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

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 “minimalistic”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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

Speedx – Maintenance Mode shows at wp.org #10 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 200+ 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

weForms – Easy Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder For WordPress places #10 on merit, 4.5★ from 111 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Prime Slider – Hero Slider, Carousel, WooCommerce & Post Slider Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #1 2 Mail logging & Catcher 20K+ · 4.9★ (108) wp.org #2 3 Ultimate Dashboard – Custom WordPress Dashboard 50K+ · 4.6★ (114) wp.org #3 4 Easy Image Gallery 4K+ · 4.6★ (41) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 Hide Admin Bar 20K+ · 4.5★ (30) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Swift SMTP (formerly Welcome Email Editor) 7K+ · 4.2★ (68) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Import Social Events 3K+ · 4.8★ (116) wp.org #12 ↑2 5 too low 8 Idle User Logout 1K+ · 4.1★ (18) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too high 9 WP Video Popup – WordPress Video Lightbox for YouTube, Rumble & Vimeo 9K+ · 4.1★ (43) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too high 10 weForms – Easy Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder For WordPress 10K+ · 4.5★ (111) wp.org #19 ↑2 9 too low 11 Better Admin Bar 3K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 Product Size Charts Plugin for WooCommerce 9K+ · 4.3★ (39) wp.org #13 ↑4 1 too low 13 Superb Addons: Blocks, Patterns, Pre-built Pages, Sliders, Popups, Free Forms, Animations & More 80K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #16 ↑2 3 too low 14 Customizer Reset – Export & Import 900+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 XT Event Widget for Social Events 800+ · 4.5★ (15) wp.org #15 ↑1 16 Schema Package – Structured Data & Rich Snippets Tool for SEO 200+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #23 7 too low 17 Post Timeline 700+ · 4.2★ (21) wp.org #20 ↓1 3 too low 18 eaSYNC Booking – Hotels, Restaurants & Car Rentals 100+ · 4.1★ (17) wp.org #21 ↑1 3 too low 19 N NextGEN Gallery Image Chooser 200+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #17 ↓2 2 too high 20 Unnotifier — disable admin notices individually 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 ↑2 2 too high 21 Speedx – Maintenance Mode 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↑2 11 too high 22 Silica 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 8 too high 23 Design Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks collection 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too high 24 Events Manager – Venues, Organizers and Events Management By WebCodexWorld — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.