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← Rankings

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

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 “http”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

JSM Force HTTP to HTTPS / SSL – No Setup, Fast and Reliable shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 7K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 13 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 5209 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Encryption: Easy HTTPS / SSL & Free SSL certificate, HTTPS redirect 50K+ · 4.9★ (1146) wp.org #2 ↑1 1 too low 2 HTTP Headers 40K+ · 4.3★ (70) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 WP Force SSL & HTTPS SSL Redirect 80K+ · 4.7★ (179) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 SSL Zen — SSL Certificate Installer & HTTPS Redirects 9K+ · 4.9★ (665) wp.org #8 4 too low 5 Easy HTTPS Redirection (SSL) 100K+ · 4.2★ (71) wp.org #5 6 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #12 6 too low 7 WP Cron HTTP Auth 1K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 HTTP Requests Manager 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 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 #19 10 too low 10 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #20 ↑1 10 too low 11 Lightbox with PhotoSwipe 20K+ · 4.9★ (115) wp.org #17 ↓1 6 too low 12 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #21 ↓4 9 too low 13 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #24 ↓5 11 too low 14 H HTTP 410 (Gone) responses 4K+ · 4.6★ (21) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 Page Speed Optimizer: HTTP/2 Push, Async JavaScript, and Defer CSS 6K+ · 4.7★ (64) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too high 16 Safe Redirect Manager 40K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #18 ↑4 2 too low 17 L Log HTTP Requests 2K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #11 ↓1 6 too high 18 JSM Force HTTP to HTTPS / SSL – No Setup, Fast and Reliable 7K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #7 11 too high 19 Headers Security Advanced & HSTS WP 90K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #23 ↓5 4 too low 20 Proxy Cache Purge 50K+ · 4.4★ (26) wp.org #10 ↑1 10 too high 21 Ocean Social Sharing 60K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #16 ↑4 5 too high 22 HTTP Auth 6K+ · 4.2★ (6) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 HTTP Security Header 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 ↓1 8 too high 24 Ocean Product Sharing 20K+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↑1 2 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.