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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “persistent player”

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 “persistent player”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 14 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

Plugtuner Radio Player shows at wp.org #5 but places #14 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Football Pool places #5 on merit, 4.9★ from 83 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 MP3 Audio Player – Music Player, Podcast Player & Radio by Sonaar 20K+ · 4.8★ (302) wp.org #1 2 Radio Station by netmix® – Manage and play your Show Schedule in WordPress! 1K+ · 4.6★ (30) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 AjaxPress – SPA & Ajax Navigation with Persistent Audio Player for Radio 100+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 Playlist Player for YouTube – Fast, Privacy-Friendly Playlists & Channel Feed 1K+ · 4.8★ (13) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 Football Pool 900+ · 4.9★ (83) wp.org #12 ↓2 7 too low 6 XPoster – Share to Bluesky and Mastodon 10K+ · 3.8★ (69) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too low 7 xSpeed Cache: AI-Powered Performance Hub with MCP, Caching & CDN 10K+ · 5.0★ (22) wp.org #10 ↑1 3 too low 8 FAZ Cookie Manager 3K+ · 5.0★ (30) wp.org #14 6 too low 9 Dynamic Team Manager – Team Member Showcase with grid, slider, table Elementor widget & shortcode 900+ · 4.6★ (25) wp.org #13 ↓1 4 too low 10 Text to Speech – TTSWP 200+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 ↓1 4 too high 11 Termageddon: Cookie Consent & Privacy Compliance 8K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #7 ↓1 4 too high 12 Polski for WooCommerce 60+ · 4.8★ (10) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Squad Modules Lite – Free Divi 5 & Divi 4 Modules for Divi Builder 1K+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #21 ↓1 8 too low 14 Plugtuner Radio Player 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 ↑8 9 too high 15 WP YouTube Live 1K+ · 4.0★ (10) wp.org #20 ↓1 5 too low 16 Sato Video Player — · 4.5★ (2) wp.org #11 ↓2 5 too high 17 Stream Player by netmix® – Streaming audio for WordPress! 60+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 ↓1 9 too high 18 KineticHub – Animated Blocks 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too high 19 Servidores Seguros Radio Player — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 3 too high 20 OOW PJAX 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too high 21 show.fm Podcast Player — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 GDPR-DSGVO compliant Embeds for YouTube Videos 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓1 1 too low 23 Quran in Text and Audio 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24 YS LeadGen – Popup Builder, Contact Form Builder, Exit Intent, Optin Forms & Lead Generation 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #24

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.