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

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 “mail”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Shipping Live Rates for Royal Mail for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #13 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App places #12 on merit, 4.7★ from 528 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #1 2 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #2 3 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #3 4 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #4 5 WP Mail Log 10K+ · 4.9★ (66) wp.org #7 2 too low 6 Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #8 ↑2 2 too low 7 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #9 ↓3 2 too low 8 Zoho Mail for WordPress 20K+ · 3.7★ (42) wp.org #5 3 too high 9 Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (85) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #10 ↓1 11 Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292) wp.org #11 12 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #18 ↓5 6 too low 13 WP SMTP Mailer – SMTP7 8K+ · 5.0★ (115) wp.org #15 ↑1 2 too low 14 YaySMTP – WP Mail SMTP with Email Logs, Tracking & Reports 10K+ · 4.9★ (45) wp.org #14 ↑1 15 Mail Queue 1K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #6 ↑2 9 too high 16 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #23 ↓6 7 too low 17 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 Solid Mail – SMTP email and logging made by SolidWP 60K+ · 4.2★ (52) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 Flamingo 800K+ · 4.2★ (121) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Ultimate WP Mail 700+ · 4.5★ (21) wp.org #16 ↑3 4 too high 21 Royal Mail Shipping Calculator for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too high 22 F4 Shipping Phone and E-Mail for WooCommerce 700+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #22 ↑1 23 C Custom Forgot Password Mail 300+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #20 ↑2 3 too high 24 Shipping Live Rates for Royal Mail for WooCommerce 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↑1 11 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.