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

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 “fastly”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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

Fastly shows at wp.org #1 but places #6 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Flying Images: Optimize and Lazy Load Images for Faster Page Speed 2K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 Content No Cache | Serve uncached partial content even when you add it to a page that is fully cached. 200+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #6 4 too low 3 The Cache Purger 1K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Search Atlas SEO – OTTO AI SEO Automation for WordPress 7K+ · 3.3★ (24) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 BotBlocker Security – Complete security platform 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 Fastly 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 Multisite Enhancements 100+ · 4.5★ (49) wp.org #19 12 too low 8 ABCode Cache Warmer 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↑3 1 too high 9 Easy IP Blocker 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 CAPI Suite: Meta Pixel, Pinterest & TikTok for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 J JTZL's In-Browser Cache 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 MatrixMap – Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Store Locator & World Maps 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 Velocity Guard for WooCommerce – Fraud Protection, Stop Fake Orders & Card Testing 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14 Nivoli Edge: Login Security, WP Audit and Firewall — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↑6 2 too high 15 Royal AI Firewall 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 ProRank SEO 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too high 17 warmup.rocks – WordPress CDN Cache Warmer & Edge Monitor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓2 18 Imgzen Media Converter – WebP for CDN — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 FlynCache Purge — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 Papy3D Security Guard — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 BeleGuard Domain Scanner — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Nahnu Login Shield 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 Flavors Media OS – Media Folders, Image Optimizer & Cleanup — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 WPS Protect: Login URL & Security Headers — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓3

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.