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← Rankings

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

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 “permalink”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 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

Custom Permalink Editor shows at wp.org #7 but places #18 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 4K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) places #10 on merit, 5.0★ from 423 reviews, but shows at wp.org #23. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176) wp.org #1 2 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #2 3 Custom Post Type Permalinks 200K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #6 ↑3 2 too low 5 Premmerce Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 40K+ · 3.9★ (53) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 8K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #14 ↓1 7 too low 8 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #11 ↑4 3 too low 9 AutoConvert Greeklish Permalinks 40K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #9 ↓1 10 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #23 13 too low 11 WP Better Permalinks 1K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 پارسی دیت – Parsi Date 100K+ · 4.6★ (130) wp.org #17 ↑4 5 too low 13 Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks 40K+ · 4.3★ (61) wp.org #13 14 B Bulglish Permalinks 3K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #8 ↓2 6 too high 15 Longer Permalinks 8K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #18 ↓2 3 too low 16 Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database 3K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #15 1 too high 17 Disable Media Permalink by Hardweb.it 800+ · 4.1★ (7) wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too high 18 Custom Permalink Editor 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 11 too high 19 E External Permalinks Redux 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #16 ↓3 3 too high 20 Pretty Search Permalinks 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 2 too low 21 Remove Special Characters From Permalinks 70+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #24 3 too low 22 Permalinks with ID for bbPress 100+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓1 1 too high 23 Cyrillic Permalinks 200+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 P PTAPS – Post Type Archive Pages and Permalink Settings 80+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #20 ↓1 4 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.