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← Rankings

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

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 “notify”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 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

Post Notify Users shows at wp.org #5 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 100+ 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.

Buried gem

XML Sitemap Generator for Google places #6 on merit, 4.8★ from 2233 reviews, but shows at wp.org #11. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 bbPress Notify (No-Spam) 2K+ · 4.8★ (40) wp.org #1 2 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Fatal Error Notify 6K+ · 4.8★ (18) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #9 ↑3 4 too low 6 XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ · 4.8★ (2233) wp.org #11 ↓3 5 too low 7 Pingo Notify – Automation & Notification Chat Messages 300+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 4 too high 8 Customize WordPress Emails and Alerts – Better Notifications for WP 30K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too low 9 Noptin – Newsletter, New Post Notifications & Email Automation 10K+ · 4.5★ (120) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too high 10 Antispam Bee 700K+ · 4.8★ (226) wp.org #15 5 too low 11 Manage Notification E-mails 100K+ · 4.8★ (56) wp.org #13 ↑1 2 too low 12 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #16 4 too low 13 Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer 90K+ · 4.5★ (142) wp.org #20 ↓4 7 too low 14 Easy Notify Lite 300+ · 3.3★ (18) wp.org #14 ↓1 15 Subscribe2 – Form, Email Subscribers & Newsletters 10K+ · 3.5★ (116) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 Broken Link Notifier 1K+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 GDPR tools: Cookie notice + privacy 5K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 WebSub (FKA. PubSubHubbub) 100K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #22 ↓2 4 too low 19 Post Notify Users 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 14 too high 20 Hey Notify 200+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too high 21 Admin Notify 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #7 14 too high 22 Notify Bot for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #10 ↑1 12 too high 23 Notify Old Blog 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓2 2 too high 24 Receive Notifications After Form Submitting – Form Notify for Any Forms 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 ↑4 7 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.