wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “engagement”
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 “engagement”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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.
Ranked above its merit
Smartarget – Chat Buttons & Engagement Apps shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.6★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #12 on merit, 4.8★ from 5209 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
WP ULike – Like Buttons, Voting & Engagement Analytics 60K+ · 4.8★ (283)
wp.org #1 2 
MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) heavy footprint
wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too low 3 
bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343)
wp.org #4 1 too low 4 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) not PHP-currentheavy footprint
wp.org #5 1 too low 5 
Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) not PHP-currentheavy footprint
wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 
Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701)
wp.org #9 3 too low 7 
Customer Engagement System – Popup Builder, Forms, CRM & Email Marketing Automation 9K+ · 4.5★ (340)
wp.org #7 8 
Slickstream: Engagement and Conversions 2K+ · 5.0★ (11) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews
wp.org #2 ↑1 6 too high 9 
ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051)
wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 
Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539)
wp.org #13 ↑3 3 too low 11 
Social Chat – Click To Chat App Button 200K+ · 4.9★ (696) not PHP-current
wp.org #11 ↑3 12 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 #16 ↓6 4 too low 13 
Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775)
wp.org #20 7 too low 14 
Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517)
wp.org #23 9 too low 15 
Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 
Popup Builder – Create highly converting, mobile friendly marketing popups. 200K+ · 4.7★ (2215) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #17 1 too low 17 
Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158)
wp.org #18 ↑3 1 too low 18 
DearFlip – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF embed, PDF viewer 200K+ · 4.9★ (194)
wp.org #19 ↓7 1 too low 19 
Widgets for Social Photo Feed 10K+ · 4.7★ (28)
wp.org #12 ↑5 7 too high 20 
Points Management System For Gamification, Ranks, Badges, and Loyalty Rewards Program – myCred 10K+ · 4.6★ (472) not PHP-current
wp.org #24 ↓18 4 too low 21 
Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (625) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Smartarget – Chat Buttons & Engagement Apps 900+ · 4.6★ (10) heavy footprint thin reviews
wp.org #8 14 too high 23 
Wallet for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.7★ (188) throws errorsnot PHP-current
wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too high 24 
Gravatar Enhanced – Avatars, Profiles, and Privacy 100K+ · 5.0★ (3) host-installed base thin reviews
wp.org #15 9 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.