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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “light box”

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 “light box”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 3 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

Profile Box Shortcode And Widget shows at wp.org #9 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #1 2 Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #2 3 Royal Addons for Elementor – Addons and Templates Kit for Elementor 600K+ · 4.8★ (612) wp.org #5 ↓1 2 too low 4 Quick View For WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.8★ (99) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 Unlimited Elements for Elementor 300K+ · 4.8★ (525) wp.org #6 ↑5 1 too low 6 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Lightbox slider – Responsive Lightbox Gallery 3K+ · 4.7★ (24) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Disable Gutenberg 500K+ · 5.0★ (735) wp.org #13 5 too low 9 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #18 ↑3 9 too low 10 UsersWP – Front-end login form, User Registration, User Profile & Members Directory plugin for WP 20K+ · 4.7★ (183) wp.org #12 ↑3 2 too low 11 Variation Images Gallery for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (39) wp.org #8 ↓2 3 too high 12 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1492) wp.org #17 ↑3 5 too low 13 AI Engine – MCP Server & AI Chatbot for WordPress, with Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini 90K+ · 4.9★ (874) wp.org #23 10 too low 14 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (807) wp.org #19 ↓2 4 too low 16 Social LikeBox & Feed 10K+ · 3.3★ (47) wp.org #10 6 too high 17 Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews 20K+ · 4.9★ (184) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 Page Builder: Pagelayer – Drag and Drop website builder 400K+ · 3.9★ (104) wp.org #14 ↑4 4 too high 19 Dark Mode for WP Dashboard 3K+ · 4.8★ (34) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too high 20 Sticky Header Effects for Elementor 300K+ · 4.5★ (69) wp.org #22 ↑1 2 too low 21 HT Mega Addons for Elementor – Elementor Widgets & Template Builder 60K+ · 4.1★ (66) wp.org #21 ↑1 22 Module Control for Jetpack 1K+ · 4.8★ (11) wp.org #11 ↑1 11 too high 23 Dark Mode Toggle 2K+ · 4.6★ (19) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 Profile Box Shortcode And Widget 1K+ · 3.7★ (7) wp.org #9 15 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.