Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “own”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 2 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

Custom Profile Picture – Replace Gravatar with Your Own Images shows at wp.org #10 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 14 places. Its 300+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 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 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) wp.org #1 2 BuddyPress 90K+ · 4.1★ (375) wp.org #2 3 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #3 4 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management, URL Shortener, Link Cloaking, Tracking & Branded Short Links 200K+ · 4.8★ (1322) wp.org #9 ↓2 1 too low 9 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #13 ↓2 4 too low 10 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #17 7 too low 11 WPVibe – MCP Server for WordPress, works with Claude, ChatGPT & other AI MCP agents 100K+ · 5.0★ (195) wp.org #14 ↓2 3 too low 12 Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #11 ↑4 1 too high 13 Duplicator – Backups & Migration Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups, & More 1M+ · 4.9★ (4940) wp.org #12 ↓2 1 too high 14 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too low 15 Complianz – Terms and Conditions 300K+ · 4.9★ (187) wp.org #16 ↓3 1 too low 16 WP Store Locator 40K+ · 4.8★ (312) wp.org #22 6 too low 17 Fonts Plugin | Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts & Upload Fonts 200K+ · 5.0★ (1221) wp.org #24 ↓6 7 too low 18 Burst Statistics – Simple WordPress Analytics (Google Analytics Alternative) 200K+ · 4.9★ (186) wp.org #20 2 too low 19 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #21 ↓4 2 too low 20 Name Your Price: Make Your Own Offer for WooCommerce 300+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #8 12 too high 21 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too high 22 Friends 900+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #19 ↓3 3 too high 23 AI 60K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #23 24 Custom Profile Picture – Replace Gravatar with Your Own Images 300+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #10 ↓1 14 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.