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← Rankings

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

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 “newest”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20. 4 plugins are 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

SocialFeeds shows at wp.org #13 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 40K+ 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #1 2 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #2 3 Comments – wpDiscuz 60K+ · 4.7★ (581) wp.org #3 4 Delete Duplicate Posts 10K+ · 4.8★ (153) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too low 5 Duplicate Post 300K+ · 4.9★ (1623) wp.org #8 ↓3 3 too low 6 Cool Timeline (Horizontal & Vertical Timeline) 20K+ · 4.7★ (333) wp.org #9 3 too low 7 Simple Shopping Cart 10K+ · 4.6★ (215) wp.org #10 ↑2 3 too low 8 Name Directory 2K+ · 4.9★ (81) wp.org #11 3 too low 9 More Sorting Options for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.3★ (11) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 Chronological Posts 1K+ · 4.9★ (12) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too high 11 Product Slider, Product Carousel and Product Grid Gallery for WooCommerce – Reno Product Slider (formerly Product Slider for WooCommerce) 20K+ · 4.7★ (280) wp.org #14 ↑2 3 too low 12 P Post Order By Category 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #6 6 too high 13 Page Builder Gutenberg Blocks – CoBlocks 300K+ · 4.2★ (109) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too low 14 Gutenslider — Slider Block for the Block Editor 10K+ · 4.0★ (65) wp.org #17 3 too low 15 WP Review Slider 6K+ · 4.8★ (181) wp.org #23 ↓1 8 too low 16 Message Bridge for Contact Form 7 and Telegram 10K+ · 4.3★ (22) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too high 17 EventON – Events Calendar 6K+ · 4.1★ (44) wp.org #20 ↓6 3 too low 18 RSS Feed Widget 2K+ · 3.9★ (26) wp.org #24 6 too low 19 Users Registration Date – Sortable Users Column 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 20 Timeline Blocks 400+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too low 21 Post Layouts 900+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #15 ↑2 6 too high 22 SocialFeeds 40K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 Trusted Shops Easy Integration for WooCommerce 6K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 5 too high 24 Datafeedr Product Sets 4K+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.