Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “input credit”

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 “input credit”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 7 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

Input Masks for Elementor Forms shows at wp.org #1 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 600+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More places #5 on merit, 4.8★ from 14387 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 Input Mask For Elementor Form Fields 10K+ · 4.5★ (24) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #5 3 too low 3 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #7 4 too low 4 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #15 ↑1 10 too low 6 WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 700K+ · 3.1★ (237) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3004) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #16 ↑1 8 too low 9 Image Source Control Lite – Show Image Credits and Captions 3K+ · 4.6★ (42) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 Stripe Payment Forms by WP Simple Pay – Accept Credit Card Payments + Subscriptions with Stripe 8K+ · 4.4★ (117) wp.org #10 11 Form Input Masks For Elementor Forms 10K+ · 4.1★ (18) wp.org #4 7 too high 12 PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1865) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 Email Encoder – Protect Email Addresses and Phone Numbers 90K+ · 4.9★ (94) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT 10K+ · 4.6★ (166) wp.org #22 8 too low 15 Multibanco, MB WAY, Credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Payshop, and PIX (ifthenpay) for WooCommerce 8K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #11 ↑2 4 too high 16 Input Masks for Elementor Forms 600+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 15 too high 17 Print Invoice & Delivery Notes for WooCommerce 30K+ · 4.4★ (140) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Availability Datepicker – Booking Calendar for Contact Form 7 – Input WP 10K+ · 4.1★ (42) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too high 20 zahls.ch Credit Cards, PostFinance and TWINT for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓1 8 too high 21 Rede Itaú for WooCommerce — Payment PIX, Credit Card and Debit 1K+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #9 12 too high 22 Cool FormKit Lite – Advanced Form Builder for Elementor 20K+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #24 2 too low 23 CIELO API PIX, credit card, debit payment for WooCommerce 600+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓2 6 too high 24 Easy Search Replace – Find & Replace Text/HTML/URLs, Remove Footer Credit 700+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #23 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.