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← Rankings

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

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 “help”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 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

Help Scout shows at wp.org #4 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Customer Reviews for WooCommerce places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 1539 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #8 ↓1 4 too low 5 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #6 ↑2 1 too low 6 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775) wp.org #12 ↓3 6 too low 7 Advanced Custom Fields (ACF®) 2M+ · 4.5★ (1440) wp.org #7 ↑9 8 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #14 ↑7 6 too low 9 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #9 10 Customer Reviews for WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (1539) wp.org #20 ↑4 10 too low 11 Loginizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1033) wp.org #11 ↑4 12 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #21 ↓3 9 too low 13 Admin Help Docs 600+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #3 10 too high 14 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #24 ↓1 10 too low 15 Cresta Help Chat 10K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #10 ↓4 5 too high 16 Help Scout 300+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #4 12 too high 17 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #19 ↓9 2 too low 18 JS Help Desk – AI-Powered Support & Ticketing System 7K+ · 3.7★ (74) wp.org #13 ↓2 5 too high 19 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #22 ↓5 3 too low 20 Happy FAQs – FAQ, Product FAQ & Help Center 1K+ · 4.8★ (23) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 ChatHelp – Click to Chat Button, Chat to Order for WooCommerce & Floating Chat Form 2K+ · 4.4★ (9) wp.org #15 ↓3 6 too high 22 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Majestic Support – The Leading-Edge Help Desk & Customer Support Plugin 3K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 ↑1 5 too high 24 Social Share Block – Help Visitors Spread Your Content Everywhere 2K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #23 1 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.