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← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “page count”

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 “page count”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 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

Visitor Count by MrStar shows at wp.org #11 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 12 places. Its 400+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page & Under Construction places #10 on merit, 4.8★ from 317 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #2 ↑2 1 too low 2 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 P Page-list 30K+ · 4.7★ (89) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1525) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too low 5 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 Colibri Page Builder 80K+ · 4.4★ (80) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #10 ↑3 3 too low 8 Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Admin Menu Tree Page View 10K+ · 4.6★ (48) wp.org #9 10 Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode Page & Under Construction 10K+ · 4.8★ (317) wp.org #19 9 too low 11 Nested Pages 90K+ · 4.7★ (126) wp.org #14 3 too low 12 Otter Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks, Page Builder for Gutenberg Editor & FSE 300K+ · 4.7★ (251) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Page Visits Counter – Lite 5K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #4 ↓1 9 too high 14 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #20 6 too low 15 Bulk Page Generator and Mass Page Builder – Page Generator 3K+ · 4.6★ (70) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too high 16 B bbP topic count 300+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #13 ↓1 3 too high 17 Post View Count 4K+ · 4.6★ (18) wp.org #16 1 too high 18 GravityWP – Count 1K+ · 5.0★ (13) wp.org #24 ↓1 6 too low 19 Page & Post Notes 1K+ · 4.4★ (14) wp.org #23 ↑1 4 too low 20 Fix Category Count 100+ · 4.6★ (9) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Sortable Word Count Reloaded 2K+ · 3.7★ (10) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 Count Characters, Words and Paragraphs while typing 300+ · 4.5★ (6) wp.org #17 5 too high 23 Visitor Count by MrStar 400+ · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓1 12 too high 24 Classic Addons – WPBakery Page Builder 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 3 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.