates 20K+ · 4.8★ (69) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #14 8 too low 7 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #16 9 too low 8 D Disable XML-RPC 200K+ · 4.1★ (34) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #22 13 too low 10 Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25) wp.org #5 5 too high 11 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 Disable Media Pages 10K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Disable Everything 30K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 Enable SVG, WebP, and ICO Upload 10K+ · 4.6★ (11) wp.org #10 5 too high 16 Disable Lazy Load 9K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Disable XML-RPC-API 100K+ · 4.2★ (43) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 Disable Blog 20K+ · 4.7★ (14) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Disable User Login 6K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #9 10 too high 20 Disable Application Passwords 3K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 Simply Disable Comments 8K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Disable WooCommerce Reviews 2K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 Enable Mastodon Apps 500+ · 4.0★ (6) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Disable Gutenberg 500+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 1 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.