Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

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

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 “perf”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 19 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

CodeTelemetryLab Admin Performance Inspector shows at wp.org #9 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its — 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

Autoptimize places #5 on merit, 4.7★ from 1428 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 Koko Analytics – Privacy-Friendly WordPress Analytics 70K+ · 5.0★ (245) wp.org #13 12 too low 2 Spexo Addons for Elementor – Elementor Widgets, Mega Menu, Popup Builder, Template Kits and Starter Templates for Elementor 6K+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #2 ↑1 3 Parsi Date | بسته فارسی ساز وردپرس و ووکامرس پارسی دیت 100K+ · 4.6★ (130) wp.org #10 7 too low 4 Solid Performance – Your No-Code Caching, Performance, & Page Speed Solution 4K+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #1 3 too high 5 Autoptimize 800K+ · 4.7★ (1428) wp.org #18 13 too low 6 Accessibility Widget by OneTap – Easy One-Click Accessibility Toolbar 60K+ · 4.9★ (80) wp.org #14 8 too low 7 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #15 ↓4 8 too low 8 ThumbPress – Compress Images, Manage Thumbnails, Detect Image Issues, WebP/AVIF, Lazy Loading, Hotlinking & More 20K+ · 3.7★ (117) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 WPGraphQL 30K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #19 ↓2 10 too low 10 WC Cancel Order 5K+ · 4.9★ (23) wp.org #20 ↓1 10 too low 11 Super block slider – Image/video background & content slider 8K+ · 5.0★ (14) wp.org #21 ↓1 10 too low 12 SnowSEO 100+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 ↑1 9 too high 13 Ultra Web Hosting Performance Toolkit 300+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 ↑1 9 too high 14 King Addons for Elementor – 100+ Elementor Widgets, 4 000+ Elementor Templates, WooCommerce Builder, Mega Menu, Popup Builder 10K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #5 ↓3 9 too high 15 Tiny Simple AdBlock Detector 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 9 too high 16 SiteLock Security – WP Hardening, Login Security & Malware Scans 1K+ · 3.4★ (14) wp.org #22 ↓1 6 too low 17 Omni Webmaster & SEO Suite 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 10 too high 18 EmberPrice – Supplier Price List Import for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 10 too high 19 Dobsie — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↓1 8 too high 20 CodeTelemetryLab Admin Performance Inspector — · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #9 11 too high 21 Speculative Page Loader – Prefetch and Prerender — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 5 too high 22 Anonindo Performance Optimizer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↓1 5 too high 23 Airwallex Online Payments Gateway 10K+ · 2.1★ (7) wp.org #23 ↑1 24 Frontend File Upload 60+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24 ↓1

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.