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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “hover caption”

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 “hover caption”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

Image Hover Effects For WPBakery Page Builder shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 14 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 10K+ · 4.7★ (250) wp.org #1 2 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #2 3 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #3 4 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (995) wp.org #4 5 Photo Gallery by Supsystic – Image Gallery, Masonry, Albums & Lightbox 20K+ · 4.6★ (498) wp.org #5 ↑15 6 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #6 ↑1 7 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #7 ↑9 8 Unlimited Elements for Elementor 300K+ · 4.8★ (525) wp.org #9 ↑2 1 too low 9 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Gallery by Visual Portfolio 50K+ · 4.8★ (340) wp.org #13 ↓5 3 too low 11 AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Gallery PhotoBlocks 3K+ · 5.0★ (76) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles Grid 20K+ · 4.7★ (353) wp.org #16 ↓6 3 too low 14 Image Hover Effects – WordPress Plugin 3K+ · 4.4★ (42) wp.org #8 ↓3 6 too high 15 Portfolio Filter Gallery – Photo Gallery 20K+ · 4.8★ (348) wp.org #19 ↓4 4 too low 16 SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle 400K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 Logo Carousel – Responsive Logo Slider, Logo Showcase, and Clients Logo Gallery 20K+ · 4.7★ (162) wp.org #20 3 too low 18 Ultimate Post Kit – Elementor Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider & Blog Layout Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #23 ↓2 5 too low 19 Image Hover Effects For WPBakery Page Builder 3K+ · 4.3★ (14) wp.org #10 ↓4 9 too high 20 Photo Gallery by Re Gallery: Responsive Image Gallery with AI SEO 700+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Gallery Block by Galleryberg: Lightbox with Tiles, Masonry, Square, & Justified Layouts 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓4 4 too high 22 Carousel Block – Showcase Images in Elegant Sliding Displays 7K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too high 23 Embed Lottie Player – bring your pages to life with animation 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too high 24 SocialFeeds 40K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↓1 6 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.