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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “gantt charts”

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 “gantt charts”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Modern Hotel Booking — Direct Booking Engine, Availability Calendar & Vacation Rental PMS shows at wp.org #15 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission places #5 on merit, 4.1★ from 537 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Graphina – Charts and Graphs For Elementor 9K+ · 4.1★ (16) wp.org #1 2 Chartify – WordPress Chart Plugin 3K+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #2 3 A amCharts: Charts and Maps 1K+ · 5.0★ (29) wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 Project Manager – AI Powered Project Management, Task Management, Kanban Board & Time Tracker 5K+ · 3.8★ (187) wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (537) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 6 weDocs: AI Powered Knowledge Base, Docs, Documentation, Wiki & AI Chatbot 5K+ · 4.6★ (69) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 LazyTasks – Project & Task Management with Collaboration, Kanban and Gantt Chart 90+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #3 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 8 Taskbuilder – Project Management & Task Management Tool With Kanban Board 700+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 9 FluentBoards – Project Management, Task Management, Goal Tracking, Kanban Board, and, Team Collaboration 6K+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 10 connectDaily Events Calendar Plugin 90+ · 4.4★ (17) wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 11 wePOS – Point Of Sale (POS) for WooCommerce & Dokan 2K+ · 3.5★ (22) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 12 Air WP Sync – Airtable to WordPress 1K+ · 4.8★ (16) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 13 Blockenberg — 645 Advanced Gutenberg Blocks, 683 Templates and AI Agent for WordPress Block Editor 1K+ · 4.6★ (5) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 14 EventAdmin – Volunteer Management 50+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #23 wp.org ranks it 9 places below merit 15 Code Block – share beautiful code snippets readers can copy 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 16 Ndizi Project Management 10+ · 3.5★ (4) wp.org #14 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 17 BaraTables — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 YPSupport Handmade Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 19 Process & Queue Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 20 BROSH CRM — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 SWELLEnterprise — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 22 StoreCashier – Advanced POS & Inventory Management for WooCommerce — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 23 Modern Hotel Booking — Direct Booking Engine, Availability Calendar & Vacation Rental PMS 10+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 24 WPIT GANTT 40+ · 2.8★ (4) wp.org #21 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.