Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “listening”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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

Text to Speech – TTSWP shows at wp.org #6 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 302 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Podcast Player – Your Podcasting Companion 10K+ · 4.8★ (113) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Seriously Simple Podcasting 20K+ · 4.7★ (330) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Text To Speech TTS Accessibility 4K+ · 4.8★ (92) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Custom Twitter Feeds – A Tweets Widget or X Feed Widget 100K+ · 4.8★ (401) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Booking Activities 3K+ · 5.0★ (121) wp.org #8 ↑1 3 too low 6 GSpeech TTS – WordPress Text To Speech Plugin 3K+ · 4.8★ (178) wp.org #10 4 too low 7 Category AJAX Filter – Posts, Custom Post Types & Product Filter 6K+ · 4.9★ (158) wp.org #12 ↑1 5 too low 8 BeyondWords – AI audio for publishers 800+ · 3.6★ (27) wp.org #4 ↑1 4 too high 9 HTML5 Audio Player – The Ultimate No-Code Podcast, MP3 & Audio Player 10K+ · 4.6★ (169) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too low 10 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #16 ↑4 6 too low 11 Seriously Simple Stats 5K+ · 3.6★ (13) wp.org #5 ↑1 6 too high 12 Podlove Podcast Publisher 3K+ · 4.3★ (45) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too high 13 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 ↑6 7 too high 14 Cue by AudioTheme.com 5K+ · 4.7★ (36) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Text to Speech – Reinvent WP 40+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #20 ↑1 5 too low 16 XL NMI Gateway for WooCommerce 800+ · 3.8★ (8) wp.org #11 5 too high 17 Clearout Email Validator – Real-Time Email Verification on WordPress Forms 500+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 Bread & Butter – Identify Website Visitors, Score Leads & Gate Content 60+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #18 19 List MixCloud 300+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↑1 6 too high 20 S Sort SearchResult By Title 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 RTMKit for Elementor – Modular Addons, Widgets, Templates, Icon Library, GSAP Animations, MCP & Store Ready 40K+ · 2.7★ (16) wp.org #21 ↑3 22 Canonical Attachments 300+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #22 23 European School Radio Widget Block 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 24 HR Performance 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 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.