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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “external content”

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 “external content”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 18 of the top 20. 7 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

Content Mask shows at wp.org #11 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 9 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings places #6 on merit, 4.8★ from 7519 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 90K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #1 2 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #7 ↓3 5 too low 3 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #8 5 too low 4 Cookies and Content Security Policy 10K+ · 4.9★ (67) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too high 5 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #14 ↓2 8 too low 7 External Links in New Window / New Tab 30K+ · 4.5★ (77) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #15 ↑1 7 too low 9 External files in Media Library 500+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #2 7 too high 10 No External Links 4K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #5 ↑2 5 too high 11 Passster – Password Protect Pages and Content 10K+ · 4.2★ (60) wp.org #6 ↓3 5 too high 12 Custom iFrame – Embed PDFs, Videos, and External Content in WordPress (Elementor & Gutenberg) 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #4 ↑2 8 too high 13 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #20 ↓1 6 too low 15 Get Use APIs – JSON Content Importer 5K+ · 4.9★ (78) wp.org #19 ↓4 4 too low 16 MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) wp.org #12 ↑1 4 too high 17 Nelio Content – Editorial Calendar & Social Media Auto-Posting 3K+ · 4.4★ (104) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 WPGet API – Connect to any external REST API 10K+ · 5.0★ (32) wp.org #22 ↓1 4 too low 19 Toolkit for Polylang – Translation Inspector & Duplicate Content 10K+ · 4.5★ (33) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 Archivarix External Images Importer 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #13 ↑1 7 too high 21 Content Egg – Affiliate Product Importer & Price Comparison 10K+ · 3.9★ (56) wp.org #16 ↑2 5 too high 22 Content Mask 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #11 11 too high 23 E External Permalinks Redux 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #17 6 too high 24 oEmbed External Video 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 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.