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

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 “five”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Five-Star Ratings Shortcode shows at wp.org #4 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 500+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.2★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #4 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Five Star Restaurant Reservations – WordPress Booking Plugin 10K+ · 4.7★ (211) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #1 ↑3 2

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #3 ↓2 1 too low 3

Five Star Business Profile and Schema 7K+ · 4.8★ (52) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #2 1 too high 4

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #10 6 too low 5

WP Statistics – Simple, privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternative 500K+ · 4.1★ (759) wp.org #7 ↑2 2 too low 6

AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #12 ↑3 6 too low 7

Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #11 ↑3 4 too low 8

Five Star Restaurant Menu and Food Ordering 5K+ · 4.6★ (107) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #5 3 too high 9

Fonts Plugin | Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts & Upload Fonts 200K+ · 5.0★ (1221) heavy footprint wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too low 10

bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too high 11

Simple History – Track, Log, and Audit WordPress Changes 300K+ · 4.9★ (491) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too low 12

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too low 13

SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (816) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #16 3 too low 14

Five Star Restaurant Reviews 400+ · 4.9★ (14) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #6 8 too high 15

Twentig Supercharged Block Editor – Blocks, Patterns, Starter Sites, Portfolio 20K+ · 4.9★ (171) wp.org #23 ↓7 8 too low 16

The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) not PHP-current wp.org #20 4 too low 17

Blank Slate 10K+ · 5.0★ (23) thin reviews wp.org #17 ↑1 18

WP-UserOnline 10K+ · 4.6★ (38) wp.org #22 ↑2 4 too low 19

Disable and Remove Google Fonts | GDPR & DSGVO friendly 100K+ · 4.5★ (46) heavy footprint wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too high 20

Google for WooCommerce 800K+ · 2.7★ (268) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #8 12 too high 21

Five-Star Ratings Shortcode 500+ · 4.2★ (5) throws errorsnot PHP-currentheavy footprint thin reviews wp.org #4 ↓1 17 too high 22

Frontend Post Submission Manager Lite – Guest Post and Frontend Submission Forms 1K+ · 4.5★ (22) thin reviews wp.org #24 2 too low 23

Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) host-installed base thin reviews wp.org #19 4 too high 24

Razorpay Payment Button Plugin 2K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews 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.