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

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 “placements”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 7 of the top 20. 4 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

Google for WooCommerce shows at wp.org #8 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 11 places. Its 800K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.7★ average from 268 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

MaxButtons – Create buttons places #11 on merit, 4.9★ from 1093 reviews, but shows at wp.org #19. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Advanced Ads – Ad Manager & AdSense 90K+ · 4.9★ (1463) not PHP-current wp.org #1 ↑1 2

Widgets for Google Reviews 1M+ · 4.9★ (2667) wp.org #2 3

Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ · 4.8★ (27821) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4

Ad Inserter – Ad Manager & AdSense Ads 300K+ · 4.9★ (2433) wp.org #5 1 too low 5

MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1435) heavy footprint wp.org #7 ↓1 2 too low 6

GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #6 ↓2 7

WooCommerce PayPal Payments 800K+ · 2.9★ (583) throws errorsnot PHP-current low rating, top placement wp.org #3 ↓2 4 too high 8

FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #11 ↓2 3 too low 9

SMTP2GO for WordPress – Email Made Easy 40K+ · 5.0★ (67) wp.org #10 1 too low 10

Woody Code Snippets – Insert PHP, CSS, JS, and Header/Footer Scripts 50K+ · 4.5★ (221) not PHP-current wp.org #9 ↓1 1 too high 11

MaxButtons – Create buttons 70K+ · 4.9★ (1093) wp.org #19 ↓2 8 too low 12

Postie 10K+ · 4.7★ (139) not PHP-current wp.org #12 ↓1 13

AddToAny Share Buttons 300K+ · 4.7★ (1114) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #14 ↓2 1 too low 14

Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #17 ↑5 3 too low 15

Secure Custom Fields 100K+ · 4.8★ (69) heavy footprint wp.org #13 2 too high 16

FunnelKit Payment Gateway for Stripe WooCommerce 20K+ · 4.9★ (53) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17

Quick Adsense 20K+ · 3.9★ (74) wp.org #15 ↓1 2 too high 18

Wp-Insert 9K+ · 4.5★ (142) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #21 ↓2 3 too low 19

Google for WooCommerce 800K+ · 2.7★ (268) throws errorsnot PHP-current wp.org #8 ↓1 11 too high 20

Worth The Read 3K+ · 4.3★ (27) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too high 21

Announcement & Notification Banner – Bulletin 2K+ · 4.6★ (20) throws errorsnot PHP-current thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓2 1 too low 22

Advanced Popups 60K+ · 4.0★ (9) thin reviews wp.org #24 2 too low 23

AdFlow – Ad Inserter & Ad Manager: AdSense, Banner Ads & ads.txt 3K+ · 5.0★ (3) thin reviews wp.org #16 ↓1 7 too high 24

Advanced Ads for WPBakery Page Builder 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) thin reviews wp.org #23 ↓2 1 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.