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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “free site seal”

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 “free site seal”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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

Dynamic Post – AI Content – White Paper – Peer Review – Tax & Accounting Sites shows at wp.org #6 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rich Showcase for Google Reviews 100K+ · 4.9★ (1,625) wp.org #2 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 2 TrustedSite 10K+ · 4.2★ (26) wp.org #1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 3 FunnelKit – Funnel Builder Plugin for WooCommerce Checkout 30K+ · 5.0★ (1,028) wp.org #4 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 OpenStation – Admin Dashboard Notes, Custom Dashboard, AI Assistant & PWA 1K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 5 Bus Ticket Booking with Seat Reservation 700+ · 4.9★ (41) wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 13 places below merit 6 Order Bump for WooCommerce 600+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #12 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 7 Product Badges For WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 8 SiteLock Security – WP Hardening, Login Security & Malware Scans 1K+ · 3.4★ (14) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 9 Signature Add-On for Gravity Forms 1K+ · 3.9★ (21) wp.org #13 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 10 Trust Badges – Payment Icons & Secure Checkout Seals for WooCommerce 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 wp.org ranks it 7 places above merit 11 Ultimate Cursor – Interactive and Animated Custom Cursor and Background Effects Toolkit 3K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #9 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 12 One Page Quick Checkout for WooCommerce 200+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #19 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 13 M Marquix – Marquee, Scrolling Text & Logo Carousel for Elementor 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 14 Revi.io – Customer and Product Reviews 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 15 Dynamic Post – AI Content – White Paper – Peer Review – Tax & Accounting Sites 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 9 places above merit 16 Reviewbird Product Reviews for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 17 ManageX – Pre-Orders, Product Badges, Buy Now, Quick View, Advanced Cart and More for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 18 RatingStar.de Seal — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 19 PCrisk Trust Badge – Website Security Seal & Malware Scanner 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↑7 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 20 LGPD Framework By Data443 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 21 CartHacker Trust Badges & Seals — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 22 Trustbadg – Trust Badges, Payment Icons & Secure Checkout Seals — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 23 Reputify.io – Review Widgets, Score and Review Requests — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 24 Nexura Security — Malware Scanner, Firewall, 2FA & WordPress Security 20+ · 3.0★ (2) wp.org #21 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.