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

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 “intellectual”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Receive customer payments on Woocommerce shows at wp.org #11 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #1 2 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #2 3 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 ShutterPress Gallery – Masonry, justified and grid galleries, lightbox and infinite scroll 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Bot Traffic Shield – Block Bad Bots and Stop AI Bots Crawlers 800+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Instaread Audio Player — Text-to-Speech & Article-to-Audio 90+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Checkout with Zelle on Woocommerce 3K+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #3 5 too high 9 MMWW 200+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #15 6 too low 10 DropAvif Image Optimizer – Convert WebP & AVIF | Compress Images 80+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #12 2 too low 11 Data Diagrams: Visual Chart Editor for WordPress 10+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #19 8 too low 12 Dynamic Copyright Year Customizer 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 8 too high 13 Timestamps – SEO-friendly Blockchain Integration for WordPress 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 Get Cash 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 DigiCommerce – Conversion-Focused Digital Sales Platform 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 3 too low 16 Disable Right Click & Content Copy Protection 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Dyslexie Font Accessibility 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 18 Easy Disable Source, No Right-click, Image protection and Content Protection 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 4 too high 19 Buttonify-Dropshipping 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 3 too high 20 Receive customer payments on Woocommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 Watermark My Images — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 Disable Text Selection 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 Hannan Shakib LMS Student Teacher Portal for Elementor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 AICA – Smart AI Commerce Assistant — · 5.0★ (1) 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.