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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “notification emails”

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 “notification emails”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 3 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

Notification Master – Real-Time WordPress Notifications With Email, SMS, Webhooks & More shows at wp.org #7 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups places #6 on merit, 4.9★ from 701 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) wp.org #1 2 WP Mail SMTP by WPForms – SMTP for Reliable Email Delivery with Gmail, Outlook, Amazon SES, Brevo, Other SMTP & More 4M+ · 4.8★ (5209) wp.org #3 ↑10 1 too low 3 Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #5 ↓2 1 too low 5 Disable Emails 30K+ · 5.0★ (20) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (701) wp.org #12 ↑7 6 too low 7 Notification – Custom Notifications and Alerts for WordPress 10K+ · 4.6★ (124) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 Noptin – Newsletter, New Post Notifications & Email Automation 10K+ · 4.5★ (120) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too high 9 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #10 ↑12 1 too low 10 Customize WordPress Emails and Alerts – Better Notifications for WP 30K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #15 ↓6 5 too low 11 Email Subscribers & Newsletters by Icegram Express – Email Marketing, Post Notifications & WooCommerce Marekting Automation for WordPress 50K+ · 4.6★ (1170) wp.org #13 ↓1 2 too low 12 Cart Abandonment Recovery for WooCommerce – Recover Lost Sales with Automated Emails 300K+ · 4.8★ (626) wp.org #16 ↑7 4 too low 13 Sender – Newsletter, SMS and Email Marketing Automation for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (83) wp.org #18 ↓3 5 too low 14 Email Marketing for WooCommerce by Omnisend 40K+ · 4.9★ (169) wp.org #24 10 too low 15 Comment Reply Email Notification 3K+ · 4.8★ (33) wp.org #14 ↓3 1 too high 16 Simple Login Notification 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #8 ↓1 8 too high 17 Customer Email Verification for WooCommerce 8K+ · 4.8★ (47) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 Stop WP Emails Going to Spam 10K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #17 ↓3 1 too high 19 Notification Master – Real-Time WordPress Notifications With Email, SMS, Webhooks & More 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #7 ↓1 12 too high 20 Notivo Notification for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.3★ (80) wp.org #19 ↓3 1 too high 21 Disable WordPress Update Notifications and auto-update Email Notifications 10K+ · 4.2★ (19) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22 WC Multiple Email Recipients 4K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too high 23 Push Notifications for WP – Self Hosted Web Push Notifications 6K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 too high 24 WP Comment Notification 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓3 4 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.