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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “full width”

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 “full width”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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 it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

S

Ranked above its merit

Sidebar Full-Width Toggle shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 30+ 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.

Buried gem

Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 612 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #3 2 too low 2 Fullwidth Templates for Any Theme & Page Builder 20K+ · 4.7★ (42) wp.org #2 3 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too low 5 Lara's Google Analytics (GA4) 8K+ · 4.7★ (122) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #12 ↑3 6 too low 7 GenerateBlocks 200K+ · 4.9★ (122) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053) wp.org #17 9 too low 9 Carousel Slider Block for Gutenberg 50K+ · 4.8★ (59) wp.org #13 ↓3 4 too low 10 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #14 4 too low 11 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #23 12 too low 12 Slider Pro 4K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 Image CAPTCHA for Contact Form 7 and WPForms by HookAndHook (DSGVO/GDPR) 70K+ · 4.7★ (49) wp.org #18 5 too low 14 Options for Twenty Twenty-One 6K+ · 4.9★ (64) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 Full Width Banner Slider Wp 2K+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #1 14 too high 16 Easy Video Player 20K+ · 4.2★ (57) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Accordion Slider 2K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #10 ↑1 7 too high 18 Magazine Blocks – Blog Designer, Magazine & Newspaper Website Builder, Page Builder with Posts Blocks, Post Grid 6K+ · 4.9★ (11) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 WooSwipe WooCommerce Gallery 3K+ · 4.5★ (39) wp.org #22 ↑2 3 too low 20 Header Footer Builder for Elementor 30K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 Jamie's Visual HTML Editor 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #16 ↑5 5 too high 22 F Full Width for Twenty Fourteen 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↓1 15 too high 23 S Sidebar Full-Width Toggle 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↓2 17 too high 24 Astra Bulk Edit 30K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #20 ↓3 4 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.