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

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 “onpage”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 10 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

IMMAGIT ePayco Payment Gateway for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #5 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 50+ 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

WP Travel – Ultimate Travel Booking System, Tour Management Engine places #2 on merit, 4.7★ from 164 reviews, but shows at wp.org #6. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Internal Link Juicer: SEO Auto Linker for WordPress 90K+ · 4.7★ (535) wp.org #1 2 WP Travel – Ultimate Travel Booking System, Tour Management Engine 3K+ · 4.7★ (164) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too low 3 DSGVO Youtube 1K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too low 4 Hack The SEO – AI Bot Tracker, GEO Score, JSON-LD Schema & Cannibalization 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 5 OnPage Speed Checker — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 3 too high 6 Notifal – AI Popup Builder & CRO Engine: Sales Notifications, Social Proof & Exit Intent Popups 50+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 Magic Popups 10+ · 5.0★ (17) wp.org #21 ↓1 14 too low 8 Nginx Cache Purge Preload 200+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #10 2 too low 9 SiteSEO – SEO Simplified 500K+ · 4.0★ (9) wp.org #8 ↓1 1 too high 10 Conversion Optimization with Exit-Intent Popups and Abandoned Shopping Cart Emails 100+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #12 ↓1 2 too low 11 IMMAGIT ePayco Payment Gateway for WooCommerce 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 too high 12 M MetaTag 500+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too low 13 Easy Way to Sell Digital Goods with Payhip 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too high 14 hreflang x-default Tag for WPML | inventivo 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↓1 5 too high 15 Unique Easy Share Posts 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓1 5 too low 16 F Focus Keywords Pro — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 ↓1 2 too high 17 Ampry – Create Popups, Notifications, Sticky bars & more 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too high 18 P post gallery 80+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #18 ↓1 19 SEO4CMS — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 2 too high 20 D DUZZ — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓1 1 too high 21 P Paginate 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 Checkout Add-on for Woo OnePage – Lite 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 6 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.