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

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 “fly”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 5 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

Modal Fly Cart & AJAX Add to Cart for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #3 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.5★ average from 11 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator places #11 on merit, 4.7★ from 620 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WPC Fly Cart for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (61) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone 20K+ · 4.8★ (194) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order 500K+ · 4.5★ (162) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Popups for Divi 100K+ · 4.8★ (442) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Cache Enabler 100K+ · 4.3★ (139) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 Product Feed Manager for WooCommerce – CTX Feed – Support 220+ Shopping, AI & Social Channels 90K+ · 4.6★ (838) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Enable Media Replace 600K+ · 4.4★ (302) wp.org #9 ↑8 1 too low 9 Flying Images: Optimize and Lazy Load Images for Faster Page Speed 2K+ · 4.8★ (26) wp.org #5 ↑1 4 too high 10 reSmush.it : The original free image compressor and optimizer plugin 100K+ · 4.3★ (166) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too low 11 Translate WordPress – Google Language Translator 100K+ · 4.7★ (620) wp.org #18 ↑2 7 too low 12 Realtyna Organic IDX plugin + WPL Real Estate 1K+ · 4.7★ (203) wp.org #14 ↓2 2 too low 13 Modal Fly Cart & AJAX Add to Cart for WooCommerce 2K+ · 3.5★ (11) wp.org #3 10 too high 14 Resize Image After Upload 80K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Orphans 50K+ · 5.0★ (164) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #23 ↑1 7 too low 17 External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 90K+ · 4.3★ (247) wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too high 18 WP SVG Images 30K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 WPC Smart Quick View for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too high 20 Quick Adsense 20K+ · 3.9★ (74) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 PDF Viewer Block for Gutenberg 10K+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too high 23 Convert to Blocks 2K+ · 4.7★ (10) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too high 24 WPC Coupon Listing for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #21 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.