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← Rankings

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

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 “fresh”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Feeds for TikTok – Keep Your Site Fresh with Your Latest Videos shows at wp.org #4 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Simple Custom Post Order places #8 on merit, 4.8★ from 588 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 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #1 2 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 OoohBoi Steroids for Elementor 40K+ · 4.8★ (118) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Fresh Forms for Gravity 3K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #12 ↓1 6 too low 7 RSS Aggregator by Feedzy – Feed to Post, Autoblogging, News & YouTube Video Feeds Aggregator 40K+ · 4.6★ (361) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (588) wp.org #18 ↓1 10 too low 9 Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (475) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 Inavii Social Feed – Live Social Proof Gallery 9K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #10 11 Widgets for Social Photo Feed 10K+ · 4.7★ (28) wp.org #13 ↑2 2 too low 12 Post to Google My Business (Google Business Profile) 10K+ · 4.9★ (159) wp.org #20 ↓2 8 too low 13 WPConsent – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for Privacy Compliance (GDPR / CCPA / EU Compliance Cookie Notice) 200K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #21 ↑1 8 too low 14 Easy Feeds for X/Twitter – keep your site fresh with live social posts 1K+ · 3.9★ (11) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely 30K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too high 16 Force Refresh 4K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #16 ↓3 17 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #22 ↑1 5 too low 18 Duplicate PP 10K+ · 4.4★ (19) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Selfish Fresh Start 20+ · 4.0★ (5) wp.org #6 13 too high 20 Feeds for TikTok – Keep Your Site Fresh with Your Latest Videos 1K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #4 ↑1 16 too high 21 Widgets for Google Reviews and Ratings 3K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Fresh Plugins 300+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #9 13 too high 23 Bing URL Submissions Plugin 40K+ · 3.3★ (21) wp.org #23 ↓3 24 F FameTheme Demo Importer 30K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.