Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “hashtag”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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.

Ranked above its merit

Simple X Buttons – Share, Follow, Mention & Hashtag for WordPress shows at wp.org #5 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 90+ 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

Smash Balloon Social Post Feed – Simple Social Feeds for WordPress places #8 on merit, 4.7★ from 1511 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 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #1 2 Spotlight Social Photo Feed 60K+ · 4.7★ (171) wp.org #2 3 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #3 4 Blog2Social: Social Media Auto Post & Scheduler 40K+ · 4.5★ (2107) wp.org #6 ↑1 2 too low 5 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Widgets for Social Photo Feed 10K+ · 4.7★ (28) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too low 7 WP Social Ninja – Embed Social Feeds, User Reviews & Chat Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #11 ↑7 4 too low 8 Smash Balloon Social Post Feed – Simple Social Feeds for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (1511) wp.org #22 14 too low 9 Social Media Auto Poster – Schedule & Publish to Buffer 7K+ · 4.5★ (125) wp.org #12 ↓2 3 too low 10 Feed Them Social – Social Media Feeds, Video, and Photo Galleries 20K+ · 4.7★ (639) wp.org #21 11 too low 11 Juicer.io: Effortlessly embed, curate, and aggregate social media feeds into your website 8K+ · 4.2★ (29) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Intagrate Lite 4K+ · 4.1★ (27) wp.org #9 ↓3 3 too high 13 Metricool – Social media and site statistics 90K+ · 4.4★ (22) wp.org #10 ↑3 3 too high 14 Video Gallery – YouTube Gallery, Vimeo, Video Portfolio, Image Portfolio and Image Gallery 10K+ · 4.8★ (182) wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too low 15 Social Share Buttons 1K+ · 4.8★ (28) wp.org #14 ↓2 1 too high 16 XPoster – Share to Bluesky and Mastodon 10K+ · 3.8★ (69) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 Bit Social – Social Media Auto Poster and Scheduler 6K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too low 18 Social Engine 600+ · 4.8★ (30) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too low 19 Clean Image Filenames 30K+ · 4.6★ (21) wp.org #18 ↓2 1 too high 20 QuadLayers TikTok Feed 7K+ · 3.9★ (61) wp.org #23 3 too low 21 I Image Title Remove 1K+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #13 ↓2 8 too high 22 Easy Feeds for X/Twitter – keep your site fresh with live social posts 1K+ · 3.9★ (11) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 Simple X Buttons – Share, Follow, Mention & Hashtag for WordPress 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 18 too high 24 Combine Social Photos | Still BE 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 9 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.