Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “ladder”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 2 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 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

FastOG — Dynamic Social Cards & Link Previews for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #15 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 5 places. Its — 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

Meta for WooCommerce places #7 on merit, 2.1★ from 481 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Tournamatch 100+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 Court Reservation – Tennis, Padel & Sports Court Booking 90+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Gift Ladder for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 AJ Agent Crawl Optimizer – AI Readiness Scanner & llms.txt for WordPress 30+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 RewardsWP – Loyalty Points & Referral Program for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Edward – AI SEO Autopilot & Content Writer 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 7 Meta for WooCommerce 400K+ · 2.1★ (481) wp.org #22 15 too low 8 W WPSecureOps Connector 80+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Ladder SEO — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 1 too high 10 CHIP for Gravity Forms 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↑2 1 too high 11 BWD LadderFlow – Product Journey Engine — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 ReportedIP Hive: Firewall, Brute Force Protection, 2FA and Anti-Spam 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13 GameEngine – Gamification, Points, Badges & Leaderboards 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too high 14 Easy Testimonials Slider Plugin — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 15 Loyalty Points and Rewards Plugin for WordPress – Pointics 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↑1 1 too low 16 Sikshya LMS – LMS Course Builder, Online Courses & eLearning 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 ↑1 3 too high 17 Food Products for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↑4 18 SGL Events — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 19 Driftclear — Dead Stock Autopilot for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓1 20 FastOG — Dynamic Social Cards & Link Previews for WooCommerce — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↑1 5 too high 21 ArgentWolf Video Processor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 1 too high 22 Think Smart Discounts – Dynamic Pricing, Bulk Edit & Quantity Discounts for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Chala Subscriptions for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 Moksa Points for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24

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.