Plugin Pulse Beta
← Rankings

wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “post tabs”

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 “post tabs”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 10 of the top 20. 3 plugins are 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 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

AffiliateWP – Affiliate Area Tabs shows at wp.org #16 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 8 places. Its 3K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 5.0★ average from 1 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Smart Post – Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider Gutenberg Blocks for Blog & News places #10 on merit, 4.7★ from 210 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 wp.org
1 Yoast Duplicate Post 3M+ · 4.7★ (538) wp.org #1 ↑2 2 Custom Post Type UI 1M+ · 4.6★ (276) wp.org #2 ↑4 3 Post SMTP – Complete Email Delivery and SMTP Solution with Email Logs, Alerts, Backup SMTP & Mobile App 300K+ · 4.7★ (528) wp.org #3 ↓1 4 Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce & WordPress Tabs Builder – Smart Tabs 10K+ · 4.9★ (134) wp.org #4 ↓3 5 Post Views Counter 100K+ · 4.9★ (1237) wp.org #7 ↑15 2 too low 6 Simple Custom Post Order 300K+ · 4.8★ (587) wp.org #6 ↓1 7 Ultimate Post Kit – Elementor Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider & Blog Layout Widgets 30K+ · 4.8★ (58) wp.org #8 ↑1 1 too low 8 Post Duplicator 200K+ · 4.8★ (80) wp.org #10 ↓2 2 too low 9 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #12 ↓1 3 too low 10 Smart Post – Post Grid, Post Carousel, Post Slider Gutenberg Blocks for Blog & News 20K+ · 4.7★ (210) wp.org #15 5 too low 11 Public Post Preview 100K+ · 4.6★ (79) wp.org #14 ↓1 3 too low 12 Gutena Tabs 6K+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #5 ↓1 7 too high 13 Custom Product tabs for WooCommerce 10K+ · 4.9★ (48) wp.org #11 ↓4 2 too high 14 Post Slider and Post Carousel with Post Vertical Scrolling Widget – A Responsive Post Slider 10K+ · 4.7★ (31) wp.org #22 ↑1 8 too low 15 Easy Tabs Block – Smart, Lightweight & Responsive Tabs for the Block Editor 1K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #9 ↑1 6 too high 16 Tabs Widget for Page Builder 3K+ · 4.8★ (19) wp.org #20 ↓2 4 too low 17 Responsive Tabs 4K+ · 4.2★ (41) wp.org #23 ↓2 6 too low 18 Product Tabs Manager for WooCommerce 1K+ · 4.9★ (38) wp.org #24 ↓12 6 too low 19 Duplicate Post – duplicate pages, copy content, clone posts 5K+ · 4.7★ (7) wp.org #13 6 too high 20 Responsive Tabs — Horizontal, Vertical & Accordion Tabs for WordPress 2K+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too high 21 Tab Ultimate 1K+ · 4.0★ (4) wp.org #17 ↓3 4 too high 22 Tabs Block – Responsive Gutenberg Tabs for Block Editor 700+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 ↓2 3 too high 23 Responsive Tabs For Elementor 1K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #21 ↓1 2 too high 24 AffiliateWP – Affiliate Area Tabs 3K+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 8 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.