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← Rankings

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

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 “partners”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20. 6 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

MSN Partner Hub shows at wp.org #15 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Cookiebot – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for GDPR, CCPA & Google Consent Mode places #11 on merit, 4.4★ from 440 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #1 2 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #2 3 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #3 4 Migrate Guru – Site Migration & Cloning 200K+ · 4.9★ (1645) wp.org #6 2 too low 5 Ninja Forms – Contact Form Builder with Calculators, Quizzes, Signatures & AI Form Builder 500K+ · 4.4★ (1397) wp.org #5 ↓1 6 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too high 7 Affiliate Program Suite — SliceWP Affiliates 10K+ · 4.9★ (111) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Logo Carousel – Responsive Logo Slider, Logo Showcase, and Clients Logo Gallery 20K+ · 4.7★ (162) wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too low 9 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #10 1 too low 10 Payment Plugins Braintree For WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.8★ (149) wp.org #12 ↑1 2 too low 11 Cookiebot – Cookie Banner & Cookie Consent for GDPR, CCPA & Google Consent Mode 100K+ · 4.4★ (440) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #7 5 too high 13 OneSignal – Web Push Notifications 60K+ · 4.3★ (360) wp.org #11 ↑2 2 too high 14 Charitable – Donation & Fundraising Platform (Donation Forms, Recurring Donations & Fundraising Campaigns) 10K+ · 4.9★ (219) wp.org #18 4 too low 15 Logo Slider – Logo Showcase, Logo Carousel, Logo Gallery and Client Logo Presentation 30K+ · 4.7★ (252) wp.org #23 ↑1 8 too low 16 Microsoft Clarity 200K+ · 4.5★ (14) wp.org #17 ↑1 1 too low 17 Raptive Ads 6K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 2 too low 18 Payment Gateway for Authorize.net for WooCommerce 800+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 5 too high 19 GetPaid Stripe Payments 2K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 WPZOOM Addons for Elementor – Starter Templates & Widgets 20K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #24 ↑1 4 too low 21 WBD Logo Carousel For Gutenberg 600+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 ↑1 1 too low 22 LinkAuthority Partners 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 ↓1 2 too high 23 Impact: Partnership Cloud 300+ · 2.0★ (4) wp.org #21 ↓2 2 too high 24 MSN Partner Hub 1K+ · 2.0★ (2) wp.org #15 ↓3 9 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.