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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “loading screen”

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 “loading screen”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Ipp Simple Loading shows at wp.org #7 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 40+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy places #8 on merit, 5.0★ from 4625 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Loading Page with Loading Screen 10K+ · 4.6★ (124) wp.org #1 2 Safelayout Cute Preloader – CSS3 WordPress Preloader 10K+ · 5.0★ (84) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Speculative Loading 70K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too low 5 Embed Plus for YouTube Gallery, Livestream and Lazy Loading with Facades 100K+ · 4.6★ (572) wp.org #8 ↓2 3 too low 6 Disable Lazy Load 9K+ · 4.5★ (23) wp.org #4 2 too high 7 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #15 7 too low 9 Screen Reader Accessibility – WCAG, Text-to-Speech & AI Accessibility Fixes 600+ · 4.8★ (31) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #14 ↓3 4 too low 11 Ajaxify Comments – Ajax and Lazy Loading Comments 3K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #11 ↓2 12 Add to Home Screen & Progressive Web App 1K+ · 3.7★ (25) wp.org #5 7 too high 13 Classic Editor 8M+ · 4.9★ (1251) wp.org #17 ↓1 4 too low 14 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #19 5 too low 15 Robo Gallery – Photo & Image Slider 40K+ · 4.3★ (406) wp.org #24 9 too low 16 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #22 ↓7 6 too low 17 Embed YouTube Block – Fast Loading Videos, Shorts & Playlists 6K+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #13 ↓3 4 too high 18 LoftLoader 70K+ · 4.5★ (33) wp.org #16 ↓2 2 too high 19 ThumbPress – Compress Images, Manage Thumbnails, Detect Image Issues, WebP/AVIF, Lazy Loading, Hotlinking & More 20K+ · 3.7★ (117) wp.org #20 ↓2 1 too low 20 Ipp Simple Loading 40+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #7 ↑6 13 too high 21 Full Screen Galleries 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #10 ↓3 11 too high 22 J jQuery Image Lazy Load WP 700+ · 3.1★ (14) wp.org #23 ↓2 1 too low 23 WP Page Loading 700+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #21 ↓4 2 too high 24 Waito Animated Preloader and Loading Screen 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 6 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.