Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “pause orders”

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 “pause orders”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 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 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

Limbus Maintenance Page & Shop Pause shows at wp.org #4 but places #22 on merit, a gap of 18 places. Its 30+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery places #9 on merit, 4.7★ from 616 reviews, but shows at wp.org #20. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Phone Orders for WooCommerce 1K+ · 5.0★ (32) wp.org #1 2 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Store Vacation Lite for WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.6★ (189) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 WP Crontrol 300K+ · 4.4★ (167) wp.org #5 1 too low 5 Slider, Gallery, and Carousel by MetaSlider – Image Slider, Video Slider 500K+ · 4.6★ (742) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too low 6 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #7 ↑1 1 too low 7 HurryTimer – An Scarcity and Urgency Countdown Timer for WordPress & WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.8★ (170) wp.org #10 ↑9 3 too low 8 Divi Carousel Lite – Make Carousels for Divi 5 30K+ · 4.8★ (146) wp.org #12 ↓2 4 too low 9 Modula Image Gallery – Photo Grid & Video Gallery 100K+ · 4.7★ (616) wp.org #20 ↓3 11 too low 10 Logo Carousel – Responsive Logo Slider, Logo Showcase, and Clients Logo Gallery 20K+ · 4.7★ (162) wp.org #17 ↓3 7 too low 11 AI-Powered Carousel, Slider, Video & Photo Gallery Blocks by WP Carousel 60K+ · 4.7★ (434) wp.org #21 ↑3 10 too low 12 Reviews and Rating – Google Reviews 20K+ · 4.9★ (184) wp.org #13 ↓4 1 too low 13 All-in-One Video Gallery – Video Player & Galleries for YouTube, Vimeo & Self-Hosted Videos 20K+ · 4.8★ (136) wp.org #19 ↓3 6 too low 14 Logo Slider – Logo Showcase, Logo Carousel, Logo Gallery and Client Logo Presentation 30K+ · 4.7★ (252) wp.org #14 ↓2 15 Order Limit for WooCommerce (Free Version) 800+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #6 9 too high 16 SureCart – Ecommerce Made Easy For Selling Physical Products, Digital Downloads, Subscriptions, Donations, & Payments 80K+ · 4.8★ (288) wp.org #24 ↓3 8 too low 17 N News Ticker for Elementor 2K+ · 4.8★ (40) wp.org #16 ↓3 1 too high 18 FluentCart A New Era of eCommerce – Faster, Lighter, and Simpler 9K+ · 4.5★ (46) wp.org #15 ↑8 3 too high 19 CartBounty – Save and recover abandoned carts for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #22 ↓2 3 too low 20 WP Swiper 4K+ · 5.0★ (24) wp.org #23 ↓1 3 too low 21 Checkout Shield for WooCommerce – Stop Fake Orders, Spam Bots & Card Testing 400+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 ↑2 12 too high 22 Limbus Maintenance Page & Shop Pause 30+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #4 18 too high 23 Advanced Marquee Effect for Elementor – Smooth Marquee, News Ticker, Image Box & Icon Box Marquee 2K+ · 4.7★ (6) wp.org #18 ↓3 5 too high 24 Unstoppable Order Pause for WooCommerce 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 13 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.