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

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 “labelling”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification shows at wp.org #15 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its 90+ 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 Admin Menu Editor 300K+ · 4.6★ (312) wp.org #1 2 Ultimate FAQ Accordion Plugin 30K+ · 4.6★ (439) wp.org #2 3 Five Star Restaurant Menu and Food Ordering 5K+ · 4.6★ (107) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Five Star Restaurant Reservations – WordPress Booking Plugin 10K+ · 4.7★ (211) wp.org #5 ↑6 1 too low 5 miniOrange 2FA – Two Factor Authentication for WordPress (Passkey, OTP, SMS, Email, Google Authenticator) 10K+ · 4.5★ (385) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Order Tracking – WordPress Status Tracking Plugin 3K+ · 4.6★ (73) wp.org #4 ↓1 2 too high 7 WPBot – AI ChatBot for Live Support, Lead Generation, WordPress Automation, AI Services 5K+ · 4.7★ (124) wp.org #7 ↓1 8 Ultimate Product Catalog 4K+ · 4.5★ (233) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Advanced Accordion Gutenberg Block – Create Beautiful FAQs, Content Accordions & Interactive Tabs 9K+ · 4.1★ (34) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too high 10 Ultimate WP Mail 700+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too low 11 Ultimate Appointment Booking & Scheduling 80+ · 4.1★ (20) wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too low 12 Polski for WooCommerce 60+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #12 ↓2 13 Ultimate WooCommerce Filters 500+ · 3.7★ (14) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 WP Wand – AI Content Writer for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter and Deepseek 1K+ · 3.8★ (10) wp.org #11 ↑1 3 too high 15 AForms — Form Builder for Price Calculator & Cost Estimation 3K+ · 4.8★ (8) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 RankReady – AI SEO, Schema, llms.txt, AEO and GEO for ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity 500+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #16 ↓1 17 PressedMail – Email Client, Inbox & Webmail 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Grafiduo AI Content Flag — · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 DineKit – Restaurant Menu, Online Ordering, Table Reservations & POS 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Forge AI Bot Log – Block AI Bots, Crawler Detection & Verification 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 Clarivo – AI Content Disclosure 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 Intigra Disclosio – AI Image and Video Labels for the EU AI Act 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 23 Klarvo AI Transparency for EU AI Act 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 5 too high 24 Schnieders AI Media Labels 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.