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← Rankings

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

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 “housekeeping”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

Modern Hotel Booking — Direct Booking Engine, Availability Calendar & Vacation Rental PMS shows at wp.org #9 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 VikBooking Hotel Booking Engine & PMS 8K+ · 4.8★ (61) wp.org #1 2 Delete Expired Transients 4K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #2 3 Transient Cleaner 1K+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Cache Cleaner X-Ray – Performance & Database Diagnostics 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 AI Content Wizard Lite — SEO Content & Planner for OpenAI, Claude, DeepSeek & Gemini 10+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #13 8 too low 6 Init Reading Position – Remember, Return, Continue 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 BookiFlex Hotel Booking 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 DevDome Admin Cleaner: Remove Dashboard Widgets and Hide Menu Items 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Registration Email Blocker 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 MountDev AI MCP Connector for WordPress 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 11 Advanced Passkeys for Secure Login 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 Delete Old Posts and Pictures – Content Cleanup by Wizehawk 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too low 13 Tehnika Media Exporter & Cleaner 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too low 14 GrowthLife Media Suite — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 2 too high 15 Birlo Reservations Lite — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 BackBurner Post Archiver — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 Modern Hotel Booking — Direct Booking Engine, Availability Calendar & Vacation Rental PMS 10+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #9 8 too high 18 Swift Menu Duplicator 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 1 too low 19 WPSwings AI Website Optimizer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Okleone Backups – Backup, Restore, Migrate, Encrypted Cloud Backups — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 Klassifieds for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Nimble Operations — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 SML Sentinel — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↑1 24 OrderHue – Custom Order Statuses for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.