Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “only”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 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.

E

Ranked above its merit

Eyes Only shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 70+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 reviews, but shows at wp.org #22. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #5 4 too low 2 L Logged-in-only 700+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Show only lowest prices in variable products for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.8★ (28) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Simple Membership 40K+ · 4.6★ (475) wp.org #4 5 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 R Registered Users Only 2K+ · 4.6★ (13) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #12 ↑1 5 too low 8 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #13 ↑1 5 too low 9 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #11 ↑1 2 too low 10 Force Login 30K+ · 4.8★ (101) wp.org #9 ↑7 1 too high 11 Content Control – The Ultimate Content Restriction Solution! Restrict Content, Create Conditional Blocks & More 40K+ · 4.9★ (575) wp.org #18 ↑2 7 too low 12 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #22 10 too low 13 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1916) wp.org #20 ↑3 7 too low 14 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #14 ↑1 15 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #16 ↓5 17 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #7 10 too high 18 Age Gate 40K+ · 4.6★ (64) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 BuddyPress Members Only 900+ · 3.7★ (26) wp.org #8 11 too high 20 s2Member – Excellent for All Kinds of Memberships, Content Restriction Paywalls & Member Access Subscriptions 8K+ · 4.1★ (234) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 Allow Only 1 Product in Cart 500+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #15 ↑3 6 too high 22 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 E Eyes Only 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 17 too high 24 Readministrator (Read Only Administrator) 70+ · 0.0★ (0) 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.