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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “local storage”

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

WP-Stateless – Google Cloud Storage shows at wp.org #9 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.9★ average from 51 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 1645 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 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #1 2 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Offload Media – Cloud Storage 1K+ · 4.4★ (18) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 Backup Migration 80K+ · 4.9★ (1338) wp.org #11 5 too low 7 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #14 7 too low 8 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #8 9 File Manager Pro – Filester 100K+ · 4.9★ (155) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Advanced Local Pickup for WooCommerce – Click & Collect, In-Store Pickup 3K+ · 4.7★ (55) wp.org #6 4 too high 11 EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1842) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #19 7 too low 13 JetBackup – Backup, Restore & Migrate 200K+ · 4.5★ (1056) wp.org #20 7 too low 14 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 Cloud Storage Manager for Fluent Forms – Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3 Uploads 400+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #7 8 too high 16 Featured Image from URL (FIFU) 60K+ · 4.6★ (264) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #18 1 too low 18 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 Advanced Media Offloader – Offload Media to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces & More 7K+ · 4.7★ (48) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 WP-Stateless – Google Cloud Storage 4K+ · 3.9★ (51) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 Local Delivery Drivers for WooCommerce 800+ · 4.3★ (18) wp.org #10 11 too high 22 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 WebToffee WP Backup and Migration 5K+ · 4.5★ (49) wp.org #22 1 too high 24 Disable Gutenberg Autosave 2K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #17 7 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.