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

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 debug”, 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 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 #9 but places #20 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

WP Crontrol places #12 on merit, 4.4★ from 167 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 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 WP Mail Logging 300K+ · 4.7★ (375) wp.org #2 3 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #3 4 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #4 5 WP Mail Log 10K+ · 4.9★ (66) wp.org #5 6 Mail Mint – Email Marketing, Automation & WooCommerce Emails with AI Assistance 4K+ · 4.7★ (125) wp.org #6 7 Check & Log Email – Easy Email Testing & Mail logging 90K+ · 4.8★ (292) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Email Template Designer – WP HTML Mail 20K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #7 1 too high 9 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 GSheetConnector – CF7 Google Sheets Connector & Save CF7 Entries to Database 40K+ · 4.4★ (129) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 Postie 10K+ · 4.7★ (139) wp.org #21 8 too low 14 Tiered Pricing Table for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.7★ (104) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 SMTP Mailer 70K+ · 4.6★ (67) wp.org #22 7 too low 16 WPMasterToolKit (WPMTK) – All in one plugin 5K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #18 2 too low 17 Shipping Live Rates for USPS for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #17 18 Royal Mail Shipping Calculator for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.4★ (8) wp.org #10 8 too high 19 SMTP Mail Control for MailPoet 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 Shipping Live Rates for Royal Mail for WooCommerce 400+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 GoSMTP – SMTP for WordPress 500K+ · 4.3★ (10) wp.org #15 6 too high 22 Cryptex | E-Mail Address Protection 800+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #20 2 too high 23 SendForce Mail SMTP Relay – SMTP and Email API 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 WP Email Debug 70+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 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.