Plugin Pulse
← Rankings

Honest rankings: “popup”

WordPress.org search rewards raw install count with no ceiling, so the biggest install bases float to the top regardless of quality signals. Here's what searchers actually see, next to a merit ranking that caps the install factor and weights ratings by review volume. How this works →

Install-weight distortion

Popup builder with Gamification, Multi-Step Popups, Page-Level Targeting, and WooCommerce Triggers sits at wp.org #7 but earns only #21 on merit , 96% of its ranking comes from install count alone, on 60K+ installs at just 5.0★.

Buried gem

CleanTalk Anti-Spam. Spam Firewall & Bot protection deserves #2 on merit but wp.org shows it at #20 , 4.8★ from 3196 reviews, buried by lower-quality plugins with bigger install counts.

wp.org merit plugin Δ
1 — #1 Popup Maker – Boost Sales, Conversions, Optins, Subscribers with the Ultimate WP Popup Builder 700K+ · 4.9★ (4502) 0 2 #4 Popup Builder – Create highly converting, mobile friendly marketing popups. 200K+ · 4.7★ (2212) +2 3 — #3 Popup Builder & Popup Maker for WordPress – OptinMonster Email Marketing and Lead Generation 1M+ · 4.3★ (813) 0 4 #6 Hustle – Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Optins, Popups 90K+ · 4.4★ (859) +2 5 #7 Depicter — Popup & Slider Builder 80K+ · 4.6★ (233) +2 6 #10 Popup Box – Create Countdown, Coupon, Video, Contact Form Popups 50K+ · 4.6★ (81) +4 7 #21 Popup builder with Gamification, Multi-Step Popups, Page-Level Targeting, and WooCommerce Triggers 60K+ · 5.0★ (7) +14 8 #5 Poptin – Email Marketing Automation, Newsletter & Exit Pop Ups, Email Popups 20K+ · 4.9★ (691) -3 9 #15 Popup Maker – Responsive popup, Exit Intent Pop up, Email Optins, Autoresponder & More 7K+ · 4.5★ (144) +6 10 #19 Themify Popup 8K+ · 4.9★ (11) +9 11 #20 Popup Box – Easily Create WordPress Popups 7K+ · 5.0★ (11) +9 12 #9 Popups for Divi 100K+ · 4.8★ (438) -3 13 #11 Smart Popup by Supsystic 10K+ · 4.5★ (340) -2 14 #8 HubSpot All-In-One Marketing – Forms, Popups, Live Chat 200K+ · 4.3★ (207) -6 15 #23 Video Popup Block – YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok Lightbox by WPZOOM 10K+ · 4.7★ (6) +8 16 #12 Brave – Create Popup, Optins, Lead Generation, Survey, Sticky Elements & Interactive Content 20K+ · 4.8★ (209) -4 17 #14 WP Popups – WordPress Popup builder 30K+ · 4.9★ (112) -3 18 — #18 Video Popup – Video Lightbox for YouTube, Vimeo & MP4 10K+ · 4.5★ (43) 0 19 #13 Lightbox & Modal Popup WordPress Plugin – FooBox 100K+ · 3.9★ (95) -6 20 #2 CleanTalk Anti-Spam. Spam Firewall & Bot protection 200K+ · 4.8★ (3196) -18 21 #17 Cart Popup for WooCommerce 9K+ · 4.4★ (70) -4 22 #16 AI Popup Builder & Popup Maker by OptiMonk 4K+ · 4.7★ (98) -6 23 #24 Advanced Popups 60K+ · 4.0★ (9) +1 24 #22 WP Terms Popup – Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy WordPress Popups 3K+ · 4.8★ (15) -2

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.