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

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 “permalinks”, 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

E

Ranked above its merit

External Permalinks Redux shows at wp.org #10 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 2K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 418 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Custom Permalinks 100K+ · 4.1★ (116) wp.org #1 2 Custom Post Type Permalinks 200K+ · 4.8★ (71) wp.org #2 3 Permalink Manager Lite 100K+ · 4.8★ (176) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 Redirection 2M+ · 4.4★ (703) wp.org #7 ↑1 3 too low 5 AutoConvert Greeklish Permalinks 40K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #5 6 WP Better Permalinks 1K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #6 7 Pods – Custom Content Types and Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (418) wp.org #16 ↓1 9 too low 8 B Bulglish Permalinks 3K+ · 5.0★ (8) wp.org #4 ↓1 4 too high 9 WP Super Cache 1M+ · 4.3★ (1346) wp.org #13 ↑1 4 too low 10 Remove Category URL – Remove ‘category’ base from category permalinks 40K+ · 4.3★ (61) wp.org #9 ↑1 1 too high 11 Premmerce Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 40K+ · 3.9★ (53) wp.org #8 ↓1 3 too high 12 Admin and Site Enhancements (ASE) 200K+ · 5.0★ (423) wp.org #20 ↑2 8 too low 13 Parsi Date | بسته فارسی ساز وردپرس و ووکامرس پارسی دیت 100K+ · 4.6★ (130) wp.org #17 ↑3 4 too low 14 Permalink Manager for WooCommerce 8K+ · 4.9★ (26) wp.org #12 2 too high 15 Longer Permalinks 8K+ · 5.0★ (18) wp.org #11 4 too high 16 GenerateBlocks 200K+ · 4.9★ (122) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 Nginx Helper 200K+ · 4.4★ (31) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database 3K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #15 3 too high 19 E External Permalinks Redux 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #10 ↓1 9 too high 20 Permalinks with ID for bbPress 100+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too high 21 Remove Special Characters From Permalinks 70+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Pretty Search Permalinks 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #22 ↓3 23 Custom Permalink Editor 4K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 ↓1 5 too high 24 Cyrillic Permalinks 200+ · 3.7★ (3) wp.org #21 ↓3 3 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.