Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “hestia”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

ThemeHunk – Side Cart, Ajax Cart & Menu Cart for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #10 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 5K+ 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

Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization places #8 on merit, 4.7★ from 640 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Menu Icons by Themeisle – Add Icons to Navigation Menus 100K+ · 4.9★ (851) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Hestia Nginx Cache 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Orbit Fox: Duplicate Page, Menu Icons, SVG Support, Cookie Notice, Custom Fonts & More 100K+ · 4.8★ (317) wp.org #4 ↑2 1 too low 4 Disable and Remove Google Fonts | GDPR & DSGVO friendly 100K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 CartFlows – Funnel Builder & Checkout Plugin for WooCommerce 200K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color, Image & Size Swatches 200K+ · 4.6★ (51) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too high 7 Extra Product Options For WooCommerce | Custom Product Addons and Fields 30K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #11 ↑4 4 too low 8 Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization 200K+ · 4.7★ (640) wp.org #16 8 too low 9 Modern Cart – WooCommerce Side Cart & Popup Cart 60K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 SMNTCS Custom Logo Link 2K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too high 11 SureForms – Contact Form Builder, AI Forms, Payment Form, Survey & Quiz 500K+ · 4.8★ (102) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 WPB Popup for Contact Form 7 – Showing Contact Form 7 Popup on Button Click 5K+ · 4.6★ (16) wp.org #9 ↑1 3 too high 13 WPB Accordion Menu – Collapsible Vertical Sidebar Responsive Mobile Menu – WooCommerce Category Accordion 10K+ · 4.4★ (54) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too low 14 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #21 ↓4 7 too low 15 SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ · 4.7★ (25) wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too low 16 Advance Product Search- Voice & Ajax Search for WooCommerce 9K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too high 17 WPB Quick View Popup for WooCommerce – Fast Product Preview Modal & AJAX Quick View 1K+ · 3.1★ (32) wp.org #20 ↑1 3 too low 18 Better Badge – Custom Product Badges for WooCommerce 600+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Advanced Product Search For WooCommerce 4K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓2 5 too high 20 Lead Form Builder & Contact Form 8K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 Premmerce Product Filter for WooCommerce 2K+ · 3.4★ (22) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Smart Variation Swatches for WooCommerce – Color & Image Attribute Swatches 3K+ · 3.2★ (13) wp.org #19 ↑1 3 too high 23 ThemeHunk – Side Cart, Ajax Cart & Menu Cart for WooCommerce 5K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↓1 13 too high 24 Store One – BOGO, Sales Notification, Sticky Add to Cart & Buy Now for WooCommerce 600+ · 5.0★ (1) 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.