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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “hits count”

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 “hits count”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

Counter-Hits shows at wp.org #3 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 1K+ 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

Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 167 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 SRS Simple Hits Counter 8K+ · 4.2★ (6) wp.org #1 4 too high 6 Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 SEO Redirection Plugin – 301 Redirect Manager 10K+ · 4.3★ (73) wp.org #7 8 Better Find and Replace – AI-Powered Suggestions 40K+ · 4.6★ (171) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 CrawlWP SEO – Complete WordPress SEO Plugin with AI, Indexing & Search Performance 30K+ · 4.7★ (62) wp.org #10 11 WP-PostViews 90K+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #19 6 too low 14 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #15 16 BrikPanel: WooCommerce Dashboard & Analytics, Abandoned Cart Recovery, Order Export, Inventory Management & Bulk Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (55) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 SEO Engine – Smart SEO with AI, Schema & Redirection for WordPress 1K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #17 18 WP-DownloadManager 3K+ · 4.0★ (37) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Custom 404 Pro 7K+ · 4.2★ (22) wp.org #21 1 too low 21 Counter-Hits 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 18 too high 22 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 MWR Hit Counter 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 14 too high 24 Sigma Search & Replace 200+ · 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.