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

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 maintenance status”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 2 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

Coming Soon Maintenance Mode shows at wp.org #11 but places #20 on merit, a gap of 9 places. Its 6K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.7★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More places #11 on merit, 4.8★ from 14387 reviews, but shows at wp.org #21. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Maintenance 1M+ · 4.4★ (869) wp.org #1 2 CMP – Coming Soon & Maintenance Plugin by NiteoThemes 200K+ · 4.7★ (326) wp.org #2 3 LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder 400K+ · 4.3★ (874) wp.org #3 4 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #4 5 Slim Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 5.0★ (63) wp.org #5 6 Website Builder by SeedProd — Theme Builder, Landing Page Builder, Coming Soon Page, Maintenance Mode 600K+ · 4.9★ (4699) wp.org #13 ↑2 7 too low 7 Under Construction, Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode 10K+ · 4.6★ (46) wp.org #7 8 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #9 1 too low 9 LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #16 ↑1 7 too low 10 Maintenance Redirect 10K+ · 4.9★ (24) wp.org #8 2 too high 11 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14387) wp.org #21 10 too low 12 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #10 2 too high 13 Maintenance Mode 8K+ · 4.6★ (14) wp.org #6 7 too high 14 Maintenance & Coming Soon Redirect Animation 3K+ · 5.0★ (34) wp.org #12 2 too high 15 WP Rollback – Rollback Plugins and Themes 200K+ · 4.9★ (215) wp.org #23 8 too low 16 bbPress 100K+ · 3.9★ (343) wp.org #20 ↑1 4 too low 17 Patchstack – WordPress & Plugins Security 100K+ · 4.9★ (61) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Maintenance Switch 800+ · 5.0★ (12) wp.org #14 ↓1 4 too high 19 Extended Post Status 1K+ · 4.5★ (11) wp.org #15 ↑1 4 too high 20 Coming Soon Maintenance Mode 6K+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #11 9 too high 21 Maintenance Mode Made Easy 200+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #22 ↑2 1 too low 22 WP Maintenance Mode & Site Under Construction 3K+ · 3.5★ (4) wp.org #17 ↑1 5 too high 23 Speedx – Maintenance Mode 200+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 4 too high 24 Glow: maintenance & support management for agencies 800+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑4 6 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.