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← Rankings

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

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 “hello”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 17 of the top 20. 8 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

Hello Plus shows at wp.org #2 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 22 places. Its 70K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 807 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Hello Dolly 600K+ · 4.4★ (177) wp.org #1 2 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #7 ↑3 5 too low 3 Header Footer Code Manager 600K+ · 4.9★ (309) wp.org #8 5 too low 4 User Menus – Nav Menu Visibility 80K+ · 5.0★ (1281) wp.org #17 13 too low 5 Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #16 ↑5 11 too low 6 Estatik Real Estate Plugin 10K+ · 4.6★ (187) wp.org #18 ↓5 12 too low 7 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #24 ↓6 17 too low 8 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #15 ↑3 7 too low 9 Icegram Engage – Popups, Welcome Bars, Optins, Slide-Ins & Lead Generation for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (370) wp.org #20 11 too low 10 Hello I am here! Video conferences 200+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 URL Params 8K+ · 5.0★ (37) wp.org #21 ↑1 10 too low 12 Add to Cart Ajax for Hello Elementor 200+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #3 9 too high 13 Conditional Fields for Elementor Form – Apply Conditional Logic 10K+ · 4.7★ (32) wp.org #12 ↑2 1 too high 14 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #23 ↑2 9 too low 15 Cool FormKit Lite – Advanced Form Builder for Elementor 20K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too high 16 FormsDB – Save Elementor Forms to Google Sheets & Post Type 20K+ · 4.6★ (19) wp.org #10 ↑1 6 too high 17 Country Code For Elementor Form Telephone Field 10K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 SendWP 10K+ · 4.1★ (14) wp.org #13 ↓5 5 too high 19 Say hello 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 ↓2 10 too high 20 OneClick WP Hello 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 ↑2 16 too high 21 H Hello Bruce Campbell 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 7 too high 22 Hello Bar Popup Builder 3K+ · 1.6★ (7) wp.org #6 ↓1 16 too high 23 Hello Clever Gateway for WooCommerce 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too high 24 Hello Plus 70K+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #2 22 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.