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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “html mail”

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 “html mail”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Mail Queue shows at wp.org #8 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 8 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Polylang places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 3003 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #1 2 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #2 3 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 4 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #4 5 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #5 6 Insert Html Snippet 20K+ · 4.9★ (237) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #9 2 too low 8 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #16 8 too low 9 Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (85) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #11 ↑10 1 too low 11 Zoho Mail for WordPress 20K+ · 3.7★ (42) wp.org #6 5 too high 12 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3003) wp.org #22 ↑1 10 too low 13 XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ · 4.8★ (2233) wp.org #24 11 too low 14 CSV to HTML 300+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #10 4 too high 15 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #15 16 Advanced Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce 70K+ · 4.5★ (355) wp.org #14 ↓3 2 too high 17 Mail Queue 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #8 9 too high 18 Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #18 ↑1 19 HTML Social Share Buttons 50+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #21 ↑1 2 too low 20 F4 Shipping Phone and E-Mail for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #13 ↑1 7 too high 21 Zoho ZeptoMail 5K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 Pro Mail SMTP 300+ · 4.4★ (5) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 HTML Template for CF7 1K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 Spotler Mail+ Forms 300+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↑1 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.