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

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 “photographic”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 2 of the top 18. 1 plugin is 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.

Buried gem

Imsanity places #1 on merit, 4.9★ from 291 reviews, but shows at wp.org #8. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Imsanity 200K+ · 4.9★ (291) wp.org #8 7 too low 2 KineticHub – Animated Blocks 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 AI Featured Image 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #3 4 SlashImage – Image Optimizer: Compress Images, Convert WebP & AVIF 90+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Flick Survey — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #4 1 too high 6 Featured Image Creator AI 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 1 too high 7 Waypoint Royalty Free Image Generator 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 1 too high 8 AI Content Writer for GEO & Autopublish by TalkGenAI 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 7 too low 9 Auto OG Images – Open Graph & Social Image Generator by html2img — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 2 too high 10 Gozo Album — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 1 too high 11 Drop Print — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 1 too high 12 MohlaDesk – Repair & Maintenance Tracking System — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 1 too high 13 APS-C Crop — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 1 too high 14 TheGridIndex RSS Importer — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 1 too high 15 G Gallery View — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 1 too high 16 Gobbert SVG Studio — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↑1 17 ACTUS Animated Words Slider 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #17 ↑1 18 M Matt’s Community Tags 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 ↑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.