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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “follow up emails”

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 “follow up emails”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress shows at wp.org #17 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 1M+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1432) wp.org #1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – The Most Popular SMTP and Email Log Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (5198) wp.org #2 3 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (697) wp.org #3 4 FunnelKit Automations – Email Marketing Automation and CRM for WordPress & WooCommerce 20K+ · 5.0★ (346) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 ShopMagic – email automation for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (78) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too high 6 FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (249) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too low 7 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (613) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too high 8 Email Marketing for WooCommerce by Omnisend 40K+ · 4.9★ (168) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2130) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1204) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too high 11 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 600K+ · 4.8★ (405) wp.org #11 ↑1 12 Email Subscribers & Newsletters – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & Newsletter Plugin for WordPress 50K+ · 4.6★ (1169) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2640) wp.org #15 ↓2 2 too low 14 Floating Chat Widget: Contact Chat Icons, Telegram Chat, Line Messenger, WeChat, Email, SMS, Call Button – Chaty 300K+ · 5.0★ (1240) wp.org #22 ↓4 8 too low 15 Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster 100K+ · 4.9★ (1562) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too low 16 Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1658) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too low 17 Coupon X – Discount Popups, Promo Codes Pop Ups for WooCommerce & Announcement Popups 1K+ · 4.9★ (52) wp.org #14 ↑1 3 too high 18 Customer Email Verification for WooCommerce 8K+ · 4.8★ (47) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too high 19 Hubbub Lite – Fast, free social sharing and follow buttons 30K+ · 4.7★ (173) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (93) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 Popup Builder & Popup Maker for WordPress – OptinMonster Email Marketing and Lead Generation 1M+ · 4.3★ (817) wp.org #16 5 too high 22 Stop Emails 5K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #20 ↑1 2 too high 23 Send Emails with Mandrill 6K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #17 ↑2 7 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.