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← Rankings

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

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 “pollution”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 15 of the top 20.

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

PDS Weather shows at wp.org #5 but places #15 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.5★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph places #7 on merit, 4.8★ from 51 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 wp.org
1 WPS Notice Center 3K+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #1 2 WPO365 | MICROSOFT 365 GRAPH MAILER 10K+ · 5.0★ (40) wp.org #3 1 too low 3 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Zhanzhangb Indexing Submission for Baidu 2K+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #2 2 too high 5 Image Watermark 40K+ · 4.2★ (298) wp.org #13 8 too low 6 Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #17 11 too low 7 SureRank SEO – Meta Tags, Social Preview, XML Sitemap, Schema & Open Graph 300K+ · 4.8★ (51) wp.org #19 12 too low 8 WP Extended – Modular WordPress Toolkit 600+ · 4.9★ (28) wp.org #23 15 too low 9 B BuddyPress Docs 6K+ · 4.4★ (35) wp.org #21 12 too low 10 AntiSpam for Contact Form 7 10K+ · 4.2★ (13) wp.org #22 12 too low 11 Show Me The Cookies 400+ · 4.8★ (4) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Sendcloud for WooCommerce: Automated Shipping, Branded Tracking & Returns 7K+ · 3.0★ (13) wp.org #15 3 too low 13 Spyglasses – AI Traffic Analytics 30+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #6 7 too high 14 Permalink Manager for WooCommerce by Onlinefotka 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 7 too high 15 PDS Weather 10+ · 2.5★ (2) wp.org #5 10 too high 16 Air Quality Data from Foobot — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 8 too high 17 Product Performance Score for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 8 too high 18 [凹凸曼]同步图片附件到腾讯云COS — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 8 too high 19 Blaze Redirects — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 8 too high 20 Alpha SMS 200+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 2 too high 21 Storzen Product Badge Rules for WooCommerce — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 9 too high 22 Cptify – Custom Post Type, Fields & Layout Builder — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 8 too high 23 Emoza Starter Sites 70+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 1 too low 24 HR Management Lite 200+ · 3.5★ (2) wp.org #20 4 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.