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

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 “paste”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 13 of the top 20. 1 plugin is 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

Live Copy Paste for Elementor – Cross Domain Copy Paste & Page Duplicator shows at wp.org #2 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin places #8 on merit, 4.9★ from 1281 reviews, but shows at wp.org #18. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Paste As Plain Text By Default 2K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #1 ↑2 2 File Manager 1M+ · 4.6★ (1492) wp.org #4 ↑1 2 too low 3 The Paste 9K+ · 4.8★ (35) wp.org #3 ↓2 4 ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #7 ↑3 3 too low 5 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #9 ↑3 4 too low 6 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #8 ↓2 2 too low 7 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #18 10 too low 9 Doubly – Cross Domain Copy Paste for WordPress 10K+ · 4.4★ (14) wp.org #5 ↓1 4 too high 10 Easy MCP AI – Connect Claude to WordPress: MCP Server for ChatGPT & AI Agents 30K+ · 4.9★ (16) wp.org #6 ↑1 4 too high 11 M Mammoth .docx converter 20K+ · 4.8★ (62) wp.org #13 2 too low 12 Shortcoder — Create Shortcodes for Anything 100K+ · 4.9★ (227) wp.org #21 ↓1 9 too low 13 Secure Copy Content Protection and Content Locking 20K+ · 4.3★ (62) wp.org #14 ↑2 1 too low 14 FileOrganizer – WordPress File Manager 200K+ · 4.8★ (49) wp.org #16 ↑1 2 too low 15 Newsletter – Send awesome emails from WordPress 200K+ · 4.6★ (1205) wp.org #20 5 too low 16 Weight Based Shipping for WooCommerce 50K+ · 4.6★ (83) wp.org #19 ↓1 3 too low 17 ECS – Ele Custom Skin for Elementor 100K+ · 4.6★ (117) wp.org #22 5 too low 18 MonsterInsights – Google Analytics Dashboard for WordPress (Website Stats Made Easy) 2M+ · 4.5★ (3157) wp.org #23 ↓8 5 too low 19 Live Copy Paste for Elementor – Cross Domain Copy Paste & Page Duplicator 6K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #2 17 too high 20 Disable Right Click RB – Content Copy Protection, Prevent Copy & No Right Click 600+ · 4.2★ (14) wp.org #24 4 too low 21 C Copy/Paste FlexContent Blocks for ACF 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #12 ↓4 9 too high 22 Spreadsheet Paste Block 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 ↓1 12 too high 23 M MenuItem Copy & Paste 50+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↑2 6 too high 24 S Secure Paste 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 ↓1 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.