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

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 loading”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 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.

P

Ranked above its merit

Page Optimize shows at wp.org #6 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 200K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.0★ average from 5 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Translate WordPress with GTranslate places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 4962 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #1 2 Super Page Cache – Cloudflare Cache, Page Speed & Core Web Vitals 70K+ · 4.8★ (517) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Loading Page with Loading Screen 10K+ · 4.6★ (124) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #7 ↓1 3 too low 5 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #5 ↑3 6 Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005) wp.org #10 ↑1 4 too low 7 Speculative Loading 70K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #4 3 too high 8 Folders – Unlimited Folders to Organize Media Library Folder, Pages, Posts, File Manager 90K+ · 5.0★ (1525) wp.org #13 ↑10 5 too low 9 CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365) wp.org #12 ↓3 3 too low 10 W3 Total Cache 900K+ · 4.4★ (5420) wp.org #15 5 too low 11 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #18 ↓4 7 too low 12 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #21 ↓3 9 too low 13 Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107) wp.org #9 ↑1 4 too high 14 Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140) wp.org #20 ↓1 6 too low 15 Admin Menu Tree Page View 10K+ · 4.6★ (48) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too low 16 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #19 ↓3 3 too low 17 Nested Pages 90K+ · 4.7★ (126) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 Bold Page Builder 40K+ · 3.6★ (66) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too high 19 Bulk Page Generator and Mass Page Builder – Page Generator 3K+ · 4.6★ (70) wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20 Page Visits Counter – Lite 5K+ · 4.0★ (7) wp.org #8 ↓1 12 too high 21 Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55) wp.org #17 4 too high 22 WP Page Loading 700+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #11 ↑1 11 too high 23 P Page Optimize 200K+ · 3.0★ (5) wp.org #6 ↓1 17 too high 24 BlockStrap Page Builder – Bootstrap Blocks 2K+ · 4.5★ (4) wp.org #24

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.