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

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 “litespeed”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP shows at wp.org #11 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Site Reviews places #9 on merit, 4.9★ from 376 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #1 2 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #2 3 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #3 4 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #4 ↑3 5 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #5 ↑5 6 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #8 ↑10 2 too low 7 Slim Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 5.0★ (63) wp.org #7 ↓2 8 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #6 ↓2 2 too high 9 Site Reviews 60K+ · 4.9★ (376) wp.org #14 ↓3 5 too low 10 Spotlight Social Photo Feed 50K+ · 4.7★ (171) wp.org #13 3 too low 11 WP Meteor Website Speed Optimization Addon 20K+ · 4.7★ (77) wp.org #12 ↓3 1 too low 12 Prime Mover – Backup and Migration 10K+ · 5.0★ (141) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too low 13 OMGF | GDPR/DSGVO Compliant, Faster Google Fonts. Easy. 300K+ · 4.7★ (213) wp.org #16 ↓3 3 too low 14 xSpeed Cache: AI-Powered Performance Hub with MCP, Caching & CDN 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #9 ↑5 5 too high 15 WP Chat App 100K+ · 4.9★ (222) wp.org #19 4 too low 16 WebberZone Top 10 — Popular Posts 10K+ · 4.6★ (102) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 XO Security 30K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #10 ↓2 7 too high 18 NinjaFirewall (WP Edition) – Advanced Security Plugin and Firewall 100K+ · 4.9★ (220) wp.org #22 4 too low 19 Prevent Browser Caching 10K+ · 4.9★ (29) wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too low 20 Royal MCP – Secure AI Connector for Claude, ChatGPT & any LLM via MCP 10K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #11 ↓5 9 too high 21 Protect Uploads 30K+ · 4.8★ (12) wp.org #15 ↓3 6 too high 22 FastDup – Fastest WordPress Migration & Duplicator 5K+ · 4.6★ (27) wp.org #24 ↓1 2 too low 23 TNC Toolbox: Web Performance 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #20 ↓4 3 too high 24 Light Views Counter – Fast, Scalable View Counter for High-Traffic Sites 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓6 1 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.