Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “lock bbpress”

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 “lock bbpress”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 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

Password Policy Manager shows at wp.org #5 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 14 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall places #12 on merit, 4.5★ from 373 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 Simple CAPTCHA with Cloudflare Turnstile 200K+ · 4.7★ (262) wp.org #1 2 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #2 3 User Profile Builder – Beautiful User Registration Forms, User Profiles & User Role Editor 40K+ · 4.7★ (738) wp.org #3 4 Wbcom Designs – Private Community for BuddyPress 300+ · 4.9★ (25) wp.org #4 5 Simply Static – The Static Site Generator 30K+ · 4.5★ (195) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 View Admin As 9K+ · 4.9★ (49) wp.org #6 7 PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #9 ↑1 2 too low 8 Pie Register – User Registration, Profiles & Content Restriction 1K+ · 4.2★ (222) wp.org #10 ↑1 2 too low 9 WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher 10K+ · 4.8★ (514) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too low 10 Uncanny Automator – AI + Automation for WordPress | AI Agent, AI Page Builder, Free AI Usage Included 40K+ · 4.9★ (157) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too low 11 WP User Avatars 20K+ · 4.5★ (29) wp.org #7 ↑1 4 too high 12 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #16 ↓7 4 too low 13 Password Policy Manager 6K+ · 4.4★ (14) wp.org #5 8 too high 14 Remove Dashboard Access 30K+ · 4.6★ (78) wp.org #14 15 Invisible Anti-Spam & CAPTCHA — reCAPTCHA Alternative for All Forms 5K+ · 4.8★ (50) wp.org #13 ↑2 2 too high 16 LifterLMS – WP LMS for eLearning, Online Courses, & Quizzes 10K+ · 4.8★ (393) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Two Factor Authentication 20K+ · 4.4★ (77) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too high 18 Bit integrations – Form Integration, Webhook, Spreadsheets, CRM, LMS & Email Automation 20K+ · 4.9★ (160) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Advanced Form Integration — Connect Forms to 300+ Apps 9K+ · 4.8★ (91) wp.org #18 ↑1 1 too high 20 Broadcast 1K+ · 4.9★ (214) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 Lazy Load for Videos 9K+ · 4.4★ (105) wp.org #20 ↑3 1 too high 22 Voice Audio Widgets – Voice recorder with Forms, AI Powered STT, TTS, Transcriptions, Language Teaching 300+ · 5.0★ (16) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too high 23 SweepPress: Website Cleanup and Optimization 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too high 24 BP Custom Functionalities 10+ · 5.0★ (3) 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.