Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “linguistics”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 2 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

Estasoft Name Catalog shows at wp.org #9 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its — installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Fixed Widget and Sticky Elements for WordPress places #4 on merit, 4.7★ from 262 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 100K+ · 4.8★ (1138) wp.org #12 11 too low 2 Transliterator – Multilingual and Multi-script Text Conversion 3K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #10 8 too low 3 HREFLANG Tags Management By Webnow 500+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Fixed Widget and Sticky Elements for WordPress 70K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #19 15 too low 5 GPTranslate – Multilingual AI Translation Agent for WordPress: Translate Your Site with AI 500+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #15 10 too low 6 Backend Google Translate 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 4 too high 7 Automatic Multilingual AI Translation by Autoglot 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 MF Appointment Booking 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 4 too high 9 AI Explainer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 4 too high 10 TranslateGuard for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 W Word Stats 100+ · 4.4★ (10) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 Turgenev 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 5 too high 13 meinService AI Auto Feed to Post Creator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 5 too high 14 ZenPress 60+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #14 15 Estasoft Name Catalog — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 6 too high 16 PreBook– All-in-One Appointment Booking and Scheduling Solution 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 MotaWord Translation 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 Doltics Radar — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 2 too high 19 Remove layout destroying HTML-Tags 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 Intelligent Glossary Engine — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 WP Schema & Structured Data 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 1 too high 22 S Summy: Excerpt Extraction 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 L Language Code Classification 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 G GTS Translation Plugin 10+ · 2.3★ (3) wp.org #22 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.