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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “front page”

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 “front page”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Front Page Custom Post Type shows at wp.org #9 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 90+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.4★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #1 2 Front End PM 4K+ · 4.8★ (220) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too low 3 Under Construction 600K+ · 4.8★ (1285) wp.org #5 ↓3 2 too low 4 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #4 5 Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #8 ↑5 3 too low 6 Simple Page Ordering 100K+ · 4.7★ (131) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too low 8 Page scroll to id 100K+ · 4.9★ (225) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too high 9 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #13 ↓7 4 too low 10 Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005) wp.org #14 ↓2 4 too low 11 P Page Links To 100K+ · 4.9★ (157) wp.org #11 ↓3 12 Front Page Scheduler 200+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #2 ↑1 10 too high 13 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #20 ↑3 7 too low 14 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #17 ↓3 3 too low 15 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #18 ↑2 3 too low 16 Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too low 17 UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP 20K+ · 4.7★ (183) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 Bold Page Builder 40K+ · 3.6★ (66) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 Dynamic Front-End Heartbeat Control 1K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Tabs Widget for Page Builder 3K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #24 ↓2 4 too low 21 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #21 ↓3 22 Front Page Custom Post Type 90+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #9 13 too high 23 Frontype | Select a custom post type as a front page 300+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #10 13 too high 24 BlockStrap Page Builder – Bootstrap Blocks 2K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #22 2 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.