wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “new plugins”
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 “new plugins”, 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
Upload Larger Plugins shows at wp.org #11 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 20 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303)
wp.org #1 2 
UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8709)
wp.org #2 3 
Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940)
wp.org #3 4 
Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127)
wp.org #4 5 
New User Approve 20K+ · 4.3★ (131)
wp.org #5 6 
Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281)
wp.org #9 ↓2 3 too low 7 
Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397)
wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too low 8 
BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323)
wp.org #7 ↑2 1 too high 9 
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231)
wp.org #10 ↓2 1 too low 10 
External Links in New Window / New Tab 30K+ · 4.5★ (77)
wp.org #6 4 too high 11 
WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229)
wp.org #12 ↑4 1 too low 12 
GiveWP – Donation Plugin and Fundraising Platform 100K+ · 4.6★ (708)
wp.org #13 ↓2 1 too low 13 
WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470)
wp.org #17 ↑2 4 too low 14 
Really Simple Security – Simple and Performant Security (formerly Really Simple SSL) 3M+ · 4.9★ (8869)
wp.org #19 5 too low 15 
FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410)
wp.org #14 ↓1 1 too high 16 
Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445)
wp.org #20 4 too low 17 
SEOPress – AI SEO Plugin & On-site SEO 300K+ · 4.8★ (1268)
wp.org #23 ↑1 6 too low 18 
WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215)
wp.org #18 ↓3 19 U Upload Larger Plugins 6K+ · 5.0★ (20) thin reviews
wp.org #11 ↑1 8 too high 20 
Independent Analytics – WordPress Analytics Plugin 100K+ · 4.8★ (167)
wp.org #24 4 too low 21 
External Links – nofollow, noopener & new window 80K+ · 4.3★ (247)
wp.org #22 1 too low 22 
Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157)
wp.org #16 ↑2 6 too high 23 
Download Plugins and Themes in ZIP from Dashboard 30K+ · 4.9★ (27)
wp.org #15 ↓1 8 too high 24 
Plugins List 700+ · 5.0★ (12) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↑2 3 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.