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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “make money”

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 “make money”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 7 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

Direct Payments for WooCommerce – Bank Transfer, Mobile Money, Crypto and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Payments shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 800+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Quiz Maker by AYS places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 601 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 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #1 ↑1 2 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #2 ↓1 3 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #4 ↑4 1 too low 4 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #7 ↓3 3 too low 5 Event Tickets and Registration 90K+ · 3.5★ (236) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 MainWP Dashboard: Self-hosted WordPress Management for Agencies 20K+ · 4.9★ (2354) wp.org #8 ↑6 2 too low 7 GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too low 9 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #14 ↑1 5 too low 10 Quiz Maker by AYS 20K+ · 4.9★ (601) wp.org #16 6 too low 11 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #15 ↓2 4 too low 12 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #11 ↓2 1 too high 13 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #9 ↓2 4 too high 14 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #19 ↓2 5 too low 15 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too low 16 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #6 10 too high 17 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 Mercado Pago payments for WooCommerce 100K+ · 3.9★ (693) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #18 1 too high 20 Jetpack VaultPress Backup 20K+ · 4.5★ (35) wp.org #24 ↓1 4 too low 21 Direct Payments for WooCommerce – Bank Transfer, Mobile Money, Crypto and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Payments 800+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #10 ↑1 11 too high 22 Pay with Vipps and MobilePay for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 Swipe Slider – Make dynamic slider with solid, gradient, or image background 3K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓1 10 too high 24 WooCommerce Shipping 70K+ · 2.0★ (18) wp.org #23 ↓4 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.