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

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 “land”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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

GoSMTP – SMTP for WordPress shows at wp.org #10 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 500K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 2528 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 signals wp.org

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #1 ↑1 2

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 1 too low 3

Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4

SlimStat Analytics – Real-Time Stats, Heatmaps & Ecommerce 70K+ · 4.8★ (816) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #4 ↑1 5

WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #6 1 too low 6

Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too low 7 A Attachment Pages Redirect 10K+ · 4.9★ (47) wp.org #7 ↑1 8

404 to 301 – Redirect Manager, 301 Redirection, 404 Error Logs & 404 Monitoring 100K+ · 4.7★ (321) wp.org #14 ↑1 6 too low 9

Theme My Login 50K+ · 3.7★ (460) wp.org #11 ↓4 2 too low 10

Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) host-installed base thin reviews wp.org #2 ↓1 8 too high 11

Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #17 6 too low 12

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #20 8 too low 13

WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #21 ↓2 8 too low 14

Sky Login Redirect 2K+ · 4.7★ (24) thin reviews wp.org #9 ↑1 5 too high 15

Safelayout Cute Preloader – CSS3 WordPress Preloader 10K+ · 5.0★ (84) wp.org #23 7 too low 17

Easy Property Listings 5K+ · 4.7★ (112) not PHP-current wp.org #19 ↑1 2 too low 18

Enable Abilities for MCP 5K+ · 5.0★ (17) thin reviews wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too high 19

ActivityPub 6K+ · 4.9★ (40) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #18 ↓4 1 too high 20

GoSMTP – SMTP for WordPress 500K+ · 4.3★ (10) host-installed base thin reviews wp.org #10 ↑1 10 too high 21 E Easy UTM tracking with contact form 7 2K+ · 4.5★ (8) thin reviews wp.org #24 ↓2 3 too low 22

LandTech Extras for Elementor 80+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #12 10 too high 23

Order Status Control for WooCommerce 4K+ · 5.0★ (4) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #16 7 too high 24

Property Hive Stamp Duty Calculator 800+ · 3.8★ (5) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.