Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “error mail”

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 “error mail”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Mail Queue shows at wp.org #6 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Database Addon for Contact Form 7 – CFDB7 places #11 on merit, 5.0★ from 1875 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 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 #1 2 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #2 3 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 4 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #4 5 Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292) wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too low 6 Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Zoho Mail for WordPress 20K+ · 3.7★ (42) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (85) wp.org #14 4 too low 11 Database Addon for Contact Form 7 – CFDB7 600K+ · 5.0★ (1875) wp.org #22 ↓1 11 too low 12 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #21 ↓1 9 too low 13 Mail Queue 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #6 7 too high 14 YaySMTP – WP Mail SMTP with Email Logs, Tracking & Reports 10K+ · 4.9★ (45) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 Fatal Error Notify 6K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #10 ↓1 5 too high 16 GSheetConnector – CF7 Google Sheets Connector & Save CF7 Entries to Database 40K+ · 4.4★ (129) wp.org #20 ↑3 4 too low 17 Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #15 2 too high 18 Ultimate WP Mail 700+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #12 6 too high 19 Flamingo 800K+ · 4.2★ (121) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 Display wp_mail Error Messages 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 7 too high 21 Zoho ZeptoMail 5K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too high 22 Pro Mail SMTP 300+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Magic Login Mail or QR Code 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 SMTP Mail Control for MailPoet 300+ · 5.0★ (3) 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.