wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “paypal subscriptions”

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 “paypal subscriptions”, we and wp.org disagree 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

Subscriptions & Memberships for PayPal shows at wp.org #12 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 3.9★ average from 12 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SureCart – Ecommerce Made Easy For Selling Physical Products, Digital Downloads, Subscriptions, Donations, & Payments places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 289 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Payment Plugins for PayPal WooCommerce 80K+ · 4.8★ (127) wp.org #2 1 too low 2

WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (584) low rating, top placement wp.org #1 1 too high 3

Paid Membership Subscriptions – Effortless Memberships, Recurring Payments & Content Restriction 10K+ · 4.7★ (270) wp.org #3 4

WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #5 ↑1 1 too low 5

Subscriptions for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.5★ (180) wp.org #4 1 too high 6

Easy Digital Downloads – eCommerce Payments and Subscriptions made easy 40K+ · 4.7★ (592) wp.org #7 1 too low 7

Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2144) wp.org #9 ↑2 2 too low 8

Payment Gateway for PayPal on WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.4★ (73) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too high 9

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too low 10

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #15 5 too low 11

SureCart – Ecommerce Made Easy For Selling Physical Products, Digital Downloads, Subscriptions, Donations, & Payments 80K+ · 4.8★ (289) wp.org #21 10 too low 12

Payment Button for PayPal 4K+ · 4.5★ (40) wp.org #11 ↓1 1 too high 13

Masteriyo LMS – LMS Course Builder, Quizzes & Certificates 6K+ · 4.8★ (184) wp.org #23 ↑1 10 too low 14

Payment Gateway of PayPal for WooCommerce 6K+ · 4.2★ (79) wp.org #16 2 too low 15

Accept PayPal & Stripe with Subscriptions for WooCommerce 2K+ · 4.8★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #8 7 too high 16

CP Contact Form with PayPal 800+ · 3.8★ (65) wp.org #20 4 too low 17

Subscriptions for WooCommerce with Stripe Recurring Payments 1K+ · 4.9★ (25) wp.org #24 ↓1 7 too low 18

Flexible Subscriptions 1K+ · 4.6★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #10 ↓1 8 too high 19

Milo Subscriptions – Subscriptions for WooCommerce and Recurring Payments 200+ · 5.0★ (10) thin reviews wp.org #17 2 too high 20

Sublium Subscriptions – Subscriptions for WooCommerce – Recurring Payments, Subscription Plans & Installments 700+ · 5.0★ (11) thin reviews wp.org #19 1 too high 21

Subscriptions & Memberships for PayPal 900+ · 3.9★ (12) thin reviews wp.org #12 ↑1 9 too high 22

Payment Gateway for PayPal Pro, PayPal Checkout & Subscriptions for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.1★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #14 8 too high 23

PayPal Enterprise Payments (formerly Braintree) for WooCommerce 10K+ · 2.6★ (50) wp.org #18 5 too high 24

FunnelKit Payment Gateway with PayPal for WooCommerce 200+ · 5.0★ (2) thin reviews wp.org #22 2 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.