wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “page preview”
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 preview”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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
Shortcode Preview Block shows at wp.org #18 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.
Public Post Preview 100K+ · 4.6★ (79)
wp.org #1 2 
Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333)
wp.org #3 1 too low 3 
Visual Link Preview 10K+ · 4.5★ (36)
wp.org #2 ↓1 1 too high 4 
Preview E-mails for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (85)
wp.org #4 ↓2 5 
Simple Page Ordering 100K+ · 4.7★ (131)
wp.org #6 ↓1 1 too low 6 
WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617)
wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 
Page Builder by SiteOrigin 400K+ · 4.8★ (1005)
wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too low 8 
Social Preview and Open Graph Tags 50K+ · 4.6★ (122)
wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too high 9 
Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699)
wp.org #12 3 too low 10 
Wikipedia Preview 1K+ · 4.8★ (37)
wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27820)
wp.org #14 3 too low 12 
CMS Tree Page View – Reorder Pages with a Drag-and-Drop Tree 50K+ · 4.9★ (365)
wp.org #11 1 too high 13 
Greenshift – animation and page builder blocks 70K+ · 4.8★ (107)
wp.org #10 ↓1 3 too high 14 
Post and Page Builder by BoldGrid – Visual Drag and Drop Editor 50K+ · 4.7★ (140)
wp.org #15 1 too low 15 
Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510)
wp.org #19 ↓9 4 too low 16 
Bulk Page Generator and Mass Page Builder – Page Generator 3K+ · 4.6★ (70)
wp.org #16 17 
Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187)
wp.org #22 5 too low 18 
Bold Page Builder 40K+ · 3.6★ (66)
wp.org #13 5 too high 19 
Page View Count 10K+ · 4.0★ (55)
wp.org #17 2 too high 20 
Thanko Thank You Page Customizer for WooCommerce 3K+ · 4.5★ (37)
wp.org #24 ↓4 4 too low 21 
BlockStrap Page Builder – Bootstrap Blocks 2K+ · 4.5★ (4) thin reviews
wp.org #21 ↓2 22 
Flexible Layout Preview Image for ACF 800+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews
wp.org #23 ↓2 1 too low 23 
WP Social Preview 800+ · 3.5★ (2) thin reviews
wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too high 24 Shortcode Preview Block 900+ · 3.7★ (3) thin reviews
wp.org #18 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.