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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “outbound ip alerts”

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 “outbound ip alerts”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 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

SecurynAI – Security, Firewall, Malware Scan, and Vulnerability Alerts shows at wp.org #6 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 13 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

Simple Link Directory – AI Powered places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 121 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (398) wp.org #2 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 2 Advanced IP Blocker 3K+ · 4.9★ (27) wp.org #1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 3 Koko Analytics – Privacy-Friendly WordPress Analytics 70K+ · 5.0★ (246) wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 4 WPBruiser Security – No CAPTCHA Anti-Spam & Login Protection 10K+ · 4.6★ (213) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 5 miniOrange 2FA – Two Factor Authentication for WordPress (Passkey, OTP, SMS, Email, Google Authenticator) 10K+ · 4.5★ (386) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 3 places below merit 6 Quttera ThreatSign – Web Malware Scanner for WordPress 10K+ · 3.9★ (47) wp.org #5 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 7 Atlant Security 800+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #3 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 8 Activity Log Pro – User Activity Log, Audit Log & Security Monitor 400+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #9 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 WP EXtra – One Click Optimize 6K+ · 4.9★ (41) wp.org #15 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 6 places below merit 10 Simple Link Directory – AI Powered 2K+ · 4.8★ (121) wp.org #20 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 11 Bit SMTP – Easy SMTP Solution with Email Logs 2K+ · 3.9★ (15) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 12 Kitgenix CAPTCHA for Cloudflare Turnstile 700+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #14 ↓8 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 13 AxiaChat AI – Free AI Chatbot (Answers Customers Automatically) 500+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #23 ↓4 wp.org ranks it 10 places below merit 14 WP Helper Premium 1K+ · 3.6★ (8) wp.org #11 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 15 Who Changed It? – Activity Log & Audit Trail 100+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #13 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit 16 Agent Abilities for MCP – Connect Claude and ChatGPT with Permission Controls and Audit Log 900+ · 4.8★ (5) wp.org #16 ↓3 17 SiteFort Security – Firewall, Malware Scanner & Hardening 70+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #21 ↓5 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 18 Vulnity Security 40+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 19 SecurynAI – Security, Firewall, Malware Scan, and Vulnerability Alerts 70+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 ↑6 wp.org ranks it 13 places above merit 20 TextMe SMS 500+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓6 wp.org ranks it 4 places below merit 21 Security Ninja For MainWP 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 11 places above merit 22 ReportedIP Hive: Firewall, Brute Force Protection, 2FA and Anti-Spam 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #17 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 23 API Request Monitor: Monitor Incoming & Outgoing API Requests and Manage Webhooks 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 24 Watchdog Security Lite — Powered by Lumiverse Nexus 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #22 wp.org ranks it 2 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.