Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “grok”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

AI Provider for Grok shows at wp.org #4 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 701 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775) wp.org #2 ↑14 1 too low 2 MxChat – AI Chatbot & Content Generation for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (31) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Social Media Feather 10K+ · 4.6★ (506) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Simple Share Buttons Adder 40K+ · 4.3★ (627) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #7 ↑5 2 too low 6 WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services 5K+ · 4.7★ (124) wp.org #6 ↑3 7 AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT 10K+ · 4.6★ (166) wp.org #11 ↓5 4 too low 8 Social Sharing Plugin – Sassy Social Share 100K+ · 4.8★ (523) wp.org #16 ↓5 8 too low 9 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #19 ↑1 10 too low 10 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11 Dark Mode – Improve Accessibility with AI Powered Dark Theme 20K+ · 4.5★ (391) wp.org #20 ↓3 9 too low 12 Generate Images (AI) – Magic Post Thumbnail 5K+ · 4.3★ (25) wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too high 13 ShareThis Share Buttons 10K+ · 3.5★ (26) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 BEW – Elementor Addons, Templates & AI Builder 20K+ · 4.5★ (28) wp.org #17 ↓2 3 too low 15 OGEEAT 200+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓8 3 too high 16 Share Buttons & AI-powered Summaries 1K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 Cowboy MCP – Free MCP Server with Undo for Claude & ChatGPT 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #13 4 too high 18 StoreAgent – WooCommerce AI Chatbot, AI Agent & WooCommerce MCP Server 700+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 AI Provider for Grok 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 ↑1 15 too high 20 TrueRanker 300+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #22 ↓3 2 too low 21 Limb AI Chatbot 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓5 3 too high 22 AI Featured Image 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 7 too high 23 Dynamic Post – AI Content – White Paper – Peer Review – Tax & Accounting Sites 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓3 2 too high 24 AI Internal Links 200+ · 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.