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

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 “modular”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

RTMKit for Elementor – Modular Addons, Widgets, Templates, Icon Library, GSAP Animations, MCP & Store Ready shows at wp.org #6 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 16 places. Its 40K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.7★ average from 16 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 1680 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Modular DS: Monitor, update, and backup multiple websites 40K+ · 5.0★ (133) wp.org #1 2 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #2 3 Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too low 5 WP Extended – Modular WordPress Toolkit 600+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 ECS – Ele Custom Skin for Elementor 100K+ · 4.6★ (117) wp.org #8 ↑3 2 too low 7 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #15 ↑6 8 too low 8 Events Manager – Calendar, Bookings, Tickets, Appointments and more! 60K+ · 4.2★ (551) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 Meta Box – A Framework for Dynamic Websites 500K+ · 4.8★ (165) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too low 10 Modular Custom CSS 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #3 7 too high 11 SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1267) wp.org #19 ↑4 8 too low 12 Perfect Images: Regenerate Thumbnails, Image Sizes, WebP & AVIF 60K+ · 4.8★ (279) wp.org #20 ↑4 8 too low 13 WP Activity Log 300K+ · 4.7★ (490) wp.org #22 ↓2 9 too low 14 Gutenberg 400K+ · 2.1★ (3888) wp.org #10 ↑2 4 too high 15 WPMasterToolKit (WPMTK) – All in one plugin 5K+ · 5.0★ (28) wp.org #14 ↑1 1 too high 16 Blackhole for Bad Bots 30K+ · 4.7★ (148) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Catch IDs 20K+ · 4.8★ (20) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too high 18 WP Customer Area 10K+ · 4.0★ (89) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 Transliterator – Multilingual and Multi-script Text Conversion 3K+ · 4.8★ (96) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Edit Flow 4K+ · 4.2★ (50) wp.org #21 ↑1 1 too low 21 Powerkit – Supercharge your WordPress Site 10K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #17 ↑1 4 too high 22 RTMKit for Elementor – Modular Addons, Widgets, Templates, Icon Library, GSAP Animations, MCP & Store Ready 40K+ · 2.7★ (16) wp.org #6 ↑1 16 too high 23 Catch Web Tools 10K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 ↑1 11 too high 24 PowerSuite Modular Admin Toolkit 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #16 8 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.