Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “hosting space”

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 “hosting space”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

atec Hosting Check shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 40+ 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

Backup Migration places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1338 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #1 2 Relevanssi – A Better Search 100K+ · 4.8★ (406) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 Hosting Benchmark tool 4K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too high 4 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #3 ↓1 1 too high 5 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #9 ↑1 3 too low 7 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 Media Hygiene: Remove or Delete Unused Images and More! 4K+ · 4.2★ (41) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too high 9 Advanced File Manager – Ultimate File Manager for WordPress And Document Library Solution 100K+ · 4.8★ (441) wp.org #13 4 too low 10 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #18 ↑1 8 too low 11 Big File Uploads – Increase Maximum File Upload Size 100K+ · 4.9★ (402) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Optimole – Optimize Images | Convert WebP & AVIF | CDN & Lazy Load | Image Optimization 200K+ · 4.7★ (640) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too low 13 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #11 2 too high 14 JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate 200K+ · 4.5★ (1056) wp.org #22 ↑2 8 too low 15 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too high 16 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 10Web Booster – Website speed optimization, Cache & Page Speed optimizer 60K+ · 4.6★ (405) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #21 ↑2 3 too low 19 Pay with Vipps and MobilePay for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #8 ↓1 11 too high 20 Jetpack VideoPress 7K+ · 4.0★ (16) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 External files in Media Library 500+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too high 22 My Simple Space 7K+ · 4.4★ (10) wp.org #20 ↑1 2 too high 23 atec Hosting Check 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 ↑1 16 too high 24 Dashboard: Available Disk Space 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↓1 14 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.