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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “plugin cleanup”

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 “plugin cleanup”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 6 of the top 20. 3 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

WP Plugin Manager – Deactivate plugins per page shows at wp.org #10 but places #17 on merit, a gap of 7 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 23 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

merit plugin wp.org
1 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #1 2 WP Fastest Cache – WordPress Cache Plugin 1M+ · 4.9★ (4228) wp.org #2 3 Members – Membership & User Role Editor Plugin 300K+ · 4.9★ (1281) wp.org #3 ↑1 4 FluentSMTP – WP Mail SMTP Plugin with Amazon SES, SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, Cloudflare, toSend, Gmail and Any SMTP 700K+ · 4.8★ (410) wp.org #5 ↑2 1 too low 5 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too high 6 WP STAGING – Backups & Restore, Migration & Clone Plugin – Cloud Backups, Scheduled Backups 100K+ · 4.8★ (2470) wp.org #9 ↑3 3 too low 7 Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster 100K+ · 4.9★ (1564) wp.org #8 ↓2 1 too low 8 Plugin Notes Plus 9K+ · 5.0★ (62) wp.org #6 ↑2 2 too high 9 Database Cleaner: Cleanup, Optimization & Repair 10K+ · 5.0★ (150) wp.org #12 ↓7 3 too low 10 Plugin Check (PCP) 10K+ · 4.5★ (36) wp.org #7 ↑2 3 too high 11 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #11 ↑2 12 Plugins Garbage Collector (Database Cleanup) 10K+ · 4.4★ (92) wp.org #14 ↓4 2 too low 13 Security Optimizer – The All-In-One Protection Plugin 1M+ · 4.5★ (157) wp.org #13 ↑2 14 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #21 ↓1 7 too low 15 Plugin Load Filter 7K+ · 4.8★ (52) wp.org #15 ↓1 16 Freesoul Deactivate Plugins – Disable plugins on individual WordPress pages 8K+ · 4.8★ (104) wp.org #24 8 too low 17 WP Plugin Manager – Deactivate plugins per page 3K+ · 4.4★ (23) wp.org #10 ↑1 7 too high 18 Plugin Report 1K+ · 5.0★ (15) wp.org #17 ↓1 1 too high 19 Patchstack – WordPress & Plugins Security 100K+ · 4.9★ (61) wp.org #23 4 too low 20 Better Plugin Compatibility Control 4K+ · 4.3★ (19) wp.org #18 ↓1 2 too high 21 SiteGuard WP Plugin 600K+ · 4.3★ (15) wp.org #19 2 too high 22 Cleanup Action Scheduler 1K+ · 3.2★ (6) wp.org #16 6 too high 23 Editor Cleanup For Elementor: clean up and solve plugin conflicts with the Elementor editor 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #20 ↓2 3 too high 24 Cleanup Orphan Images 100+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #22 ↓1 2 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.