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← Rankings

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

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 “fetchpriority”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

FetchPriority Featured Image shows at wp.org #2 but places #8 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 6053 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster 100K+ · 4.9★ (1564) wp.org #3 ↑1 2 too low 2 DietPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (38) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too low 3 WP Performance 200+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #16 ↑1 12 too low 5 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #21 16 too low 6 Image Prioritizer 40K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow) 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 FetchPriority Featured Image 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #2 6 too high 9 Ajax loader + Cache 70+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 10 Performance Tweaks 20+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 TC SEO / Schema / Sitemap 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 4 too high 12 Kodlo Product Gallery for Elementor 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↑1 13 Capo – Head Optimizer 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 RefiTune – Site refiner toolkit 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 EmiCache – Faster Elementor, Better PageSpeed 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too high 16 MonkeyDesign Product Carousel for Elementor 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 2 too high 17 HTML Attributes Customizer for Blocks — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 N Noble Vitals — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 365i Performance Optimizer — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 WT Catalog Tools for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 StaticForge for Cloudflare Pages 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too high 22 BlockGlow — Enhance, Optimize & Protect — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 ODR Image Optimizer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 Guardrail Blocks — · 0.0★ (0) 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.