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

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 “poll plugin”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Crowdsignal Dashboard – Polls, Surveys & more shows at wp.org #8 but places #16 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 200K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.7★ average from 34 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

GamiPress – Gamification plugin to reward points, badges & ranks in WordPress, now with AI places #12 on merit, 4.9★ from 493 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

How this rank is calculated

Each plugin's merit score multiplies these inputs together: how recently it was updated, how current its "tested up to" WordPress version is, its install base (log scale, capped at 10 million), its support thread resolution rate, and a rating score. The rating score weights the star average by review volume against a sitewide prior, then scales it by the lower bound of the share of 4 and 5 star reviews. A plugin with 3.7 stars from tens of thousands of reviews can still outscore a 4.9 with a few dozen, because the small sample carries less certainty.

A health factor between 0.4 and 1.15 then adjusts that score for what wp.org's search can't see: PHP fatals or failed activations on a test install, PHP and WordPress compatibility, memory and page-speed footprint, suspicious review patterns, closure risk, and a large install base with very few reviews. Clean, adopted plugins earn a small lift.

A keyword ranking starts from wp.org's search order for the term, weighting each position by 1 divided by its place, then applies the merit correction and health factor above. Relevance to the keyword stays in the result, so the order can differ from the all-categories list on /best, which scores plugins with no search term.

Hover a row to see the main reason for its position.

merit plugin wp.org
1 YOP Poll 10K+ · 4.4★ (452) wp.org #1 2 Poll Maker by AYS – Versus Polls, Anonymous Polls, Image Polls 6K+ · 4.4★ (92) wp.org #2 3 Forminator Forms – Contact Form, Payment Form & Custom Form Builder 600K+ · 4.8★ (2,147) wp.org #5 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 4 Democracy Poll 6K+ · 4.6★ (86) wp.org #3 ↑1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 5 TS Poll – Survey, Versus Poll, Image Poll, Video Poll 3K+ · 4.7★ (235) wp.org #4 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 6 WPForms – AI Form Builder for WordPress – Contact Forms, Payment Forms, Survey Form, Quiz & More 5M+ · 4.8★ (14,390) wp.org #7 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 7 WP-Polls 40K+ · 4.2★ (136) wp.org #6 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 8 UserFeedback – Create Interactive Feedback Form, User Surveys, and Polls in Seconds 200K+ · 4.8★ (310) wp.org #9 wp.org ranks it 1 place below merit 9 MailPoet – Newsletters, Email Marketing, and Automation 500K+ · 4.4★ (1,435) wp.org #14 ↑6 wp.org ranks it 5 places below merit 10 Quiz and Survey Master (QSM) – Quiz Maker & Survey Maker 40K+ · 4.7★ (1,282) wp.org #21 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 11 places below merit 11 Quiz Maker, Poll Maker & Survey Maker by Opinion Stage 6K+ · 4.4★ (277) wp.org #13 wp.org ranks it 2 places below merit 12 GamiPress – Gamification plugin to reward points, badges & ranks in WordPress, now with AI 10K+ · 4.9★ (493) wp.org #24 wp.org ranks it 12 places below merit 13 ePoll – Contest Poll Survey & Voting 1K+ · 3.9★ (24) wp.org #10 wp.org ranks it 3 places above merit 14 Chartify – WordPress Chart Plugin 3K+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #22 ↓3 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 15 TotalPoll for Polls and Contests 1K+ · 4.3★ (45) wp.org #23 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 8 places below merit 16 Crowdsignal Dashboard – Polls, Surveys & more 200K+ · 2.7★ (34) wp.org #8 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit 17 Onyx Poll 60+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #11 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 18 Pollify – Feedback Polls, Anonymous Polls, Up/down Voting, NPS Surveys, Export data 50+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #12 wp.org ranks it 6 places above merit 19 SurveyX Builder – Survey, Poll, Quiz & Feedback Form 2K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #15 wp.org ranks it 4 places above merit 20 CBX Poll 60+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #19 ↑2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 21 Crowdsignal Forms 200K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #20 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 1 place above merit 22 Polls CP 400+ · 2.6★ (5) wp.org #17 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 23 WP Easy Poll 60+ · 3.3★ (4) wp.org #18 ↓1 wp.org ranks it 5 places above merit 24 OpinionCamp – Poll Block 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 ↓2 wp.org ranks it 8 places above merit

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 10M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted 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.