Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “hide author”

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 “hide author”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Hide Author Archive shows at wp.org #1 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 600+ 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

Disable Gutenberg places #11 on merit, 5.0★ from 735 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 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #2 ↑2 1 too low 2 Simple Author Box 90K+ · 4.3★ (115) wp.org #3 ↓2 1 too low 3 WP Hide & Security Enhancer 50K+ · 4.3★ (275) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too low 4 Molongui Authorship – Author Boxes, Guest Authors & Co-Authors for WordPress 10K+ · 4.7★ (158) wp.org #9 ↑1 5 too low 5 WP Post Author – Author Box, Multiple Authors, Guest Authors & Custom Avatars 10K+ · 4.2★ (22) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 Author Avatars List/Block 4K+ · 4.8★ (32) wp.org #8 ↓2 2 too low 7 Hide Posts 20K+ · 4.7★ (22) wp.org #7 ↓2 8 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #20 ↓2 12 too low 9 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too low 10 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #19 ↓2 9 too low 11 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #24 13 too low 12 WC Hide Shipping Methods 20K+ · 4.2★ (44) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 Hide/Remove Metadata 20K+ · 3.6★ (14) wp.org #5 ↓2 8 too high 14 Hide Author Archive 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 ↑18 13 too high 15 Smart User Slug Hider 2K+ · 4.9★ (55) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 Co-Authors Plus 20K+ · 3.5★ (77) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 VK Post Author Display 10K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #10 ↓2 7 too high 18 WP Hide Post — Hide Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types, and Control Products Visibility for WooCommerce 3K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓1 6 too high 19 Hide Comment Author Link 1K+ · 4.1★ (9) wp.org #18 ↓2 1 too high 20 Hide Trackbacks 300+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #16 ↓1 4 too high 21 Hide Broken Shortcodes 400+ · 4.5★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 Change WooCommerce Product Author – Transfer Ownership of WooCommerce Products 200+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Cool Author Box – For Widget and Post Content 500+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓1 8 too high 24 Hide Archive Label 900+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↓1 11 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.