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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “one tab”

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 “one tab”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 3 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

VK All in One Expansion Unit shows at wp.org #12 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 100K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 7 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 542 reviews, but shows at wp.org #17. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #1 2 All-In-One Security (AIOS) – Security and Firewall 1M+ · 4.7★ (1720) wp.org #2 3 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #7 ↑1 4 too low 4 One User Avatar | User Profile Picture 100K+ · 4.7★ (41) wp.org #4 5 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #5 6 One Click Demo Import 1M+ · 4.3★ (79) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce & WordPress Tabs Builder – Smart Tabs 10K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too low 8 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #14 6 too low 9 Site Kit by Google – Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, Speed 5M+ · 4.2★ (1012) wp.org #10 ↑1 1 too low 10 All-in-one Sticky Floating Contact Form, Call, Click to Chat, and 50+ Social Icon Tabs – My Sticky Elements 40K+ · 4.9★ (542) wp.org #17 ↑2 7 too low 11 Easy Social Feed – All In One Social Feed Plugin for WordPress 30K+ · 4.6★ (502) wp.org #18 ↓1 7 too low 12 All-in-One Video Gallery – Video Player & Galleries for YouTube, Vimeo & Self-Hosted Videos 20K+ · 4.8★ (136) wp.org #15 ↓1 3 too low 13 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #22 ↓3 9 too low 14 Simple Side Tab 10K+ · 4.8★ (22) wp.org #6 8 too high 15 Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets 30K+ · 4.0★ (162) wp.org #16 1 too low 16 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #20 ↑2 4 too low 17 All In One Login 60K+ · 3.6★ (35) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #23 5 too low 19 Gutena Tabs 6K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 too high 20 Intranet & Private Site – All-In-One Intranet 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #13 7 too high 21 Custom Product tabs for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #24 ↓10 3 too low 22 All In One Redirection 1K+ · 4.4★ (11) wp.org #21 1 too high 23 VK All in One Expansion Unit 100K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓2 11 too high 24 Rara One Click Demo Import 20K+ · 2.7★ (7) wp.org #19 ↑1 5 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.