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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “execute”

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 “execute”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

Proxy Cache Purge shows at wp.org #13 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 50K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 26 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #1 2 Redirection for Contact Form 7 200K+ · 4.7★ (275) wp.org #2 3 Flying Scripts: Delay JavaScript to Improve Site Speed & Performance 30K+ · 5.0★ (38) wp.org #3 4 FluentSnippets – High-Performance Code Snippets, Header & Footer Code, Custom CSS & PHP Code Manager 50K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 WPFront Notification Bar 40K+ · 4.5★ (131) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 100K+ · 4.9★ (227) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 Woody Code Snippets – Insert PHP, CSS, JS, and Header/Footer Scripts 50K+ · 4.5★ (221) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Head, Footer and Post Injections 200K+ · 4.9★ (735) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too low 11 Include Me 4K+ · 4.8★ (21) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 URL Params 8K+ · 5.0★ (37) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13 Header and Footer Scripts 200K+ · 4.6★ (58) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14 WP Console – WordPress PHP Console powered by PsySH 20K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too low 15 WP Webhooks – Automate repetitive tasks by creating powerful automation workflows directly within WordPress 20K+ · 4.7★ (55) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 Genesis Simple Hooks 20K+ · 4.6★ (22) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too low 17 Quick Adsense 20K+ · 3.9★ (74) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #24 ↓4 6 too low 19 O OneLogin SAML SSO 7K+ · 4.4★ (14) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #13 7 too high 21 Next Active Directory Integration 2K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Cron Logger 1K+ · 4.9★ (8) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 Idle User Logout 1K+ · 4.1★ (18) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too high 24 Cron Setup and Monitor – Get URL Cron 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #19 ↓1 5 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.