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← Rankings

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

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 “guy”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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

Snow Monkey Blocks shows at wp.org #3 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 30K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Quiz Maker by AYS places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 601 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 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #4 3 too low 2 Checkout Field Editor (Checkout Manager) for WooCommerce 400K+ · 4.9★ (1056) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #6 3 too low 4 Feed Them Social – Social Media Feeds, Video, and Photo Galleries 20K+ · 4.7★ (639) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 The Hack Repair Guy’s Plugin Archiver 300+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 The Courier Guy Shipping for WooCommerce 4K+ · 3.1★ (23) wp.org #1 5 too high 7 Content Views – Post Grid & Filter (Shortcode, Blocks, Elementor Widgets) 100K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 GA Google Analytics – Connect Google Analytics to WordPress 400K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 BBQ Firewall – Fast & Powerful Firewall Security 100K+ · 4.9★ (160) wp.org #11 2 too low 10 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #22 12 too low 11 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #16 ↑1 5 too low 12 SportsPress – Sports Club & League Manager 10K+ · 4.7★ (369) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Disable Media Sizes 10K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 DearFlip – PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook, PDF embed, PDF viewer 200K+ · 4.9★ (194) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too low 15 Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355) wp.org #13 2 too high 16 Stop Spammers Classic 20K+ · 4.4★ (243) wp.org #19 ↓3 3 too low 17 Snow Monkey Blocks 30K+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #3 14 too high 18 Disable WP REST API 30K+ · 4.8★ (36) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Product Gallery Slider, Additional Variation Images for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (160) wp.org #21 2 too low 20 WebP Express 300K+ · 4.4★ (162) wp.org #20 21 Disable WP Sitemaps 10K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Disable Lazy Load 9K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too high 23 Disable Application Passwords 3K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #23 ↓1 24 BEA – Sanitize Filename 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.