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← Rankings

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

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 “foreign”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 3 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

MetalpriceAPI shows at wp.org #3 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 500+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Payment Gateway of Stripe for WooCommerce places #7 on merit, 4.4★ from 66 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 wpDataTables – WordPress Data Table, Dynamic Tables & Table Charts Plugin 60K+ · 4.5★ (449) wp.org #1 2 3D FlipBook – PDF Embedder, PDF Flipbook Viewer, Flipbook Image Gallery 70K+ · 4.8★ (182) wp.org #7 ↓1 5 too low 3 Campi Moduli Italiani 400+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #2 ↑16 1 too high 4 Tumult Hype Animations 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 Legal Text Connector of the IT-Recht Kanzlei 10K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 Amazon Link Engine 2K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too low 7 Payment Gateway of Stripe for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.4★ (66) wp.org #14 ↓2 7 too low 8 Payment Gateway Currency for WooCommerce 300+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #8 9 Payoneer Checkout 5K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #6 ↓1 3 too high 10 Euro FxRef Currency Converter (by DKZR) 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #10 ↓2 11 MetalpriceAPI 500+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #3 ↓1 8 too high 12 Clonable – Translate Woocommerce / WordPress website. Multilingual in 5 minutes. 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too high 13 WP Forms Signature Contract Add-On 800+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓2 4 too low 14 Stop Search Spam 80+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too high 15 Nagad Payment Gateway 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓4 5 too low 16 Mediaspy – Detect & Clean Unused Media 70+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #19 ↑1 3 too low 17 Tebaro – Currency Conversion for WooCommerce 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too low 18 ForexRateAPI 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too high 19 Benjamin Thiers Foreign Language Accessibility Detector — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓1 4 too low 20 Terminal Africa 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓3 7 too high 21 Premmerce Multi-currency for Woocommerce 200+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #16 ↓2 5 too high 22 Electronic Signature Add-on for Fluent Forms 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 Mevabi – Daily Word Puzzle 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 PDF Flipbook, WPBakery Addon – Unreal FlipBook 1K+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↓2 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.