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

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 “microsoft”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 6 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

Microsoft Azure Storage for WordPress shows at wp.org #10 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.9★ average from 14 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 2470 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WPO365 | SEAMLESS WORDPRESS + MICROSOFT INTEGRATION (WPO365 | LOGIN) 10K+ · 4.9★ (154) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too low 3 WPvivid — Backup, Migration & Staging 900K+ · 4.9★ (1568) wp.org #4 ↑3 1 too low 4 Microsoft Clarity 200K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #5 ↓2 6 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 #7 ↓3 1 too low 7 WPO365 | MICROSOFT 365 GRAPH MAILER 10K+ · 5.0★ (40) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too high 10 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #17 ↑2 7 too low 11 Loco Translate 1M+ · 4.8★ (453) wp.org #12 ↑1 1 too low 12 Cookie Compliance for WordPress – Cookie Consent, GDPR & CCPA 800K+ · 4.8★ (3026) wp.org #18 ↓1 6 too low 13 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7520) wp.org #21 ↓1 8 too low 14 CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) 1M+ · 4.8★ (3236) wp.org #19 ↓4 5 too low 15 Easy WP SMTP – WordPress SMTP and Email Logs: Gmail SMTP, Office 365, Outlook, Custom SMTP, and more 500K+ · 4.6★ (709) wp.org #20 ↑1 5 too low 16 Backuply – Backup, Restore, Migrate and Clone 600K+ · 4.5★ (135) wp.org #15 ↑7 1 too high 17 Product Feed for Google Shopping, Microsoft Advertising and 40+ Channels for WooCommerce Merchant 2K+ · 4.8★ (87) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #16 ↑2 2 too high 19 eRoom – Webinar & Meeting Plugin for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams 8K+ · 4.1★ (68) wp.org #13 ↑1 6 too high 20 Microsoft Azure Storage for WordPress 2K+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #10 10 too high 21 MeetingHub – Appointment Booking & Meeting Scheduling for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Jitsi 400+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #24 ↓1 3 too low 22 All-in-One Microsoft 365 & Entra ID / Azure AD SSO Login 600+ · 3.9★ (7) wp.org #22 ↑2 23 UniPixel: Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, Google & Microsoft Server-Side Tracking for WooCommerce 200+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #23 24 Microsoft Advertising Universal Event Tracking (UET) 4K+ · 3.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↓2 10 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.