Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 website”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

WP Hide Post — Hide Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types, and Control Products Visibility for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #11 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Visual Composer Website Builder places #12 on merit, 4.6★ from 220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPS Hide Login 2M+ · 4.8★ (2111) wp.org #1 2 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 WP Hide & Security Enhancer 50K+ · 4.3★ (275) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #10 6 too low 5 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #9 4 too low 6 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #16 ↑3 9 too low 8 Disable Admin Notices – Hide Dashboard Notifications 100K+ · 4.7★ (367) wp.org #12 ↑2 4 too low 9 Website LLMs.txt 50K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #4 ↓2 5 too high 10 LWS Hide Login 20K+ · 4.7★ (12) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 Kirki – Freeform Page Builder, Website Builder & Customizer 500K+ · 4.5★ (81) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Visual Composer Website Builder 30K+ · 4.6★ (220) wp.org #23 ↓3 11 too low 13 Hide/Remove Metadata 20K+ · 3.6★ (14) wp.org #7 6 too high 14 Hide Shipping Method For WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.0★ (25) wp.org #8 6 too high 15 Hide Admin Bar 20K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too low 16 FastPixel Cache – Optimize Page Speed: Compress Images, Minify, Clean Database & CDN 4K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #21 5 too low 17 Hide Cart Functions 3K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #14 ↑1 3 too high 18 Page Builder: Pagelayer – Drag and Drop website builder 400K+ · 3.9★ (104) wp.org #22 ↓1 4 too low 19 Hide Dashboard Notifications 20K+ · 3.9★ (33) wp.org #17 2 too high 20 Hide Admin Bar Based on User Roles – Disable the WordPress Toolbar by Role or Capability 20K+ · 3.9★ (20) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 WP Hide Post — Hide Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types, and Control Products Visibility for WooCommerce 3K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #11 10 too high 22 Hide Price Until Login 1K+ · 3.5★ (24) wp.org #20 2 too high 23 Hide Price and Add to Cart for WooCommerce 800+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↑4 5 too high 24 Hide Any Page 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.