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

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 post”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 5 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

Auto Post Cleaner shows at wp.org #13 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder places #12 on merit, 4.3★ from 874 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Post Types Order 600K+ · 4.5★ (296) wp.org #1 2 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #4 ↓2 2 too low 3 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too high 5 Revive Social – Social Media Auto Post and Scheduling Automation Plugin 20K+ · 4.0★ (556) wp.org #6 1 too low 6 Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1525) wp.org #10 ↑6 4 too low 7 Smart Post – Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider Gutenberg Blocks for Blog & News 20K+ · 4.7★ (210) wp.org #9 ↓2 2 too low 8 Republish Old Posts 2K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #2 ↑1 6 too high 9 Rate My Post – Star Rating Plugin by FeedbackWP 20K+ · 4.7★ (159) wp.org #7 ↑3 2 too high 10 AnWP Post Grid and Post Carousel Slider for Elementor 20K+ · 4.9★ (84) wp.org #15 5 too low 11 Auto Featured Image (Auto Post Thumbnail) 40K+ · 3.8★ (119) wp.org #11 ↓3 12 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #23 ↑1 11 too low 13 W4 Post List 3K+ · 4.7★ (94) wp.org #18 ↓3 5 too low 14 Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140) wp.org #24 ↓4 10 too low 15 Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database 3K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Archive Content with Archived Post Status 5K+ · 4.9★ (36) wp.org #19 3 too low 17 Auto Delete Post – Ultimate plugin for deleting a post automatically 300+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓3 5 too high 18 Post Pay Counter 1K+ · 4.8★ (46) wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19 P Post Order By Category 1K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #17 ↓4 2 too high 20 Solid Post Likes 500+ · 4.8★ (9) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Social Post Flow – Social Media Automation, Scheduling, Scheduler, Posting & Auto Post 200+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #14 ↑4 7 too high 22 Auto Post Cleaner 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓1 9 too high 23 Old Post Notice 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓5 7 too high 24 O Old Post Warning 10+ · 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.