Plugin Pulse
← Rankings

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

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 “phpmail”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 3 of the top 9. 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.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Stop WP Emails Going to Spam 10K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #1 2 wp-greet 50+ · 4.9★ (10) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 SureMail – SMTP and Email Logs Plugin with Amazon SES, Postmark, and Other Providers 200K+ · 4.7★ (25) wp.org #7 4 too low 4 SMTP Mail Control for MailPoet 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Email Marketing Plugin – WP Email Capture 1K+ · 4.3★ (19) wp.org #8 3 too low 6 Improve Email Spam Score – Improves forms phpmail spam score 200+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #3 3 too high 7 SendForce Mail SMTP Relay – SMTP and Email API 20+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #5 2 too high 8 Yosoylu SMTP Mail Delivery — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 eMail by SMTP 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9

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.