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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “office365”

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 “office365”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 16. 2 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

SMTP for Contact Form 7 shows at wp.org #5 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Appointment Bookings for Zoom GoogleMeet and more – Wappointment places #5 on merit, 4.7★ from 50 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 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #1 2 WP SMTP Mailer – SMTP7 8K+ · 5.0★ (115) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 PowerBI Embed Reports 500+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 User Sync for Azure AD / Azure B2C 70+ · 4.5★ (8) wp.org #4 ↑2 5 Appointment Bookings for Zoom GoogleMeet and more – Wappointment 1K+ · 4.7★ (50) wp.org #11 ↑1 6 too low 6 Show Eventbrite Events – Event Feed for Eventbrite 800+ · 4.3★ (9) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Login by Auth0 10K+ · 3.1★ (18) wp.org #8 1 too low 8 Office 365 User Authentication for WordPress 20+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 Cloud SAML SSO – Single Sign On Login 80+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 VR SMTP Mailer 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 mailgo 300+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too low 12 S SMTP Form Master — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↑1 2 too low 13 SSO Login – Universal (OAuth + SAML) 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 SMTP for Contact Form 7 1K+ · 4.0★ (2) wp.org #5 ↓1 9 too high 15 Custom SMTP: Email Deliverability – FREE & Easy-to-use 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #12 ↑1 3 too high 16 EyeOne — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↑1

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.