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

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 “presence”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 9 of the top 20. 4 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

Presence API shows at wp.org #14 but places #24 on merit, a gap of 10 places. Its 10+ installs carry it up the search order; its 0.0★ average from 0 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons places #10 on merit, 5.0★ from 775 reviews, but shows at wp.org #24. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 WooCommerce 7M+ · 4.5★ (4833) wp.org #1 2 Kadence Blocks — Page Builder Toolkit for Gutenberg Editor 600K+ · 4.8★ (333) wp.org #2 ↑3 3 The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless. 200K+ · 4.9★ (380) wp.org #5 ↑2 2 too low 4 GTM4WP – A Google Tag Manager (GTM) plugin for WordPress 700K+ · 4.5★ (155) wp.org #4 ↓1 5 Sucuri Security – Auditing, Malware Scanner and Security Hardening 600K+ · 4.2★ (386) wp.org #3 ↑1 2 too high 6 Hide My WP Ghost – Security & Firewall 100K+ · 4.5★ (373) wp.org #7 1 too low 7 Security Plugin, Firewall & Malware Scanner with Auto Removal 40K+ · 4.8★ (397) wp.org #8 ↑2 1 too low 8 hCaptcha for WP 70K+ · 4.6★ (88) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 Ultimate Addons for Elementor – Widgets, Templates, WooCommerce & Header Footer Builder 2M+ · 4.9★ (2528) wp.org #17 ↑7 8 too low 10 Chatway Live Chat – AI Chatbot, Customer Support, FAQ & Helpdesk Customer Service & Chat Buttons 30K+ · 5.0★ (775) wp.org #24 14 too low 11 WP Console – WordPress PHP Console powered by PsySH 20K+ · 5.0★ (21) wp.org #10 ↓1 1 too high 12 Smartsupp – live chat, AI shopping assistant and chatbots 20K+ · 4.7★ (131) wp.org #20 ↓2 8 too low 13 Live Composer – Free WordPress Website Builder 10K+ · 4.4★ (212) wp.org #13 ↓1 14 Zero Spam for WordPress 20K+ · 4.1★ (143) wp.org #11 ↑6 3 too high 15 Visitor Traffic Real Time Statistics 30K+ · 4.1★ (233) wp.org #23 ↓1 8 too low 16 Post to Google My Business (Google Business Profile) 10K+ · 4.9★ (159) wp.org #21 ↓1 5 too low 17 atec Cache Info 1K+ · 5.0★ (10) wp.org #9 ↓1 8 too high 18 ReCrawler 3K+ · 5.0★ (11) wp.org #15 ↓2 3 too high 19 Legal Text Connector of the IT-Recht Kanzlei 10K+ · 4.3★ (6) wp.org #12 ↓1 7 too high 20 Nooz 500+ · 5.0★ (7) wp.org #18 ↓2 2 too high 21 Friendly Captcha for WordPress 10K+ · 3.9★ (18) wp.org #22 ↓1 1 too low 22 Migrate to WordPress.com 2K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #19 3 too high 23 TrustMate.io – WooCommerce integration 3K+ · 4.0★ (10) wp.org #16 ↓1 7 too high 24 Presence API 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #14 10 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.