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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “end to end encryption”

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 “end to end encryption”, 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Payment Gateway for PhonePe and for Woocommerce shows at wp.org #6 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder places #10 on merit, 5.0★ from 322 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.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5,043) wp.org #1 2 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #2 3 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8,713) wp.org #3 4 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8,870) wp.org #5 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7,676) wp.org #8 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 6 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5,211) wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 7 CryptX 10K+ · 4.5★ (20) wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 8 Two Factor Authentication 20K+ · 4.4★ (77) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 9 ACF Frontend Admin by DynamiApps 8K+ · 4.5★ (160) wp.org #12 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 10 WS Form LITE – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (322) wp.org #19 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 11 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #20 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 12 Infinity23 (Formerly Tag Manager) – One Plugin That Replaces All The Rest 20K+ · 4.7★ (53) wp.org #21 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 13 Xpro Theme Builder For Elementor – FREE 20K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #15 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 14 Library Viewer 400+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #16 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 15 Mailchimp List Subscribe Form 60K+ · 2.6★ (77) wp.org #13 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 16 SmartSMTP 2K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #7 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 17 WP Document Revisions 2K+ · 3.7★ (23) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 18 AI 60K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #23 ↓12 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 19 Payment Gateway for PhonePe and for Woocommerce 800+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit 20 Zoho Forms – Drag & Drop Form Builder for Websites – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Order Forms & More 10K+ · 2.7★ (14) wp.org #18 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 21 wp2pgpmail 80+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #22 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 22 ANON::form embedded secure form 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 11 places above merit 23 Payment Gateway for Razorpay and for WooCommerce 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 24 Plug-N-Meet web conference integration 100+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #17 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.