wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “popular posts widget”

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 “popular posts widget”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 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 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

Magical Posts Display – Elementor Advanced Posts widgets shows at wp.org #9 but places #19 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.4★ average from 10 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Post Views Counter places #10 on merit, 4.9★ from 1236 reviews, but shows at wp.org #15. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin signals wp.org

Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) not PHP-current wp.org #2 3

ElementsKit Elementor Addons – Advanced Widgets & Templates Addons for Elementor 1M+ · 4.9★ (2051) wp.org #4 ↑1 1 too low 4

WebberZone Top 10 — Popular Posts 10K+ · 4.6★ (102) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too high 5

Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #5 ↑1 6

TablePress – Tables in WordPress made easy 600K+ · 5.0★ (4625) wp.org #6 ↑2 7

Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #7 8

LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ · 4.8★ (2778) wp.org #12 ↓2 3 too low 10

Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1236) wp.org #15 5 too low 11

Jetpack – AI Agents & MCP, Security, Backup & Analytics 3M+ · 3.7★ (2408) wp.org #10 ↑7 1 too high 12

SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle 400K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #11 ↑1 1 too high 13

Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #17 ↓3 4 too low 14

SchedulePress – Auto Post & Publish, Auto Social Share, Schedule Posts with Editorial Calendar & Missed Schedule Post Publisher 10K+ · 4.6★ (201) wp.org #16 ↓1 2 too low 15

Polylang 900K+ · 4.7★ (3004) wp.org #20 5 too low 16

Table of Contents Plus – Automatic Table of Contents for Posts & Pages 200K+ · 4.5★ (187) wp.org #21 ↑3 5 too low 17

WPZOOM Social Feed Widget & Block 50K+ · 4.3★ (51) wp.org #14 ↓3 3 too high 18

Tagembed: Social Media Feeds and Customer Reviews Widget 9K+ · 3.9★ (62) wp.org #18 ↑1 19

Magical Posts Display – Elementor Advanced Posts widgets 3K+ · 4.4★ (10) thin reviews wp.org #9 ↑7 10 too high 20

Dynamic Month & Year into Posts 8K+ · 5.0★ (18) thin reviews wp.org #22 ↓2 2 too low 21

Statify Widget 4K+ · 5.0★ (5) thin reviews wp.org #13 8 too high 22

Same Category Posts 3K+ · 4.7★ (13) thin reviews wp.org #24 2 too low 23

Most And Least Read Posts Widget 900+ · 5.0★ (6) thin reviews wp.org #19 ↓1 4 too high 24

Random Posts and Pages Widget 1K+ · 5.0★ (4) 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.