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

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 zoom”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 2 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

Image Zoom on Hover shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 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

Max Mega Menu places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 882 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Image Hover Effects – Elementor Addon 40K+ · 4.9★ (83) wp.org #1 2 Image Hover Effects Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 10K+ · 4.7★ (250) wp.org #2 3 WP Image Zoom 10K+ · 4.3★ (119) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #11 6 too low 6 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #13 ↓1 7 too low 7 Unlimited Elements for Elementor 300K+ · 4.8★ (525) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too low 8 YITH WooCommerce Product Gallery & Image Zoom 10K+ · 3.6★ (71) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 Product Gallery Slider, Additional Variation Images, Product Video, Product Image Zoom and Lightbox for WooCommerce – Reno Product Gallery (formerly WooGallery) 20K+ · 4.9★ (162) wp.org #9 10 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #20 ↑1 10 too low 11 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too low 12 MapGeo – Interactive Geo Maps 30K+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #12 ↓2 13 AnimateGL – WebGL & CSS Scroll Animations and Hover Effects for Gutenberg and Elementor 2K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #18 ↑5 4 too low 15 Advanced Image Hover Effect for Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #3 12 too high 16 Gallery PhotoBlocks 3K+ · 5.0★ (76) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 AI Product Gallery Slider, Additional Variation Images, Product Video, Product Image Zoom and Lightbox for WooCommerce – WPBean 1K+ · 4.3★ (27) wp.org #7 ↓1 10 too high 18 Mapster WP Maps 3K+ · 4.9★ (54) wp.org #21 ↓4 3 too low 19 Disk Usage Sunburst 9K+ · 4.8★ (36) wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20 Featured Image Zoom 900+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too high 21 Real3D Flipbook – 3D Flipbook, PDF Flipbook, PDF Viewer, PDF Embedder 10K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #23 ↓4 2 too low 22 TP WooCommerce Product Gallery 1K+ · 3.8★ (26) wp.org #24 ↓2 2 too low 23 Image Zoom on Hover 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑1 17 too high 24 Product Image and Video Gallery Slider for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↓1 7 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.