Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “http 402”

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 402”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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 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

CrawlerToll shows at wp.org #8 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its — installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

FunnelKit Payment Gateway for Stripe WooCommerce places #1 on merit, 4.9★ from 53 reviews, but shows at wp.org #9. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 FunnelKit Payment Gateway for Stripe WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (53) wp.org #9 ↓1 8 too low 2 Easy Google Adsense and Banner Ads Manager – AdsforWP 1K+ · 4.6★ (43) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 x402 Pay 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Content Heal AI Crawler Protection & Honeypot Shield — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Copyright AI Content Licensing – Block AI Crawlers + Get Paid 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 WP SAML Auth 7K+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #16 10 too low 7 A-Pay Web3 AI Paywall — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 SandyWP Cloner 10+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #15 ↓1 7 too low 9 ForgeMesh Pay-per-Crawl — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too high 10 Printcart Store – Web to Print Product Designer for WooCommerce 60+ · 4.1★ (12) wp.org #19 ↓1 9 too low 11 NanoTrans Agent Paywall — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too high 12 Under The Weather 60+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too low 13 CrawlerToll — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 5 too high 14 TrafficPaywall — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too high 15 P2Flux Agent Paywall 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 4 too high 16 Schema & Structured Data — Cirv Box 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓1 4 too high 17 Valvai – AI Traffic Control Center — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too high 18 Bottoll – AI Crawler Control — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too high 19 OpenBotAuth – AI Crawler Access Control — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 1 too high 20 Core Web Vitals Monitor & PageSpeed Checker — Cirv Pulse — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 21 Accessibility Checker & WCAG Scanner — Cirv Guard — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 22 AI Provider for Hugging Face 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 Alpaca Bot 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 Primer Pay — · 5.0★ (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.