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← Rankings

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

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 “marketing”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 5 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

AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot shows at wp.org #8 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 410 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 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #1 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #2 3 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #5 ↑3 2 too low 4 Email Marketing for WooCommerce by Omnisend 40K+ · 4.9★ (169) wp.org #4 5 FluentCRM – Email Newsletter, Automation, Email Marketing, Email Campaigns, Optins, Leads, and CRM Solution 80K+ · 4.8★ (250) wp.org #6 ↑1 1 too low 6 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 80K+ · 4.4★ (859) wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too low 7 FunnelKit Automations – Email Marketing Automation and CRM for WordPress & WooCommerce 20K+ · 5.0★ (346) wp.org #10 ↑1 3 too low 8 Popup Builder – Create highly converting, mobile friendly marketing popups. 200K+ · 4.7★ (2215) wp.org #11 ↑10 3 too low 9 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #16 ↓1 7 too low 10 Popup Builder & Popup Maker for WordPress – OptinMonster Email Marketing and Lead Generation 1M+ · 4.3★ (821) wp.org #9 ↓4 1 too high 11 Jetpack CRM – Clients, Leads, Invoices, Billing, Email Marketing, & Automation 30K+ · 4.3★ (152) wp.org #15 ↓1 4 too low 12 PublishPress Planner – Editorial Calendar, Marketing Content, Kanban Board 6K+ · 4.9★ (178) wp.org #18 6 too low 13 Hostinger Reach – AI-Powered Email Marketing for WordPress 1M+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 10 too high 14 The Events Calendar 600K+ · 4.2★ (2461) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Kit (formerly ConvertKit) – Email Newsletter, Email Marketing, Membership, Subscribers and Landing Pages 40K+ · 4.8★ (90) wp.org #19 ↑3 4 too low 16 HubSpot All-In-One Marketing – Forms, Popups, Live Chat 200K+ · 4.3★ (207) wp.org #20 ↓10 4 too low 17 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #21 4 too low 18 WebToffee eCommerce Marketing Automation – Email marketing, Popups, Email customizer 10K+ · 4.8★ (54) wp.org #14 ↑3 4 too high 19 Newsletters, Email Marketing, SMS and Popups by Omnisend 100K+ · 4.8★ (17) wp.org #13 ↑3 6 too high 20 AI Powered Marketing 50K+ · 2.7★ (29) wp.org #12 ↑1 8 too high 21 Email Marketing by EmailOctopus 4K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #22 1 too low 22 AI Marketing Expert — AI Email Marketing, AI Content Generator, SEO Analyzer, AI Workflow Automation, Social Media & Ai Chatbot 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↓2 14 too high 23 WP Flashy Marketing Automation 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑1 6 too high 24 SiteGround Email Marketing 2K+ · 2.0★ (4) 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.