wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “experiences”
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 “experiences”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 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
Hyper PWA – Bringing Modern Progressive Web App Experiences shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 12 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322)
wp.org #1 2 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833)
wp.org #4 2 too low 3 
3D Viewer – Turn Product Pages into Interactive 3D Experiences 9K+ · 4.7★ (24) thin reviews
wp.org #2 1 too high 4 
Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440)
wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5 
TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667)
wp.org #7 2 too low 6 
W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420)
wp.org #8 ↑3 2 too low 7 
Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510)
wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too high 8 
WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 700K+ · 3.1★ (237) low rating, top placement
wp.org #3 5 too high 9 
The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461)
wp.org #10 ↓2 1 too low 10 
Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132)
wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229)
wp.org #13 ↑2 2 too low 12 
Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053)
wp.org #14 ↑2 2 too low 13 
Flying Pages: Preload Pages for Faster Navigation & Improved User Experience 20K+ · 4.9★ (79)
wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too high 14 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820)
wp.org #21 7 too low 15 
WP Chat App 100K+ · 4.9★ (222)
wp.org #15 ↑2 16 
MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435)
wp.org #18 ↓4 2 too low 17 
Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743)
wp.org #19 ↑2 2 too low 18 
Mercado Pago payments for WooCommerce 100K+ · 3.9★ (693)
wp.org #17 1 too high 19 
Jetpack Boost – Website Speed, Performance and Critical CSS 200K+ · 4.7★ (612)
wp.org #22 3 too low 20 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #20 21 
Classic Editor 8M+ · 4.9★ (1251)
wp.org #23 2 too low 22 
Product Gallery Slider, Additional Variation Images for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (160)
wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Hyper PWA – Bringing Modern Progressive Web App Experiences 400+ · 4.7★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #9 ↑1 14 too high 24 
WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583)
wp.org #16 8 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.