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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “insert emoji”

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 “insert emoji”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

SmileyHub Emoji Kit shows at wp.org #12 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its — installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

PPOM – Product Addons & Custom Fields for WooCommerce places #9 on merit, 4.5★ from 283 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Coder – Insert & Manage Code Snippets 10K+ · 4.9★ (32) wp.org #1 2 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ · 5.0★ (1865) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 FluentSnippets – High-Performance Code Snippets, Header & Footer Code, Custom CSS & PHP Code Manager 50K+ · 4.7★ (78) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too low 5 Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 100K+ · 4.9★ (227) wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6 Search Regex 100K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #8 2 too low 7 Clearfy Cache – WordPress optimization plugin, Minify HTML, CSS & JS, Defer 40K+ · 4.7★ (339) wp.org #11 ↑1 4 too low 8 Brave – Create Popup, Optins, Lead Generation, Survey, Sticky Elements & Interactive Content 20K+ · 4.8★ (209) wp.org #15 ↑4 7 too low 9 PPOM – Product Addons & Custom Fields for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.5★ (283) wp.org #20 11 too low 10 WPMasterToolKit (WPMTK) – All in one plugin 5K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 Comment Emojis for WP 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #2 9 too high 12 Plugins List 700+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 Poll Maker by AYS – Versus Polls, Anonymous Polls, Image Polls 6K+ · 4.4★ (91) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses 8K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #21 ↓1 7 too low 15 If-So Geolocation 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #6 ↓1 9 too high 16 Forumax – AI Powered Advanced Community Forum Plugin 500+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #17 1 too low 17 Side Menu Lite – Sticky Floating Side Menu 7K+ · 4.0★ (12) wp.org #10 7 too high 18 Modal Window – create popup modal window 10K+ · 3.8★ (36) wp.org #24 ↓2 6 too low 19 Slash Admin 500+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Exchange Rates 800+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too high 21 Editoria11y Accessibility Checker 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #19 ↓1 2 too high 22 No Nonsense 1K+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #22 ↓1 23 SmileyHub Emoji Kit — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #12 ↓1 11 too high 24 ShareThis Reaction Buttons 600+ · 3.8★ (5) wp.org #14 ↓1 10 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.