Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “nextgen gallery 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 “nextgen gallery plugins”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 6 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.

N

Ranked above its merit

NextGEN Gallery Image Chooser shows at wp.org #13 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 200+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Photo Gallery, Sliders, Proofing and Themes – NextGEN Gallery 300K+ · 4.3★ (4342) wp.org #1 2 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #2 3 Envira Gallery – Image Photo Gallery, Albums, Video Gallery, Slideshows & More 100K+ · 4.7★ (1596) wp.org #3 4 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #4 ↑1 5 FooGallery Photo Gallery : Image, Video & Masonry Galleries 100K+ · 4.8★ (995) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Slideshow Gallery LITE 5K+ · 4.6★ (743) wp.org #9 ↑1 3 too low 7 Photo Gallery – GT3 Image Gallery & Gutenberg Block Gallery 10K+ · 4.8★ (147) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 Gallery PhotoBlocks 3K+ · 5.0★ (76) wp.org #8 9 Firelight Lightbox 200K+ · 4.8★ (361) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 Simple Social Media Share Buttons – Social Sharing for Everyone 20K+ · 4.8★ (194) wp.org #7 3 too high 11 Smart Slider 3 800K+ · 4.9★ (1125) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1842) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Image Photo Gallery Final Tiles Grid 20K+ · 4.7★ (353) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too high 14 Gmedia Photo Gallery 7K+ · 4.3★ (260) wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too high 15 ShortPixel Image Optimizer – Optimize Images, Convert WebP & AVIF 300K+ · 4.5★ (830) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Lightbox & Modal Popup WordPress Plugin – FooBox 100K+ · 3.9★ (95) wp.org #16 17 WP Multilang – Translation and Multilingual Plugin 10K+ · 4.3★ (100) wp.org #23 6 too low 18 MaxGalleria 1K+ · 4.4★ (65) wp.org #18 19 NGG Smart Image Search 400+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #21 2 too low 20 Geo2 Maps Add-on for NextGEN Gallery 70+ · 3.3★ (12) wp.org #17 3 too high 21 N NextGEN Gallery Image Chooser 200+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #13 8 too high 22 FooGallery Migrate 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↓2 2 too low 23 Migrate away from NextGEN Gallery 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Wisp Gallery 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 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.