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

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 “pacific”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

VIESAC – Free VAT Validation for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 20+ 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

SMTP2GO for WordPress – Email Made Easy places #6 on merit, 5.0★ from 67 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WSMS (formerly WP SMS): SMS and OTP for WordPress and WooCommerce 7K+ · 4.1★ (107) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 700K+ · 3.1★ (237) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 Prime Slider – Hero Slider, Carousel, WooCommerce & Post Slider Elementor Addons 100K+ · 4.5★ (82) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Shift8 CDN 500+ · 4.4★ (40) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #14 ↓2 9 too low 6 SMTP2GO for WordPress – Email Made Easy 40K+ · 5.0★ (67) wp.org #23 ↓2 17 too low 7 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #19 ↓2 12 too low 8 WP Offload SES Lite 10K+ · 4.3★ (36) wp.org #20 ↓2 12 too low 9 Payssion Plugin for Woocommerce 400+ · 3.3★ (12) wp.org #6 3 too high 10 Payment Gateway with MPGS for WooCommerce 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #5 5 too high 11 Shipment Tracking for WooCommerce – Trackora 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 2 too high 12 PayLexer – Payment Integration Solution for WordPress (Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, and more) 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 5 too high 13 SMTP for Amazon SES – YaySMTP 3K+ · 4.2★ (10) wp.org #24 ↓2 11 too low 14 TrustLens – Fraud Prevention & Chargeback Defense for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓2 1 too high 15 Fast Index for Google Indexing API 300+ · 3.3★ (3) wp.org #8 7 too high 16 Mailster AmazonSES Integration 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↓2 5 too low 17 SDAweb Channels for YouTube 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 6 too high 18 Workshop Booking 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 ↓2 6 too high 19 VIESAC – Free VAT Validation for WooCommerce 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #10 9 too high 20 Event – Add to Calendar 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓2 5 too high 21 Sectorize – Custom Author Archives & Collective Authorship — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓2 5 too high 22 ConacLog – Collection and Analysis for Access Logs — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓2 5 too high 23 RockScience Marine Chart Viewer for NOAA ENC — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too high 24 ZEISMO SEO — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↓2 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.