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

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 world”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 2 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

Vercel AI Gateway Provider shows at wp.org #5 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 200+ 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

FireBox – WooCommerce Popup Builder, Exit Intent Popup, Email Optin & Cart Abandonment places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 76 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 WP Migrate Lite – Migration Made Easy 200K+ · 4.2★ (318) wp.org #1 2 Beaver Builder Page Builder – Drag and Drop Website Builder 100K+ · 4.7★ (394) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization 200K+ · 4.7★ (640) wp.org #8 5 too low 4 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Live Composer – Free WordPress Website Builder 10K+ · 4.4★ (212) wp.org #11 ↑2 6 too low 6 HTML5 Maps 4K+ · 4.6★ (45) wp.org #12 ↑2 6 too low 7 Ray 400+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #7 8 Translate and boost SEO – Automatic AI translation – wpLingua 2K+ · 4.9★ (33) wp.org #14 ↑2 6 too low 9 Notification for Telegram 4K+ · 4.9★ (71) wp.org #21 ↑2 12 too low 10 FireBox – WooCommerce Popup Builder, Exit Intent Popup, Email Optin & Cart Abandonment 6K+ · 4.8★ (76) wp.org #24 14 too low 11 Hello World 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #2 9 too high 12 WP User Activity 200+ · 3.3★ (8) wp.org #6 6 too high 13 Relative URL 2K+ · 4.2★ (26) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too low 14 Xpro Addons — 150+ Widgets for Elementor 40K+ · 4.4★ (28) wp.org #22 ↑2 8 too low 15 WordLift – AI powered SEO – Schema 300+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #19 ↑1 4 too low 16 Extra Fees for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.3★ (42) wp.org #17 ↑2 1 too low 17 AI Bud – AI Content Generator, AI Chatbot, ChatGPT, Gemini, GPT-4o 2K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Spoki – Chat Buttons and WooCommerce Notifications 600+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #13 ↑2 5 too high 19 Code Engine – PHP Snippets, AI Functions & Automation for WordPress 800+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #18 ↑3 1 too high 20 AutoWP – AI Content Writer & Rewriter 900+ · 3.8★ (15) wp.org #20 ↑2 21 Vercel AI Gateway Provider 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 16 too high 22 SHIED WORLD Schema Markup — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 ↑3 13 too high 23 GMap Targeting – Simple Targeting Inside Google Maps 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↑1 13 too high 24 Hello Dolly For Your Song 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↑2 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.