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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “nested content”

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 “nested content”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 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 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

Nested Ordered Lists for Block Editor shows at wp.org #15 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 100+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content places #12 on merit, 4.5★ from 565 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 Nested Pages 90K+ · 4.7★ (126) wp.org #1 2 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7322) wp.org #2 3 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #6 ↑4 2 too low 5 Nested Shortcodes 1K+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 Easy Table of Contents 600K+ · 4.4★ (221) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too low 8 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 SimpleTOC – Table of Contents Block 10K+ · 4.9★ (77) wp.org #13 ↑8 4 too low 10 Content Update Scheduler 2K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #4 6 too high 11 Timed Content 5K+ · 4.6★ (41) wp.org #9 ↓2 2 too high 12 WP RSS Aggregator – RSS Import, Feed to Post, Autoblogging, AI Content 40K+ · 4.5★ (565) wp.org #21 ↓2 9 too low 13 Add Widget After Content 6K+ · 4.7★ (38) wp.org #11 2 too high 14 AI Puffer – AI Chatbot & MCP Server for Claude and ChatGPT 10K+ · 4.6★ (166) wp.org #19 ↑3 5 too low 15 List all posts by Authors, nested Categories and Titles 600+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.8★ (166) wp.org #22 ↓6 6 too low 17 RPS Include Content 700+ · 4.9★ (18) wp.org #18 ↑2 1 too low 18 Heroic Table of Contents 5K+ · 4.7★ (10) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too high 19 Easy Accordion Block – Accordion, FAQ & Collapsible Content for the Block Editor 7K+ · 4.4★ (16) wp.org #24 5 too low 20 Table Of Content Block – Auto-Generate Clickable Table of Contents 3K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too high 21 Table Of Contents Block 10K+ · 4.3★ (7) wp.org #20 ↑3 1 too high 22 Toggle Content 700+ · 3.0★ (6) wp.org #16 ↓2 6 too high 23 Easy Content Manager (ECM) – Custom Post Types, Custom Fields & Content Management 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #23 24 Nested Ordered Lists for Block Editor 100+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #15 9 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.