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

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

merit plugin wp.org
1 Flamingo 800K+ · 4.2★ (121) wp.org #1 2 Security Ninja – WordPress Security & Firewall 7K+ · 4.7★ (101) wp.org #2 ↑2 3 Jetpack Protect 100K+ · 4.6★ (123) wp.org #3 4 Active Directory Integration / LDAP Integration 4K+ · 4.9★ (211) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 Link Juice Keeper 10K+ · 4.7★ (15) wp.org #4 ↓2 1 too high 6 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #6 7 BuddyPress Registration Groups 100+ · 4.9★ (7) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Makeiteasy Slider 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 3 too high 9 Uptrue Monitor — · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #15 ↓1 6 too low 10 WP Helper Premium 1K+ · 3.6★ (8) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 GAM Ad Inserter – Adx & Ad Manager Ads 30+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 1 too low 12 OTYS Plugin 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Stalza Security 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too low 14 EDH Bad Bots 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 AuthenticSender 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 Elevoire Security Audit — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 Open Access SSO 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 18 ALTOS 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 19 Email Essentials 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 Magic Link – Secure one click passwordless login 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↑4 21 Edge Doctor for Cloudflare® — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #21 22 CompatShield WP Site Auditor — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓2 23 SecurelyWP – all-in-one security 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 24 Guardr — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓2

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.