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← Rankings

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

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 “god”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

GoPrayer shows at wp.org #5 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 300+ 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

Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons places #4 on merit, 4.8★ from 5333 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 AEO God Mode – AI Search Visibility 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Advanced Sermons 1K+ · 4.7★ (22) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons 100K+ · 4.8★ (5333) wp.org #22 18 too low 5 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #20 ↑1 15 too low 6 Graphina – Charts and Graphs For Elementor 9K+ · 4.1★ (16) wp.org #6 7 Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons 10K+ · 4.9★ (1911) wp.org #24 17 too low 8 Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database 3K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Pluginception 4K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #18 ↑1 9 too low 10 Visual Bible Verse of the Day Widget 1K+ · 4.0★ (3) wp.org #3 7 too high 11 Persian Date 2K+ · 4.5★ (16) wp.org #19 ↓1 8 too low 12 No Self Ping 10K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #17 5 too low 13 COVID19 – Coronavirus Outbreak Data 200+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 FA Lite – WP responsive slider plugin 500+ · 3.7★ (13) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too low 15 GoPrayer 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Bible Verse Tooltips – Prodigal Verse — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 7 too high 17 Verse of the Day 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 9 too high 18 PrimeBible Verse Preview 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 7 too high 19 Polymetric AI Search Optimizer – Answer Engine Optimization & GEO for ChatGPT and AI Overviews 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↑1 7 too high 20 BigBad Deep eCommerce Insights — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 10 too high 21 Egyptian Hieroglyphs (MdC) — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓2 7 too high 22 Lova Payment Gateway — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 DominoGuard Security – Firewall, Malware Scanner, 2FA, Magic Links, Hide Login, Activity Log & Emergency Recovery Script — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↑2 10 too high 24 CC-God-User 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 3 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.