wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “meet my team”
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 “meet my team”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20.
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
Team Builder Member Showcase shows at wp.org #7 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.8★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Buried gem
CWILL (Formerly ParcelPanel) – Shipment Tracking, Tracking & Order Tracking for WooCommerce places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 538 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.
How this rank is calculated
Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.
A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.
A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.
Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.
Team – Team Members Showcase Plugin 10K+ · 4.5★ (67)
wp.org #1 ↑1 2 
WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4,833)
wp.org #2 ↓1 3 
Team Members – Multi Language Supported Team Plugin 6K+ · 5.0★ (85)
wp.org #3 4 
Complianz GDPR/CCPA Cookie Consent Banner 1M+ · 4.7★ (1,668)
wp.org #5 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 5 
Team Members – Team Showcase, Team Slider, Grid, Table & Staff Directory 2K+ · 4.7★ (91)
wp.org #4 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 6 
Fluent Forms – Customizable Contact Forms, Survey, Quiz, & Conversational Form Builder 800K+ · 4.8★ (808)
wp.org #6 ↓2 7 
Print My Blog – Print, PDF, & eBook Converter WordPress Plugin 8K+ · 4.8★ (115)
wp.org #8 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 8 
Smush – Image Optimization, Compression, Lazy Load, WebP & CDN 1M+ · 4.8★ (6,053)
wp.org #15 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 7 places below merit 9 
Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (185)
wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 10 
Custom Post Type UI 1M+ · 4.6★ (276)
wp.org #11 ↑5 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 11 CWILL (Formerly ParcelPanel) – Shipment Tracking, Tracking & Order Tracking for WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.9★ (538)
wp.org #19 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 12 
eRoom – Webinar & Meeting Plugin for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams 8K+ · 4.1★ (68)
wp.org #9 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 13 
Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (592)
wp.org #21 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 14 
Checkout Field Editor (Checkout Manager) for WooCommerce 400K+ · 4.9★ (1,056)
wp.org #22 ↓5 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 15 
Divi Carousel Lite – Make Carousels for Divi 5 30K+ · 4.8★ (146)
wp.org #17 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 16 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4,230)
wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 17 
Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605)
wp.org #16 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 18 
Employee Spotlight – Team Member Showcase & Meet the Team Plugin 300+ · 4.7★ (31)
wp.org #12 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 19 
Imagify Image Optimization: Optimize Images | Compress & Convert to WebP/AVIF 900K+ · 4.3★ (1,657)
wp.org #23 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 20 
MeetingHub – Appointment Booking & Meeting Scheduling for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Jitsi 400+ · 4.8★ (13) thin reviews
wp.org #10 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 10 places above merit 21 
Disable Comments 100K+ · 3.8★ (25)
wp.org #18 ↑3 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 22 
Meet My Team 300+ · 4.4★ (11) thin reviews
wp.org #14 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 23 Team Builder Member Showcase 1K+ · 3.8★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #7 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 16 places above merit 24 
GoodMeet – Meetings & Classes for Google Meet 80+ · 5.0★ (5) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.