wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “free wp tag cloud plugin”
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 wp tag cloud plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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
WP Global Site Tag shows at wp.org #8 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 7K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 3,224 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.
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.
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8,713)
wp.org #1 2 
GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155)
wp.org #2 3 
BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1,323)
wp.org #3 ↓1 4 
WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312)
wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 
Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4,962)
wp.org #6 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 6 
Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510)
wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 7 
Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373)
wp.org #7 ↑3 8 
All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,720)
wp.org #10 ↑7 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3,224)
wp.org #14 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 10 
LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2,778)
wp.org #12 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 11 
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7,322)
wp.org #13 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 12 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147)
wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 13 
WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1,919)
wp.org #18 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 14 
Pixel Manager for WooCommerce – Conversion Tracking, Google Ads, GA4, TikTok, Dynamic Remarketing 40K+ · 4.9★ (399)
wp.org #19 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 15 
PublishPress Tag Groups: Stylish Displays For Your Tags and Categories 3K+ · 4.8★ (58)
wp.org #11 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 16 
Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization 200K+ · 4.7★ (640)
wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 17 
Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2,409)
wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 
MapPress – Free Map Plugin for Google Maps & OpenStreetMap 30K+ · 4.7★ (147)
wp.org #21 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 19 
WP Database Backup – Unlimited Database & Files Backup by Backup for WP 20K+ · 4.5★ (102)
wp.org #20 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 20 
WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115)
wp.org #17 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 21 
Call Now Button – The Free Click to Call Button for WordPress 200K+ · 4.8★ (102)
wp.org #24 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 22 
Categorized Tag Cloud 1K+ · 3.8★ (10) thin reviews
wp.org #9 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit 23 
WP-Stateless – Google Cloud Storage 4K+ · 3.9★ (51)
wp.org #23 ↓2 24 WP Global Site Tag 7K+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #8 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 16 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.