Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “pay”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 10 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

Pay with Vipps and MobilePay for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #6 but places #12 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 5K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.8★ average from 13 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy places #5 on merit, 4.7★ from 591 reviews, but shows at wp.org #10. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2143) wp.org #4 ↓1 3 too low 2 WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) wp.org #1 ↑4 1 too high 3 Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce 100K+ · 4.8★ (303) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway 700K+ · 3.1★ (237) wp.org #2 ↓1 2 too high 5 Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (591) wp.org #10 5 too low 6 Pay for Payment for WooCommerce – Payment Gateway Fees & Discounts 10K+ · 4.7★ (71) wp.org #8 ↓1 2 too low 7 Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #12 ↑3 5 too low 8 Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #7 ↑11 1 too high 9 Knit Pay – Cashfree, Instamojo, Razorpay, PayPal and more 2K+ · 4.9★ (100) wp.org #11 ↓2 2 too low 10 WooPayments: Integrated WooCommerce Payments 800K+ · 3.4★ (177) wp.org #5 ↓1 5 too high 11 Post Pay Counter 1K+ · 4.8★ (46) wp.org #9 ↓1 2 too high 12 Pay with Vipps and MobilePay for WooCommerce 5K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #6 6 too high 13 Pronamic Pay 2K+ · 4.8★ (84) wp.org #13 ↓2 14 Stripe Payment Forms by WP Simple Pay – Accept Credit Card Payments + Subscriptions with Stripe 8K+ · 4.4★ (117) wp.org #21 7 too low 15 Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #15 ↓3 16 Pay For Post with WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.7★ (53) wp.org #17 ↓3 1 too low 17 Multibanco, MB WAY, Credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Payshop, and PIX (ifthenpay) for WooCommerce 8K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #14 ↑2 3 too high 18 Amazon Pay for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.5★ (27) wp.org #22 4 too low 19 Pay by paynow.pl 7K+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #19 ↑1 20 Pronamic Pay with Mollie for Gravity Forms 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #18 2 too high 21 Autopay dla WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #24 ↓5 3 too low 22 Pay. Payment Methods for WooCommerce 3K+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #16 ↓3 6 too high 23 ONVO Pay 400+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓3 3 too high 24 Bob Pay 300+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 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.