Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “off”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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 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

Advance Custom HTML – Show Off Code Snippets with Live Preview shows at wp.org #9 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.5★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 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 Off-Canvas Sidebars & Menus (Slidebars) 1K+ · 4.8★ (38) wp.org #1 2 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #6 ↑1 4 too low 3 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #5 ↓1 1 too low 5 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 #8 3 too low 6 Responsive Menu – Mobile Menu & Hamburger Menu Builder 70K+ · 4.5★ (574) wp.org #10 ↓5 4 too low 7 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #12 5 too low 8 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 Max Mega Menu 300K+ · 4.8★ (882) wp.org #14 ↑2 5 too low 10 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #11 1 too low 11 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #15 ↑5 4 too low 12 Turn Off AI Features 400+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #3 9 too high 13 Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed – Easy Social Feeds Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4358) wp.org #19 ↓8 6 too low 14 Disabled Source, Disabled Right Click and Content Protection 10K+ · 4.9★ (103) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 Turn Comments Off 1K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #2 13 too high 16 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 too low 17 The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow) 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 ↑6 10 too high 18 Discount Rules and Dynamic Pricing for WooCommerce 9K+ · 4.7★ (248) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 Offcanvas Mobile Menu 800+ · 4.9★ (18) wp.org #17 ↑1 2 too high 20 Kudos Donations: Easy Donations with Mollie | One-off & Recurring | PDF Receipts | Buttons & Forms 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 MM Comment Manager — Disable Comment Box, Hide Existing Comments and Stop Spam 800+ · 3.4★ (5) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 Holy Day Off 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↑1 6 too high 23 Advance Custom HTML – Show Off Code Snippets with Live Preview 10K+ · 2.5★ (4) wp.org #9 14 too high 24 OffCanvas / Drawer – add sleek slide-in panels to any page 900+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 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.