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

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 “image hover animation”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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

Advanced Image Hover Effect for Elementor shows at wp.org #8 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates places #6 on merit, 4.9★ from 1680 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. 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 Ultimate ( Image Gallery, Effects, Lightbox, Comparison & Magnifier ) 10K+ · 4.7★ (250) wp.org #1 2 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Animation Addons – Elementor Addons, GSAP Animations, Elementor V4 Atomic Widgets & Elementor Templates 10K+ · 4.6★ (66) wp.org #3 ↑3 1 too high 5 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #6 ↑4 1 too low 6 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #12 ↓1 6 too low 7 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #11 ↑2 4 too low 8 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #10 ↓3 2 too low 9 HappyAddons for Elementor – 160 Elementor Widgets, GSAP Animations & Templates 400K+ · 4.8★ (489) wp.org #7 ↓3 2 too high 10 Flipbox – Awesomes Flip Boxes Image Overlay 9K+ · 4.7★ (149) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 Hover Effects – easily create any hover effect 7K+ · 4.8★ (17) wp.org #5 ↓2 6 too high 12 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #14 ↓2 2 too low 13 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #13 ↑2 14 Ultimate Responsive Image Slider 30K+ · 4.5★ (248) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 WP Image Zoom 10K+ · 4.3★ (119) wp.org #18 ↓4 3 too low 16 AnimateGL – WebGL & CSS Scroll Animations and Hover Effects for Gutenberg and Elementor 2K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Block Animations, Motion & Scroll Effects – Ghost Kit 6K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too low 18 Image Gallery 3K+ · 4.4★ (32) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 Superb Addons: Blocks, Patterns, Pre-built Pages, Sliders, Popups, Free Forms, Animations & More 80K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #24 ↓2 5 too low 20 aBlocks – Gutenberg Blocks, User Dashboard Builder, Popup Builder, Form Builder & Animation Builder 2K+ · 5.0★ (26) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 TP Product Image Flipper for WooCommerce 9K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #23 ↓4 2 too low 22 Image Hover Effects – WordPress Plugin 3K+ · 4.4★ (42) wp.org #20 ↓4 2 too high 23 Advanced Image Hover Effect for Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 15 too high 24 Overlay Image Divi Module 2K+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #21 3 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.