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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “portable document format”

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 “portable document format”, we and wp.org disagree 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 the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress shows at wp.org #7 but places #13 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 10K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 2 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Oliver POS – WooCommerce POS for iPhone, iPad & Android places #7 on merit, 4.2★ from 90 reviews, but shows at wp.org #12. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Media Library Assistant 70K+ · 4.8★ (202) wp.org #3 ↑4 2 too low 2 Embed Any Document – Embed PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel Files 50K+ · 4.2★ (92) wp.org #2 3 FileBird Document Library 5K+ · 4.9★ (8) wp.org #1 2 too high 4 Print My Blog – Print, PDF, & eBook Converter WordPress Plugin 8K+ · 4.8★ (115) wp.org #4 5 DK PDF – WordPress PDF Generator 3K+ · 4.5★ (44) wp.org #5 ↓2 6 Post My CF7 Form 2K+ · 4.8★ (48) wp.org #10 ↓1 4 too low 7 Oliver POS – WooCommerce POS for iPhone, iPad & Android 700+ · 4.2★ (90) wp.org #12 ↓1 5 too low 8 PDF Invoice for WooCommerce + Drag and Drop Template Builder 500+ · 5.0★ (6) wp.org #6 ↓1 2 too high 9 Infinite Uploads – Offload, Optimize & Organize Your Media Library 800+ · 4.4★ (20) wp.org #11 ↓1 2 too low 10 File Upload Types by WPForms 40K+ · 4.0★ (20) wp.org #20 ↓2 10 too low 11 FormsCRM – Connect Forms to CRM directly 1K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #8 3 too high 12 UWH Site Migrator – WP Migration, Backup & Restore 300+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #9 3 too high 13 WPZOOM Forms – Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder for WordPress 10K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #7 ↓1 6 too high 14 HuxxConnect – REST API Connector for WordPress 10+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #13 ↓1 1 too high 15 Photo & Video Reviews for WooCommerce — PVR Media Reviews — · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #18 3 too low 16 NarraFirma 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 ↓1 1 too high 17 Massoftind Custom Fields & Field Builder 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #16 ↓1 1 too high 18 Fangtao MD IO 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 ↑6 1 too high 19 Migrator – Site Migration and Backup 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #14 ↓1 5 too high 20 Football Studio – Soccer League, Tournament & Club Manager 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 ↓3 1 too high 21 Chada Travel – Agency Manager — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 ↓3 1 too low 22 Clustova LLMs.txt – Markdown Generator — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↓3 1 too low 23 T Techbox Firewall — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #24 ↓3 1 too low 24 SimplePoTranslate 20+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓4 3 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.