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← Rankings

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

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 “power”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 2 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

Power Captcha reCAPTCHA shows at wp.org #4 but places #21 on merit, a gap of 17 places. Its 900+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 4 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation places #7 on merit, 4.7★ from 1667 reviews, but shows at wp.org #13. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security 5M+ · 4.7★ (5039) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8708) wp.org #3 ↑1 1 too low 3 WP-Optimize – Cache, Compress images, Minify & Clean database to boost page speed & performance 1M+ · 4.8★ (2617) wp.org #5 2 too low 4 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #9 5 too low 5 Starter Templates: AI-Powered Website Templates for Elementor & Gutenberg 1M+ · 4.9★ (4755) wp.org #10 ↓2 5 too low 6 Autoptimize 800K+ · 4.7★ (1428) wp.org #11 ↑2 5 too low 7 TranslatePress – Translate Multilingual sites with AI Translation 400K+ · 4.7★ (1667) wp.org #13 ↓1 6 too low 8 MultiVendorX – WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace AI Powered Solutions 2K+ · 4.8★ (432) wp.org #8 ↑2 9 Power Coupons for WooCommerce 30K+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #1 8 too high 10 Ultimate Member – User Profile, Registration, Login, Member Directory, Content Restriction & Membership Plugin 200K+ · 4.4★ (1445) wp.org #15 ↓1 5 too low 11 Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ · 4.8★ (7519) wp.org #17 ↑3 6 too low 12 All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 2M+ · 4.7★ (5231) wp.org #12 ↓1 13 PowerBI Embed Reports 500+ · 5.0★ (23) wp.org #7 ↓1 6 too high 14 Essential Addons for Elementor – Popular Elementor Templates & Widgets 1M+ · 4.9★ (4132) wp.org #14 ↑2 15 All-in-One WP Migration and Backup 5M+ · 4.5★ (7676) wp.org #22 ↑1 7 too low 16 Speed Optimizer – The All-In-One Performance-Boosting Plugin 1M+ · 4.2★ (641) wp.org #16 ↑1 17 Addon Elements for Elementor (formerly Elementor Addon Elements) 80K+ · 4.8★ (172) wp.org #24 7 too low 18 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (769) wp.org #21 3 too low 19 Power Boost for Gravity Forms 500+ · 5.0★ (5) wp.org #6 ↑1 13 too high 20 Conditional Fields for Contact Form 7 100K+ · 4.8★ (166) wp.org #20 ↓5 21 Power Captcha reCAPTCHA 900+ · 4.3★ (4) wp.org #4 ↓1 17 too high 22 WP Fast Total Search – The Power of Indexed Search 1K+ · 4.4★ (28) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too high 23 Breeze Cache 300K+ · 3.6★ (133) wp.org #23 ↓1 24 WP Connectr: Power Automate integration 100+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #19 5 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.