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← Rankings

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

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 “incremental”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Markdown for Agents and Statistics shows at wp.org #14 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 200+ 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

Modular DS: Monitor, update, and backup multiple websites places #9 on merit, 5.0★ from 133 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #1 2 BlogVault Backup & Staging 80K+ · 4.6★ (332) wp.org #2 3 WP Umbrella: Security Backup Restore & Monitoring 90K+ · 4.8★ (81) wp.org #3 4 Media Sync 50K+ · 4.7★ (86) wp.org #4 5 ManageWP Worker 1M+ · 4.6★ (679) wp.org #5 6 Duplicate Post 300K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too low 7 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Backup and Staging by WP Time Capsule 10K+ · 4.0★ (128) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 Modular DS: Monitor, update, and backup multiple websites 40K+ · 5.0★ (133) wp.org #15 ↓2 6 too low 10 WowShipping – Table Rate & Weight Based Shipping 700+ · 5.0★ (25) wp.org #10 11 Post Pay Counter 1K+ · 4.8★ (46) wp.org #12 ↓1 1 too low 12 Jetpack VaultPress Backup 20K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13 WPvivid Backup for MainWP 10K+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #6 7 too high 14 Gift Cards (Gift Vouchers and Packages) (WooCommerce Supported) 1K+ · 4.7★ (115) wp.org #21 ↓2 7 too low 15 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 Royal WordPress Backup, Restore & Migration Plugin – Backup WordPress Sites Safely 30K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #13 ↑2 3 too high 17 Petitioner 200+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #22 ↓1 5 too low 18 Clean unused shortcodes 300+ · 4.4★ (7) wp.org #16 ↓2 2 too high 19 PayPal Brasil para WooCommerce 1K+ · 3.8★ (12) wp.org #20 1 too low 20 Darven Preços Parcelados 200+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too high 21 WP Duplicate – WordPress Migration Plugin 200+ · 3.3★ (7) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too high 22 Sync media with AWS S3 CloudFront 20+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 Markdown for Agents and Statistics 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓2 9 too high 24 Migrator – Site Migration and Backup 50+ · 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.