wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “learn more”
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 “learn more”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 5 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
WooCommerce PayPal Payments shows at wp.org #8 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 800K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.9★ average from 584 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322)
wp.org #1 2 
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520)
wp.org #2 3 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820)
wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 
The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461)
wp.org #3 1 too high 5 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833)
wp.org #5 ↓1 6 
Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144)
wp.org #6 ↑1 7 
Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342)
wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 
Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221)
wp.org #10 2 too low 9 
Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551)
wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too high 10 
Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (518)
wp.org #12 2 too low 11 
Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6053)
wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too low 12 
Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262)
wp.org #11 1 too high 13 
Download Monitor 80K+ · 4.5★ (525)
wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too low 14 
Redis Object Cache 500K+ · 4.5★ (179)
wp.org #13 ↑1 1 too high 15 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (584)
wp.org #8 ↑1 7 too high 16 
Orbit Fox: Duplicate Page, Menu Icons, SVG Support, Cookie Notice, Custom Fonts & More 100K+ · 4.8★ (317)
wp.org #20 4 too low 17 
WP 2FA – Two-factor authentication for WordPress 100K+ · 4.7★ (184)
wp.org #17 ↑5 18 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333)
wp.org #18 19 
The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380)
wp.org #23 4 too low 20 
Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292)
wp.org #24 ↓4 4 too low 21 
WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68)
wp.org #21 ↑3 22 
Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48)
wp.org #16 ↓1 6 too high 23 
Better Search Replace 1M+ · 4.3★ (546)
wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 
Crowdsignal Dashboard – Polls, Surveys & more 200K+ · 2.7★ (34)
wp.org #19 ↓2 5 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.