Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “old comments”

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 “old comments”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

FluentComments – AJAX Comments, Anti-Spam & Comment Email Notifications shows at wp.org #10 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 13 places. Its 700+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 6 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads places #7 on merit, 4.9★ from 2433 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Disable Comments 1M+ · 4.7★ (281) wp.org #1 2 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3221) wp.org #2 3 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5040) wp.org #6 ↑1 3 too low 4 Revive Social – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Automation Plugin 20K+ · 4.0★ (556) wp.org #7 ↓2 3 too low 5 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #9 ↑3 4 too low 6 Republish Old Posts 2K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #18 11 too low 8 ActiveLayer Anti-Spam: Spam Protection for Forms & Comments 10K+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #5 ↑1 3 too high 9 S Subscribe to Comments 10K+ · 3.9★ (14) wp.org #4 5 too high 10 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4229) wp.org #19 ↑2 9 too low 11 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #21 ↓2 10 too low 12 Lazy Load for Comments 2K+ · 4.7★ (28) wp.org #8 4 too high 13 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #15 2 too low 14 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #16 2 too low 15 Customize WordPress Emails and Alerts – Better Notifications for WP 30K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #22 ↓2 7 too low 16 Lazy Social Comments 900+ · 4.5★ (19) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too high 17 Antispam Bee 700K+ · 4.8★ (226) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Activity Log – Monitor User and Agent Changes 200K+ · 4.3★ (74) wp.org #17 ↑5 1 too high 19 Disqus Comment System 30K+ · 2.7★ (219) wp.org #14 5 too high 20 Comments – GraphComment | AI-Moderated Comment System 400+ · 4.7★ (30) wp.org #20 ↓2 21 Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools 8K+ · 4.1★ (15) wp.org #12 ↓1 9 too high 22 Zeno Report Comments 200+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #13 9 too high 23 FluentComments – AJAX Comments, Anti-Spam & Comment Email Notifications 700+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #10 13 too high 24 Auto-Close Comments, Pingbacks and Trackbacks 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #23 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.