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

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 “mentions”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 of the top 20. 2 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

Mentions Legales Par Webdeclic shows at wp.org #3 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 400+ 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

Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 4699 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #1 2 Redux Framework 900K+ · 4.4★ (273) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #9 ↑2 6 too low 4 Comment Mention 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #2 ↑1 2 too high 5 Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #5 6 TermsFeed AutoTerms: Privacy Policy Generator, Cookie Consent, GDPR, CCPA, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, Cookies Policy, EULA 70K+ · 4.7★ (246) wp.org #11 ↓1 5 too low 7 Better Messages – Chat Rooms, Group Chat, Private Messages & AI Chat Bots 10K+ · 4.8★ (142) wp.org #10 ↓2 3 too low 8 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #14 ↑3 6 too low 9 Divi Carousel Lite – Make Carousels for Divi 5 30K+ · 4.8★ (146) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #21 ↓2 11 too low 11 Juicer.io: Effortlessly embed, curate, and aggregate social media feeds into your website 8K+ · 4.2★ (29) wp.org #6 ↑1 5 too high 12 QuadMenu – Mega Menu 10K+ · 4.5★ (270) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Link Whisper Free 30K+ · 4.2★ (150) wp.org #19 ↓1 6 too low 14 Variation Swatches for WooCommerce 300K+ · 4.8★ (926) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Featured Images in RSS for Mailchimp & More 20K+ · 4.3★ (113) wp.org #24 ↓2 9 too low 16 Two Factor Authentication 20K+ · 4.4★ (77) wp.org #23 ↓2 7 too low 17 Linguise – AI Automatic Multilingual Translation 1K+ · 4.9★ (31) wp.org #16 ↓2 1 too high 18 reGenerate Thumbnails Advanced 60K+ · 3.2★ (59) wp.org #22 ↑1 4 too low 19 Webmention 900+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #18 ↓2 1 too high 20 TrueRanker 400+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #17 ↓4 3 too high 21 Mentions Legales Par Webdeclic 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 ↓1 18 too high 22 Kanbanz 2K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 15 too high 23 Simple X Buttons – Share, Follow, Mention & Hashtag for WordPress 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #8 ↑1 15 too high 24 ATmosphere 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #13 ↓7 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.